Abby

One of our hourly associates, Hussein Abby celebrated his 65th birthday last December 13. I would like to believe that this is not just one of those birthdays that need mention but that the worker behind the celebrant, in the person of Abby as we also fondly know him, deserve much more than notice.

Despite the fact that Abby has already reached conventional retirement age, Abby shows no signs of slowing down in the way that he takes on his daily tasks and seemingly, no one is telling him to put the brakes on.  Although he has family to come home to in  native Somalia, family seems to be still better off if they continued receiving their monthly sustenance from someone who worked abroad.

Abby has been working as an overseas worker all his life since he boarded a cargo ship at a young age of 12. He found himself working in almost all the major ports around the globe as ship crew either unloading cargo or pumping out slick from giant oil tankers. Abby has worked with possibly 30 employers across the globe.

He had journeyed the world over, more than one can imagine. He worked in the bellows of the ships as a shipmate for years passing until he matured into adulthood. Those port visits and dock encounters exposed him to interesting cultures. Tucking away at least 6 languages he can fluently tongue flutter, his workplace had been his school room. 

Fate found himself in the last 8 of 22 years in Canada, working for our company as our main shipping leadhand in the Fresh Bagel Shipping Operations.

Abby has been the night shift leadhand since I can recall. It is a known fact that nightshift employees can either be boon or bane to the company. On the one hand, a lot of night shifters get away with slacking off, to the other, people do highly autonomous work since supervision is normally scarce. Abby exemplifies the latter. He would not only make sure that products meant to be shipped are shipped, but that should be done so with excellence by all quarters involved in the production process.