I work for Telecom and I live in South New Brighton in Christchurch. The quake has taken away our water, sewerage and power, and it may be weeks before they are on at my address.

I am fine, and my house has some damage, but it's inconsequential compared to the losses suffered by others.

What I wanted to do was to publicly thank Telecom for the simply incredible response to their employees based in Chch. I can't speak for everyone, but here are some examples of what I experienced.

I was in Wellington when the quake struck, a few floors up in a meeting with ALU about something or other... We felt a small quake and my initial reaction was one of laughter ("You call that a quake!?") before the horrible realisation that it might have been in Chch... A couple of minutes later I got a phone call from a very good friend in Chch and she was in hysterics, It took 3 dropped calls before I could determine she was uninjured. I had family and friends in Chch I couldn't immediately contact so I excused myself from the meeting and tried to get some info about what happened.

I was due to fly back the next day, but quickly changed my booking to go back ASAP. Within minutes of me making the booking change, I got a call from Telecom's travel team who had identified I was a Chch based employee and was currently on business travel outside of Chch. They were phoning to offer me any support they could, including changing tickets, arranging additional accomodation in Wgtn, anything I wanted.

I just wanted to get home. They told me they would do anything they could to help so I went to the airport to wait.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a flight that night, and while at the airport the Travel team phoned me again to make sure my accommodation would be arranged as they had also determined that no-one would get home that night.

The next day I got back on the second flight out and managed to get back home to no power, no water, some housing damage and no pets. (The pets are all since back, significantly outperforming Orion and the Water :-)

From mid afternoon on the day of the quake through until now, I have had individual project manager, project team members, my manager, HR and even just people I have met within Telecom phone me, send text messages and emails, almost unanimously offering any help they could. I have had multiple offers of accommodation in Wellington and Auckland. I even had one friend in Telecom offer to loan me a car to drive back if flight wouldn't be an option!!!

Telecom HR and Paul Reynolds also sent messages advising staff on what buildings are damaged, and confirming that automatic special leave for a period of time has been arranged on full pay for all staff in Chch, and that people wouldn't be required to return to work until personal circumstances allowed.

I've worked for small companies in the past, and there seems to be the impression that large companies in general - and perhaps Telecom specifically, are heartless corporations.

To remove any doubt, Telecom has a huge heart, not just with the round the clock assistance given in the direct quake effort (I can't tell you about some of the tasks undertaken by staff to assist the effort, but they are massive and both emotionally and physically draining), but the corporate support of staff is exemplary - I simply couldn't imagine anything else they could do. There is an 0800 number for Telecom staff to call to ask for anything... Water, accommodation, somewhere to do a load of washing, food, you name it - people in Telecom are working to connect those with the resources to those without.

I've never truly loved a company I have worked for before, but for all it's foibles, I Love Telecom - I feel like every single employee in Chch is being treated like a family member or friend by the company itself and by every person working in it.

Thankyou, to all those Telecom staff not in Chch working so hard to not only help us, but to take up the slack with so many of us not able to work right now.

My story isn't unique and the support of many other companies is just as good, but I had to say this as loud and wide as I could - I'm so thankful and amazed at the support being offered.

Of course, some perspective is required - I've lost no close friends or family members, I'm not injured and my house isn't badly damaged. So many people in Chch aren't as lucky as I have been.

Regards
Neil Gardner