Hardly Working

Kendall white
As I hoisted three bags of pedigree puppy food onto my back pallet, out of the corner of my eye I saw a tall figure strolling down the aisle towards me. The quick gait was a dead giveaway to who it was: my supervisor, Rusty. "Dang!" I said to myself, cringing as I realized I had been standing around talking too long. I tried to pick up the pace a little. "You alright there Kendell?" Rus asked, brows furrowed. "Yeah, Rus, man... the jack man…” (which was partly true I told myself) “ and then I had to use the bathroom” ( which was also true but still not the complete truth). I dropped my head. "Yeah, I was talking Rus. I was standing around talking too long my bad". "C'mon with that order you got the loader waiting on it" he said sternly yet surprisingly politely. With flushed cheeks I got back to work vigorously, glancing furtively around to see if my reprimanding had been witnessed. I felt bad. If I'm going to be a man and admit I was wrong- I will be honest and say that I was being selfish. I was only thinking about me and my desire to converse my coworkers. I thought about it some more and realized that I wasn't thinking about the loader (poor Joe Helms) who couldn't perform his job duties to the best of his abilities because of my selfishness, or my fellow coworkers who would have to pick up my slack. Or that I was even helping my coworker lose money from his pocket by not being productive. Nor did I think of Rusty who had to take the time to remind me to do my job. I wasn't thinking about his other job duties that needed his attention or that I was placing him in a situation to have to reprimand. Yes they are trained to do and are used to performing necessary management decisions on a day to day basis, but we often forget that they are human too. Each and every associate we work with deserves to be considered before ourselves, seeing as we all depend on one another to get the day's job done. So why make someone's job harder than it has to be? That goes for sanitation, lift drivers, office personnel, etc. Being brutally honest with myselfL that kind of behavior is selfish and I can't honestly say that I want to be known as a selfish person. The average American adult spends at least one-third of his/her day at work, so naturally, work place friendships will be cultivated and should be. But if we are truly striving to better ourselves and our families, we must let go of all selfish habits and thought patterns in all areas of life. The two are opposing mindsets and will always conflict. In the words of the great Jedi teacher master Yoda, "Try not! Do or do not, there is no try".