Panera Ponderings

Today was a short day at Panera. They had too many people and offered to let me leave early, at 10:30 AM, after only working for 4 1/2 hours. So I ran home, showered, and headed on back to Panera to work on this side of the counter. I left the church last night at 6 PM with about 3 hours work left.

Last week I had a lady come to my register at Panera who was quite condescending and difficult. Worse yet, she had her teen daughter watching her pushy ways. She rattled off her order so fast not even Superman could have kept up! Then, I asked for clarification and she did it again!!! In the end her impatience and demeaning ways cost her more time than it saved her. She was back in this morning and was treating Susan like a cheap servant. Why do people do this? Is she any better than us? (hmm, I am sure glad you asked that question!)

(a slight rant warning) Some people feel they are better than others. They are demanding and demeaning to others who lack their social status. Often they are handsome or pretty, have social as well as financial capital, and are used to being in charge everywhere they go. How do I know this? (keep reading)

But for the grace of God, there go I. Once upon a time I treated people like this - ouch. I was brutal to waitresses and sales people. But you know what? Now that I work in a grace environment I cannot bring myself to act this way. But for the grace of God, those beautiful, wealthy people would not have all the above. I'm not rich, but God has blessed me as far as this world is concerned.

Instead, I want to strive to be thankful for what God has given me and use it for his honor and glory.

That's it for now. Love God, love people. Lord help me to do this. Tye out.

But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 The NET Bible

Remodeling, Panera Ponderings, Bible Reading, Indians win, and home life

Personal - This has been a long week. I must confess that I finally ran out of gas last night around 7:30 PM and was unable to work on the basement. I wound up watching the Cleveland Indians win their second game against the Yankees. Having lived in Cleveland for 15 years I would probably have to say I am an Indians fan. However, since I live in Iowa now I have also adopted the Cubs as a team to root for. Everyone loves the underdog, right? ha!

Bible readings - I just passed the one-third mark of my read-through of the NET Bible. I really like it's readability. I am using the "Reader's Edition" which is in columns, but I wish they would publish one in paragraph form. It's much easier to read paragraphs across the page than down columns.

Panera Ponderings - yesterday was a good day at Panera. I trained a newbee on the cash register and was reminded of how much I really enjoy training and equipping people. I have to figure out a way to train and equip people in my "second" vocation; probably in my half-time as well.

Remodeling - the basement remodel is not going very well. I was so busy this week that I had almost no time to work on it. Today will be a 12-14 hour day. I also have to get rid of about a yard of dirt from the window well. Mark and Larry are coming over to help tape this morning. I'll be REALLY glad when this is over.

Home life - just when I didn't think it could get any crazier, yesterday it did. Mackenzie had to sing three songs for 10 minutes at Linn-Mar High School for I don't know why. (a little rant there) Morgan, at the same time, was being picked up to go to Kennedy's Homecoming dance. I was having issues with some work items, and Judy was studying. Andrew had class Friday night and I still don't know where Allyson was/is. HA!

Looking forward to a break...Tye out.

Panera Ponderings - a response on margin

I received an excellent comment from a "Linda" (it was an anonymous post so I couldn't ask permission to use her post as a blog entry) and wanted to see it. She pleads the case for those who may need a little extra grace because of life circumstances. Take a read:

Tye,

I hear what you are saying, and can appreciate the frustration that comes from dealing with people who don't plan out there time very well. I am guilty of this more times than I would like to admit. I have worked in service all of my life, and have experienced this from both sides of the fence. I would challenge you to look at the situation closer. Please humor my creative writing below.

The Mom that is running late may be a a soldier's wife doing the "single parent thing" while her husband is in Iraq. She was up most of the night with a child who misses his/her Dad. She thinks the shot of caffeine will get her through the morning meeting with her boss.

