My Interview

Woof. I'm Rosie, the Morrocco Method dog and mascot. I'd like to introduce myself and tell you a little about my work here. Let's start with my interview and hiring date. Well, pretty much abandoned, I needed a place to go and feel safe for a while, so I wandered around the industrial park, sniffing the grass, checking out the trees, playing with sticks, and—oh, but I digress. Eventually I saw some sweet-looking humans going up the stairs and into the door of this pretty building with palm trees. Hmm, I thought. I wonder if they need help. I'm only one year old, so I don't have a lot of experience, but they did seem to need help. So I kind of casually strayed up the steep staircase. I sat down prettily at the door and stared inside, waiting for someone to let me in. At first no one saw me or paid attention, so I turned on my stray, lost look, my big brown eyes looking like sad saucers. (I tried to look starved too, but that didn't work because I was too pudgy.) A guy came out to the lobby and saw me, but didn't have the brains to see I was here for an interview. Shortly a pretty woman came, saw me and let me in to the lobby to wait for my interview. The beautiful lobby had a plush carpet, so I decided to nap until they called me inside for my interview. I felt very safe and happy here. My interviewer then entered the lobby, petted me and told me how adorable and sweet I was. I rolled over on my back so she would know I was pleased. Then the CEO and founder came through the front door, Anthony Morrocco. "Angelique—your client is here!" he shouted, and gave me over to her care and that of the pretty woman who let me in. Wow, I thought, I guessed I passed my interview!" At first they were all fascinated with my neck—no collar, no tags, no ID. They didn't know that I had been left here by my family, I guess to find a job. Apparently my colleagues looked around the neighborhood and social media (I guess that's when people have social contact over hyperspace instead of face-to-face; boy, are humans missing out! I certainly have something to teach them!) to no avail. A few days later, they brought me to a vet, and no chip either. I could have told them that. So what is my job here at Morrocco Method? The whole company takes care of me—takes me for walks, feeds me, plays with me, and keeps me company. In return I do a lot of different things: I advise them on foods I prefer so now they bring me raw meats, fresh butcher bones and other wonderful foods like eggs from the Farmer's Market. Secondly, I help exercise the employees by letting them play ball with me in the warehouse. They realize here that playing ball is a necessary daily activity. Sometimes I show them my special yoga poses to imitate. Third, I keep the place clean. If someone accidentally drops a label, I eat it so it doesn't muss up the floor. Finally, I'm the best guard dog they have. I bark once whenever I perceive a stranger at the back door, like one of those pesky mailmen. For my services, all my colleagues at Morrocco Method are so friendly, generous and kind to me! Maybe some of you who are reading this will follow the employees of Morrocco Method and adopt one like me!

The Ultimate Therapy: Working with Your Hands

The Ultimate Therapy: Working with Your Hands The deafening machines, the shouting out of orders, and the nasty fumes are all missing. At Morrocco Method's manufacturing center, the workplace is a healthy, peaceful environment. This is because almost all the work is done by hand, an age-old culture of therapy. Sitting quietly in the middle are three people packaging dark brown henna. They all look up briefly and smile at me. I watch in awe as two of the people, Isabel and Nathaniel, take hand-packed bags of the henna, label them with the color and lot number, fold the instructions, and put both into the final package with the Morrocco Method logo. Their hands move swiftly, yet rhythmically and they are still smiling, looking happy and relaxed. I'm struck by how naturally they accomplish their work. Drew, their supervisor, is supplying things to them. "This work is so much better than my last job!" exclaims Drew, also with a smile. "I was in retail management. Really tough. Here it's much easier, satisfying work and the time passes quickly. And it's great to go home at night and not feel tired or stressed. What all three express to me in word or deed is something psychologists and others have been delving into deeply in the past several years: That working with your hands may be the ultimate therapy, both physically and mentally. In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell shows how for millennia, tribes have always worked with their hands, and today in therapy, doing physical labor such as gardening or basket weaving or any repetitive physical work with the hands is very calming and soothing to the whole person. Stress, which is hard on both the body and the mind, is a result, most claim, of working in a stressful environment with machines and computers all day, instead of with the hands. Interacting with machines feels dull and repetitive, and physical skills seem meaningless. "Some tasks we do here require us to sit down and others that we stand up. So, there's a great balance here in the physical stress area," Drew points out. "This is not a fast-paced work, which makes the environment is peaceful." "Making things by hand," says Anthony Morrocco, the CEO and founder of Morrocco Method, "is an absorbing task that becomes a kind of meditation. As you become further engaged, your creativity awakens, and you become more alive." Isabel and Nathanial were asked if they were tired or stressed at the end of the day. "No, this work doesn't make me tired," says Isabel. "There's no quotas and no stress!" replies Nathanial definitively. "Tired? No!" "At the end of the day, unlike at my last job, I feel happy that I've accomplished something tangible. And I don't feel exhausted, but more at ease and calmer." Drew adds.