I Am Privileged To Work Here

By Bill Hodges

©2000 Hodges Seminars International As a consumer, I know there are restaurants that have fine food. Yet I avoid them because their service is poor. While speaking before a National Credit Union conference in Daytona Beach, I found an oriental restaurant that not only had fine food, but also fine service. In fact, the gentleman who greeted us at the door and showed us to our table made us feel very welcome. After allowing us to review the menu, he politely took our order, and throughout the meal refilled our water glasses and saw that we were satisfied with what we had been served. His service was so good, I just knew he had to be the owner of the business. I didn't think anyone but an owner would make that much effort to please a customer. When I asked him if he was the owner, he smiled and replied, "No, I am just privileged to work here."

I guess it is not until our jobs are threatened that most of us think about whether it is a privilege to have our jobs. How much more productive could we be if we assumed the attitude of the employee in the restaurantthat it was a privilege to have the job.

Time and time again, we hear employees of large plantswho are being paid well above the national average for manufacturing jobsproclaim that they could be more productive. However, this exclamation comes after the company threatens to close the plant. Had these employees assumed the responsibility of an honest day's work for an honest day's pay and recognized the privilege of working for the company, there might have been no need to consider closing in the first place.

There is no doubt that some employers are not a privilege to work for. However, while we are working for them and accepting their pay, it is our responsibility to be diligent in our efforts for them. If we don't, someone else will be working in our place.

I doubt the young waiter ever read the writings of Papyrus on enthusiasm and work, but he knew the secret. Papyrus wrote the following, "If you can't get enthusiastic about your work, it's time to get alarmedsomething is wrong. Compete with yourself; set your teeth and dive into the job of breaking your own record. No one keeps up their enthusiasm automatically. Enthusiasm must be nourished with new actions, new aspirations, new efforts, new vision. It is a person's own fault if enthusiasm is gone; they have failed to feed it. If you want to turn your hours into minutes, renew your enthusiasm."

When I return to Daytona Beach, I will visit that same restaurant again because of that young man. As a worker or an employer, that's the name of the game, isn't itgetting the customer to come back? He was privileged to work there, but as a customer, I was privileged to be served by someone so wise beyond his years.

Bill Hodges is a nationally recognized speaker, trainer, and syndicated columnist. Hodges may be reached at Hodges Seminars International, P.O. Box 89033, Tampa, FL 33689-0400. Phone 813/641-0816.

Web site: http://www.BillHodges.com