The man whose day is packed with activity may be taking care of his wife and kids, and his Mom who is trying to take care of his father at home, even though the Alzheimer's is getting to be too much for her. There are three, younger, more educated people in his office that want his job, and he is so stressed that his health is at risk. He is starting to lose patience with everyone he comes in contact with. He doesn't speak up (he has to wear a strong face for his family). He over eats, smokes, and thinks he's "dealing" with the life he has been dealt. He knows that insurance rates are going up because he's checking into a private nurse for his Dad so they won't have to put him in a nursing home.

Some people are hurting on a daily basis and we just see the "mask" they put on that day. They make poor choices, they put their health at risk, and they may not get out of bed until the last minute because they can't bear another day.

I wore one of those masks the year my Dad was dying of cancer. At times I hid in humor, at other times I got impatient and I am sure I was very hard to be around. I know I left very little room for margin. I was blessed with loving people who saw me through it and loved me. Now I always wonder what kind of day someone is really having when they are rude, impatient or unpleasant. The margin may be on my part, and how I react to them. I am not saying that everyone has a "story", some folks just manage their time poorly. I just wanted to suggest a different perspective. I appreciate your blog, keep sharing! Linda

Linda - thank you so much for reading my blog and commenting! Please know that I did my dead-level best to treat each of those "margin deprived" folks with grace and patience because that is what they needed.

Since my gift in life is "implementer/refiner" I am always trying to "fix" things which is the reason I blogged on this. If you don't have margin, think of ways to create it. If you are in a season - pray your way through and don't take out your frustrations on others.

And trust me, I know what life without margin looks like. Thankfully, I am not there right now.
Tye out.

Panera Ponderings

As many of you already know, I work at Panera (yes, behind the counter with an apron, hat, et al!) every Friday and this section of my blog is dedicated to my observations of people as I work.

Margin. That is the word for this week. I have observed that people have very little margin in their life.

For instance, a working mom wakes at the last possible minute, runs out of time and decides to put her lipstick on at the traffic lights while she rushes her kids to school/daycare. Since she didn't have time to fix coffee she decides to whip into Panera to grab a quick latte and cinnamon crunch bagel. This is where the fun begins.

She walks through the door and there is the line - about 7-10 minutes of waiting. It has just now dawned on her that she is going to be late and guess who she is going to blame for it?

Now she steps up to the register and orders her latte (skim, no whip, xtra shot, blah, blah, blah) and bagel and thrusts the money in my face as if to say "hurry up - I'm late!!!"

Now folks. Who's fault is that she is late? My inability to crank out her order in 30 seconds?

Margin. I've noticed that people don't have margin. They cram their day full of activities and leave little time for unexpected delays and when those delays occur it raises their blood pressure, they treat people like, well, less than people, and since their cholesterol is now skyrocketing they are probably going to have a heart attack and now our insurance goes up!

Margin. Saturday morning it was my turn to be the customer and I needed a bagel pack for our Small Group Leaders Training. I needed to be at the church at 8ish, so I left the house around 25 minutes early. As it turned out, it took me 15 minutes to wait in a very long line and get my bagels, and while other people in the line were all stressing and everything, I was calm, cool, and collected. I arrived at the church at 8:05 AM ready to go, stress-free.

Margin. Margin says if it takes you 15 minutes to get there (not likely in CR) then why not leave 25 or even 30 minutes ahead. When you get stuck in traffic you can relax and enjoy the time alone. Margin. Try it - it works. Tye out.

She is her father's daughter!

This morning was kinda cool. I had to have Allyson at Panera this morning at 5:50 AM. I typically take my laptop and Bible and work up there for a couple hours whenever this situation arises. I drove her to work this morning because we are having a serious ice storm and it was getting worse by the minute.

I came home around 7:45 to fix breakfast for Judy because she was leaving for a Beth Moore Conference and on the way home heard on the radio that it had been cancelled.

Mackenzie and I wound up heading back down to Panera to have a muffie and enjoy the cool atmosphere of Panera all the while giving Judy some quiet time around the house. She worked on her homework and I worked on the previous blog post. We had a good time together and it was confirmed once again that this Mackenzie is definitely her father's daughter!

