Doing a good job

Brrr! The wind's blowing and winter is here. I'm sitting here with my coffee cup, trying to get warm. No snow, just a biting wind that seems to go right through ya. I hear people say, it's because we aren't "used" to cold. That may be true but I think I'd do better with a gradual decline into winter frostiness instead of a dip in the ice water all at once.

This has been one of my busiest weeks ever at school - you would think it was the end of the year. I've put in some late hours at school and working from home the last two weeks. I'm in my 4th year in the district and Tuesday, I got the second what they call "Attaboy" email since I started. A downtown person was in attendance at a recent staffing and sent an email to the principal and another downtown person with a nice compliment in it for me. That sort of thing is just rare at my job, and I would venture to say, that's true in a lot of work people do. There's folks all over the place who are doing their jobs well because they gain personal satisfaction from that, or, they feel they have a moral obligation to do so, and no one recognizes their efforts. It has made me more cognizant of the fact that I COULD recognize that in others if I would just look. The server that refills my coffee cup at the right time, and brings my food hot, the sacker that works to make sure my bread isn't crushed and handles the eggs carefully, the grocery checker who is pleasant and cordial when sliding my items over the scanner (I almost said "rings me up". THAT'S an old expression which dates me), the man who volunteers to vaccuum the sanctuary at our church, the pleasant man at the dry cleaners who made sure he understood what I wanted and appeared to value me as a customer, my co-workers who exhibit a degree of professionalism in teaching that makes me proud to work where I do, the people at my vet office who really seem to care about Lydia and want to serve her needs, the list goes on. There are those that would say, "That's what we pay them to do! We PAY them to provide a service for us." True, but HOW the service is provided is as important and sometimes more so than the service itself.

All of my kids and kid in laws and my spouse work in retail or have in the past. I'm proud of Josh when I hear people from my school tell me as a co-worker did last week: "I figured out which person at Dillons is your son, because when he was helpful, I thought, not only does this kid look like Marianne, but he's nice too, so I looked at his name tag and asked him who he was..."

This time of year is stressful and crazy, and I bet an encouraging word from you would help someone else have a better day. As you go about in the next few days, be aware of those who do a good job and say something to them. It will be an encouragement they won't soon forget.