Me, Me and Even More ME!

Catalyst 2013

You all know me. I’m totally for God’s glory. Jesus is great. I love Christian people and Jesus followers.

Unfortunately, I draw the line at what seems like the entire conference crowding our humble Chipotle location. This Chipotle was not equipped nor was it prepared to handle all of God’s glory at once. God’s glory in its fullest will destroy us, rather than awe and empower us.

So please, I am begging you all, to STOP coming to Chipotle. Just STOP it because you are making my life, as well as the life of my fellow coworkers, very difficult and very stressful.

Please just go away.

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So I’m looking at this BBC poll for the scariest Doctor Who episode and guys, I don’t know about you all but ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’ was probably the most terrifying episode I’ve seen, followed by ‘The Waters of Mars’ and ‘The Empty Child’. ‘Midnight’ would come in as a close fourth.

Actually, any sort of episode involving any number of Angels is always guaranteed to be a terrifying hour.

And now I am trying not to have nightmares as I relive said episodes. Why am I posting this at 2 am in the morning.

fyeahclassicalcomposers:

Diminuendo? I think you mean

dim-innuendo.

oh my GOSH

Yesterday, one of my more difficult co-workers came up to me and said “Hey Seraph.”

“What’s up, man?” I asked.

“I just wanted to let you know that you did a good job cleaning the dining area today.”

I was beaming the rest of my shift, not so much for the praise but the change that I could see occurring.

When I first entered as a new cashier at Chipotle, I was both praised and critiqued. Obviously, there is reinforcement that must happen so that I know what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong.

I realized, that as I continued working there and got better and better at my job, that the praise stopped, while I continued to get critiqued if ever I made a mistake, or screwed something up.

Working there week after week, I also noticed that the turnover for this store was ridiculously high. I have never seen so many people come and go in just 5 months of working there, and someone is always constantly training a new crew member.

I realized that this was an issue. Decreasing amounts of praise coupled with constant/slightly decreasing amount of criticism can make a person feel like they are getting worse at their job, even though they are improving with each shift they work.

This needed to change.

Now, I’ve pushed the buttons of just about every one of my coworkers, including all of my managers and my boss. I stretch limits. I speak up when I see something unfair or something wrong. I am not afraid to voice my opinion whenever there is some sort of injustice either done to me or to another coworker. Everyone who works with me knows that I have been the catalyst for many changes at my store.

With that sort of reputation preceeding me, I decided that something had to be done.

A month ago, a manager-in-training ran the store for the first time while all of the managers were away for a manager’s meeting. She did a really good job, so after my shift, I went up to her and said “hey, I just wanted to let you know, I think you did a really good job running the store today.” No one else had offered her any praise.

Initially she was surprised, and then slowly, a giant grin spread on her face. “Oh thank you!” she replied. I then went up to my boss and said “hey, she did a really good job running the store while you guys had the meeting”, in the hearing of about 3 other managers.

Slowly, slowly, my coworkers are learning how to love on each other. It took a month for this one little victory, for this tiny seed to be planted, but it was totally worth it.