As we manage the rising costs of business and energy I am reminded of a story, so sit back and enjoy Techlife’s tale of power.

The typical company rolls along putting out daily fires, and not giving employees the true time to make work a better experience. Most of you readers will skim over that last sentence just as easily. Let me repeat it, as it bears repeating. The typical company rolls along putting out daily fires, and not giving employees the true time to make work a better experience. Ah, you get it now? You think this is going to be another column about taking time to breathe, but you are wrong.

As we all coast along in work and life I want to share a small tale with you. Many years ago I learned of a new site, Woot, a site that sells one item a day. One day they were selling “Random Crap” (yes Woot faithful, this pre-dates Bags of Crap), so I took a gamble for $.03 and ended up with a variety of, you guessed it, “Random Crap.”

One item was an Auto Starter – Car Battery Charger. While reading up on this I learned that inside, this device was powered by AA alkaline rechargeable batteries. Hmm, interesting I thought. I could use some AA batteries, so I used a hammer carefully opened the case and found a small pot of gold.

Gleaming up at me were Pure Energy’s AA gold rechargeable alkaline batteries. And in typical story fashion our hero doesn’t really recognize the true power of his finding. I began using them and they were great, long lasting batteries. Of course, I forgot one thing. They were rechargeable and I didn’t own a charger.

Research online showed most chargers worked for various other types of rechargeable batteries, except alkaline. Then I found Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools, article about the Battery Xtender for recharging alkalines. A bit more research led me to the Rayovac Universal Battery Charger.

I still use the batteries and the charger today nearly 4 years later. The batteries are long lasting like regular alkalines and the charger works for some other non-alkaline rechargeable batteries I now own. I decided to look for a few more Pure Energy batteries and found they have updated their technology, to the new Pure Energy XL Alkaline, which have:

…longer charge retention (up to 7-year storage life), higher battery capacity (rated at 2000 mAh), and overall up to 80% more service life (up to 500 cycles) compared to the original gold line.

My company has saved hundreds of dollars on batteries. I enjoy the power and durability of an alkaline battery and the eco-friendly ability re-charge again and again. Going green is easy! A happy ending to our tale.

So how does this relate to our statement: The typical company rolls along putting out daily fires, and not giving employees the true time to make work a better experience. As a consulting firm we often see valuable ideas employees have that are just not getting the attention they deserve. Our own cost-saving approach resulted in stepping away from the “fires” and being given the freedom to think, research and act.

We encourage you this July to think about Independence Day, truly as a day to provide co-workers the chance to make a positive independent change. And if you need a little kickstart, let us know.

How have you made a difference? Tell us in the comments.