Bill & Cheryl Curry (click on pic to see slide show and they are in it!) were there and I found some time to chat with them, and so did KK. She actually wound up talking to them for quite some time and they said they enjoyed it.

It was a fun time and I enjoyed sharing part of my life (my panera life) with Mackenzie. Tye, uh, dad out.

Panera's Pastor

As most of my regular readers know, I am working at Panera (behind the counter) every Friday. This has been fun and a bit of a challenge in that it has been hard to learn so many new things only working one day a week. They tell me I am doing fine, but most of the time I don't feel like it. : (

Yesterday my register was not working properly and it was very frustrating to say the least. And it seemed like I had more than my share of controlling people who were very impatient. This is where things get interesting.

I am absolutely committed to servant leadership, but I can tell you that the senario yesterday really put it to the test. To top things off, there are always a handful of people each day who are quite impatient and condescending. They treat you like a second class citizen and that is really hard, unless you are a servant leader. Check out these Bible verses I read this morning:

Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. Galatians 5:14 (The Message)

Freedom comes when you are serving, not being served! This means that when I choose to serve others in love (that's critical) then I am the one set free. True freedom then is to serve. Paul continues on to say:

For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. Galatians 5:15

You see, you are experiencing true freedom when you serve others. It's the kingdom upside down! So, how are you doing serving others? It is NOT always easy, but it is the right thing to do! Tye out.

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. Galatians 5:16 The Message

Panera's Pastor

I just completed my 5th week working only one day a week at Panera. The team there has been very patient as I have attempted to refine my bagel-order-getting, drink mixing, floor-sweeping, and inventory restocking skills. Did I mention cash-register skills? Oh my.

The cash register. The Panera team has been faithful to train me on the cash register, but I'm a little on the thick-headed side. I think I can, I think I can...uh, no way.

Yesterday was my first day to man my own register. I was so nervous - rightfully so. At 6:00 AM my first customer stepped up and ordered two bagel packs: 26 bagels/4 tubs of spread. That's 26 bagels that have to be sliced - easy. But ringing it up, that's another story. Then he gave me 3 gift cards - YIKES! Thankfully, he was very patient and I survived! But, not everyone was patient...

Patience. I've noticed that a lot of people have no margin in their life. They leave themselves 2 minutes, 38.6 seconds to get 2 bagel packs, a chai tea latte, and a cup of coffee only to realize that 10 other people had the same idea. Now, they want me to perform like "Dash" on the Incredibles. I'm pretty fast, but not fast enough to make up for their lack of planning. I'm not complaining! The customers come first!!! And, they make my paycheck possible.

One last thing. We were absolutely deluged with bagel orders - must have been the full moon. By 10:30 AM we were out our most popular bagels. A lady came in and was miffed that she couldn't get her fave bagel. She actually said that it was wrong that we ran out of bagels and companies who get bagels should have to order them ahead of time. wow. That is pretty judgemental.

I suggested she fill out a comment card and voice her anger to the "powers that be." I wasn't exactly sure why she felt like arguing with me. I smiled and said thank you.

Thank you Lord for an extra paycheck - answered prayer. And Lord, please help this precious soul for whom you died understand that there are way worse things in our world to be angry about. Tye out.

Panera's Pastor

Alright, the cats out of the bag. I started working one day a week at Panera - the one I "work" at when I'm using their WiFi. Friday was my third day - I only work on Fridays from 6am-2pm. And it's working out pretty good.

In the coming months I am going to be sharing some of my Panera Ponderings about life in the workplace, retail customers, and and other random musings. Here's the first installment.

I like working at Panera because it is a positive work environment. The managers are so encouraging to everyone there.

I also like the team atmosphere. Everyone pitches in and helps. Each person does their part and is patient with others as they do theirs.

So far I have had an extremely positive experience working there and really enjoy it. If you are in the area on Fridays make sure you stop by and see me. Tye out.