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An Angel?
I got to thinking. Why should I limit my site to just the customers who have behaved like assholes. How about I add a few stories about some of my "leave a lot to be desired" co-workers and employees? Well, here is a story about the first on my "hit" list. A nineteen year old co-manager who apparently thought he was God. During one of our many Kid's Meal promotions almost two years ago, there was this little boy who would come in to our store on a regular basis. Approximately three times a week he'd be there with his grandmother. He would always order a Kid's Meal in the hopes of getting a particular toy he didn't have in his collection. This particular promotion was probably the most popular one we had going in all of the years that I have worked for this franchise. Well, anyway, I was trying to help him out. When I saw them come in the door, if I had the time, I'd run to the back and see if I could find one of the toys he didn't have, and make sure it was placed in his Kid's Meal. I would get the biggest kick out of his surprised and excited reactions everytime this young man got the toy he wanted. I'd try to do things like this for the other little kids, but for some reason, this one was special. I didn't understand why, but he was so painfully shy in the beginning. And at first when I tried speaking to him, I could see that he was trembling. He was afraid of me, and I had a hard time with that because kids usually love me. So, everytime he visited, I made it a point to talk to him. And as time went on, and with each visit, he started to open up a little more until eventually he started seeking me out, and wanted to talk to me. My new little friend. He was adorable. A very sweet boy. I didn't realize how much of an impact I had on this young man just by taking the time to notice him. But then one day right before Christmas Eve, his grandmother was waiting outside for me as I had just arrived for the beginning of my shift. In her hand, she held this box, and as she presented it to me, she explained that her grandson had been severely physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by his own father. And since his mother had remarried into another family, she no longer had the time to give this young man, so his grandparents had custody and were raising him themselves. She said that whenever they received visitors at her house, her grand- son would either hide in his room, or if he had to come downstairs to the living room where the visitors were, he would throw a hankerchief or a towel over his head so that no one could see his face. Someone had explained to me later on that day that this young man felt so horrible about himself, that this was his way of trying to make himself invisible. She said that since he had been coming to our store, he was like a totally different person. She noticed that little by little he was coming out of that shell of his, and he is no longer hiding from everyone. When his uncle came to visit for the holidays that year, she said her grandson totally took everyone by surprise when he brought all of the toys that he had been collecting from our store out of his room to show them off. He had them spread out all over the living room floor, explaining each toy and how it worked to his uncle. I opened the box she handed to me, and inside was an angel clock. She explained to me that her husband had made that clock especially for me because he thought that I was an angel. I was so moved, I didn't know what to say. And before I had a chance to, there was my co-manager right behind me, pushing me toward the door, and rudely telling this young man's grandmother that I needed to get to work. I was embarrassed, but luckily she decided to stay for lunch, so I did get chance to go out to her table and apologized for my co-worker and thanked her for the clock. Now this is not the first time a customer has paid me a compliment. Nor is it the first time that this particular co-manager tried to ruin it for me either. Compliments are hard to come by in this business. Many times you'll find yourself going out of your way to make sure someone's visit to your restaurant is a good visit, and many times without so much as a "Thank you". But this woman did say "Thank you", and then some. I didn't think that I had done anything all that special, and I didn't realize just how far one small gesture of kindness could go. It really made me feel good to know how much I was appreciated in this business by my customers. And I felt a little angry, and a little hurt knowing that my co-worker apparently wanted to take that away from me. About two months later, this same co-worker was spouting off at the mouth about how he was so good at his job that he could run that store by himself. After hearing him say this so many times over and over, I finally got sick of hearing it. So, one night after one of his usual rants, I went back to the office, got my things, clocked out, and told him, "That's fine. You go ahead and do it all yourself!" I left and haven't been back since. As a matter of fact, I am now working for the competition earning almost double what I was working for there. And, as of this date, that same co-manager has since been promoted to GM, the store is falling apart because he is failing, the store is one of the lowest ranking stores in this region (it used to hover around the 3rd or 4th spot at the top of the list), and the owner is so fed up, he has placed his store up for sale. Now how's that for someone who thinks that he is so good he can do it all. |