Today’s news article begins with a little frivolity, albeit a testament to quality if you think about it.

The above photo seems like a view of any ordinary desk. We all keep our ‘stuff’ around our monitors at work – useful things like paperclips and nick-knacks like this Homer Simpson figure which make us smile.

But it’s not the mini Homer Simpson which is the focus of this photo, it’s the tiny little pencil stump!

Today we’re asking you to pause for a moment and reflect on the achievement of one member of the Jones Harris team, namely Steve Bell. You see Steve has owned this pencil which is now a tiny little stump for the duration of his entire career at Jones Harris. It’s not a short career either, it’s a whopping 36 years.

A Testament to Quality

Going back to the testament to quality – this little souvenir tells at least three stories –

Quality Manufacturing

Staedtler is a well-known office brand, used by people all over the world. Amazon describes this particular icon of pencilness, the 112HB, as “Highly break resistant through special lead formulation and super bonded lead”.

None of your cheap pound shop pencils for the accounts department, the Jones Harris team use quality writing instruments!

Paperless Office

All of the systems at Jones Harris have been made paperless over the last 20 years or so. It’s a more normal way to work nowadays, especially since the advent of the Cloud. But when the office first went paperless it was quite a revolutionary, indeed a unique thing to do.

So we’ll assume then that most of Steve’s pencil was sharpened away during the first years of his employment, while he toiled over handwritten ledgers, adding and subtracting…

Long Service Employee

It’s quite incredible for a pencil to be in someone’s possession for such a long time, but it’s equally remarkable that someone should be employed by the same company for so long too.

Thirty six years is a life time’s employment, which must be testament to quality of Jones Harris as an employer.

All in all, we’re sure you’ll agree that Steve’s 112HB pencil is a legend in its own right. It should be framed and hung in the office!

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