It isn’t often that one’s co-worker happens to also be a dear friend. But for Jenice Glass and Alicia Davis, they are among the lucky ones who get to spend their work day with someone who truly makes work seem less like work. Starting in customer care at M&B Hangers one year and one day apart, Alicia and Jenice have grown their friendship over their combined 25 years of serving clients and fellow associates.

Walk into Alicia and Jenice’s shared office space, and you feel as though you’ve stepped into a cozy living room. Though the hum of the factory rumbles just beyond the wall, a warm personality radiates from the room, adorned with photos of children and grandchildren.

They not only share work responsibilities, they also share their lives with each other. Jenice and Alicia know all about each other’s families—holiday plans, sick grandchildren, new babies, and plenty of birthdays. “We spend more time with each other than we do our husbands!” Alicia smiles as she rolls her desk chair across the room to share a knowing laugh with Jenice. They genuinely care for each other, and they care for the people they work with, too. Gesturing to a photo of sweet, smiling children, Jenice says, “Oh, and those aren’t mine! Those are Mack’s children! But I love them like my own.”

And their sincere personalities extend beyond their M&B family to their customers. Their days at work revolve around taking care of their customers—their friends. Both women genuinely enjoy serving people, not just because it’s their job, but because after hours on the phone, these women have found close friends in the customer on the other end of the line.

“Oh, we know their children and their grandchildren, their anniversaries, and what’s going on at home,” says Jenice. They celebrate alongside their clients and friends during good times and share with them in hard times, too. “We just want to help people” is whole-heartedly their motto. And when it comes to business, Alicia and Jenice are exceptional. They have a reputation of knowing their clients so well, says Sales Representative, Steve Matthews, that they know, oftentimes even before the customer knows, when it is time to ship out a new order of hangers.

These women give great heart to M&B Hangers. Their positive attitudes are contagious. On the loading docks, they smile and laugh as they effortlessly and efficiently coordinate a multitude of orders to be loaded onto trucks to be delivered all over the country. They bring a softness into the factory—among loud engines and forklifts and the smell of hot metal, their personalities are light and sweet among the mechanization. They bring biscuits and homemade treats on days that will be long. M&B Shipper Jack Babbs laughs, “Oh, if they bring biscuits, we know it’s going to be a big day!” Alicia and Jenice laugh, too, because they know the work is tough. But they know the work gets done and done well by the strong team they work with at M&B Hangers. And so, Alicia and Jenice check in not only on the progress of the work but also on the people. No matter what may be going on in their personal lives, their attitude with their co-workers and with their customers is nothing but warm and positive and inspiring.

“We really do enjoy serving people. We enjoy taking care of our customers and getting them what they need,” says Alicia. And that’s true—whether it’s a shipment on time, a route mapped, an order placed, or a warm “Happy birthday” from Leeds, Alabama.