Thanks for taking the time to stop by! Before I tell you about the day I had, here's a little bit about me: I'm a middle-aged guy starting over in life working for a major coffee purveyor...can't tell you which one. I love this job - it is by far the easiest and best I've ever had, and trust me, I've had some really spectacular jobs! Most of the people I work with are in their 20's or early 30's...
But anyway, about today...
I generally open the store, which means I am at work at 4:15AM. Yep, you read that right. I get up to go to work in what is essentially the middle of the night to everyone else. So to all you 9-5ers out there, my heart bleeds for you because you have to catch a train or bus by 6A. OK, I know sarcasm is not my strong suit. But hey, I have to try to make this funny, right?
This morning, someone was late - well, more than late. She was three hours late without so much as a call! In addition to her being late, another person just decided not to show up. So there are two of us (plus the manager who has admin duties to do while she's helping us at the bar and register) running a coffee shop in a major metropolitan area.
Can you say, "Busy"?
But you know what? We really did an exceptional job today even with the impromptu staffing difficulties in terms of pulling together to get the job done and keep our customers happy. We were fast, friendly, efficient, and legendary! We have a damn good "core team" in the store and it is nice when everyone pulls together, kicks it up a notch and we get into the "zone"...we work like a finely-tuned machine.
So back to the one girl who was late: not only was she late, she just decided to walk off the job and not tell anyone right in the middle of the 8A-9A rush time. Believe me when I tell you she did not make any friends today. Eligible for rehire? Hmmm...probably not...but that's not for me to decide. And the other woman who did not show up didn't make any friends either - eventhough it was for a good cause. The problem with her not showing up is that she didn't bother to call anyone to say she wouldn't be in.
And these events come on top of other things like someone getting a lip ring piercing knowing there are specific appearance standards and refusing to take it out...or the person who showed up at work high on E...or the person who refused to come back into the store unless the manager apologized for "yelling" at them because they had to be coached for a chronic attendance issue...or the person who showed up drunk for a training meeting and made no bones about the fact he had vodka in his "water bottle" and offered to share because the meeting, in his opinion, was "damn boring"...for the record, none of these people are still my co-workers, and I've only been there three months!
All of this makes me wonder: do we as a culture have any remnant of a work ethic or have we developed such a sense of entitlement when it comes to employment that we don't care about pulling our own weight on a team? And if we have developed that sense of entitlement, what's going to happen to us?
Well, I'm off to take a nap...more later!
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