A few weeks ago, our daughter, Amanda, surprised us with a visit. She is in her freshman year of college out east, and journeyed back home to Wisconsin, funding the trip
herself, and letting her dad and me know about her visit only a few days prior.
She had to Uber from her school to Amtrak, take the train to the metro, and get on another train, take the air train to the airport, and fly in. It was a whole lot of navigation...and it's the first time she traveled so far
alone. She did great. She said, "I just took it one destination at a time."
It was such a great visit, and trust me, my heart was happy to have her home.
A few days later, I drove her back to the airport. When we got there, we stopped at Starbucks. There was a young man working there, all by himself. He was the greeter, the order taker, the cashier, the beverage and food preparer, and the runner...that is A LOT of hats to be wearing.
Luckily, there was only one person ahead of us in line. Amanda ordered her favorite...a pink drink...and I ordered a Mango Dragon Fruit Refresher. We sat down at the table and waited for our order.
When we did, the line began to build. Within 10 minutes, it was about 15 people long and a few people in that line were grumbling about the wait taking longer than they would like. I wondered if the young man at Starbucks would begin getting frazzled, but, to his credit, he remained calm and was very polite and efficient.
Here are some organizing take-aways from this Starbucks visit:
1) Breathe. When life gets busy and potentially overwhelming, if you begin to get stressed out, the situation is only going to get
worse. Take a moment and simply breathe. You will get through whatever it is.
2) Find your rhythm. This young man definitely figured out how to be efficient. He was taking two orders at a time at the register. Then, he began preparing those two orders. He placed any ordered food into the
microwave to warm it, quickly prepped the cold drinks, and then proceeded to get the hot drinks together. He then gathered all of the completed items, called out the orders, and then went back to the register and took the next two orders. Because this team member had a step-by-step, repetitive method, he managed to get the orders handled as quickly as he was able to.
3) Keep smiling. There were plenty of reasons for this young man not to smile. He had a lot of work to do, and some of the folks in line were getting a bit hot-under-the-collar, but the Starbucks team member remained pleasant, repeatedly apologized for the wait, and didn't crack under pressure.
Soon, Amanda had to get to the security checkpoint in preparation for boarding her flight. We won't see her again until Thanksgiving and we already miss her so much.
But before she and I left Starbucks, we were sure to take
a moment to let the young man at Starbucks know how much we appreciated his efficiency and great attitude. This kind of work ethic is so refreshing.
