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Service With A Smile

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Golden Girls with SW Desert Homes BR564219000

Service With a Smile

When I was 16 and got my driver's license, my parents said I had to get a job.  "Learn about the real world", they said.  The thought filled me with trepidation because my best friend was a paperback book and I was very shy.

My first job (outside of picking strawberries) was picking daffodils.  Spring in beautiful Puyallup, WA valley, the daffodil capitol of the USA, was rainy, and bordering cold. It's a season of almost daily, slow rain.  We called it drizzle.  It is what helps keep Puget Sound so glowingly green!

puget sound
My memories include arriving to work at 7 a.m. You followed the rows of "hills" picking ten buds at a time and wrapping them in rubber bands.  You put the little bundle at a certain angle so a machine could scoop them up later in the day.  My memories also include rain for the entire two weeks, whether or not that was true.
daffodils from clip art

You couldn't kneel, because it was all mud and you moved along too quickly as you picked.  So, you were at a half and whole stoop during the entire process. I learned it was possibly worse than strawberry picking, where you could at least have the joy of an occasional sweet berry to snack upon.

Those first two weeks spurred me to find better employment.  There was no way I was "quitting" (I didn't want to hear my parents' reaction to THAT) so I set about finding a replacement job.

Eventually I was hired at McDonald's.  McDonald's taught me some important life lessons:

1.  Service with a smile
2.  Be quick about it
3.  Clean as you go
4.  The customer is always right

I also learned the pride of a job well done, management skills (I moved up the line fairly quickly as I liked the recognition for good work and strong skill sets), and how to be outgoing and assertive, if need be.

McDonalds Sign
I often think back to those early years and how having those first jobs helped create the professional I've become.

I hope I've learned a few life lessons along the way:

1.  Don't quit.  There are worse situations out there.  Find a way to cope, or change.
2.  Service with a smile
3.  Be quick, detailed, accurate about it
4.  Make the most of your time - multi-task - problem solve.
5.  The customer is always right

Thanks Mom and Dad - you set me on a good path.  :)

What life lessons have you learned from your early employment?

Posted by

If I can assist you in your home buying or selling in Marana, Tucson, Oro Valley, or Vail, please don't hesitate to call me!  Email at Cara@SWDeserthomes.com

Cara Marcelle Mancuso, Golden Girls with SW Desert Homes

520-909-2988   

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Comments (9)

Sally K. & David L. Hanson
EXP Realty 414-525-0563 - Brookfield, WI
WI Real Estate Agents - Luxury - Divorce

Life lessons from first jobs...as a waitress spilling coke..complete with ice in a young man's lap and almost going to clean it up..whooops !

Sep 29, 2010 03:32 AM
Patricia Aulson
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOME SERVICES Verani Realty NH Real Estate - Exeter, NH
Realtor - Portsmouth NH Homes-Hampton NH Homes

Cute post today. I'm reminded of my first real job (other than babysitting) after school, high school, that is.

I'd walk 3 miles from the high school to work in a dentist's office for three hour's a day, then I'd walk home another 3 or so miles to get some dinner and then tackle my homework. I worked there for my sophomore, junior and senior years.  I made big bucks, $25 or $30 bucks a week.  Wow!  I thought I was rich!!  Too funny! gotta laugh. I guess it was good for a high school kid.

Sep 29, 2010 03:35 AM
Linda S. Cefalu, Broker Assoc.
Coldwell Banker Homesale Realty - Hales Corners, WI
I'll Take You Home

Great Post.  I enjoyed reading about your daffodil land. 

I long for service with a smile.  My Jetta requires diesel fuel and while I have a station right across the lake, I choose to drive almost 9 miles one way to give my business to another station.  The reason?   They are always friendly and ALWAYS smiling.  I have made it a point to let them know that as well.

There is nothing more frustrating than going out for dinner and having a waitress growl at you because you asked about the soup of the day.  Or perhaps I need a little more water in my glass. 

I too started work at an extremely young age.  I lived across the street from a foundry and I used to take a wagon and pick up their scrap and haul it 8 blocks to the scrap yard for pennies.  (No wheelchair friendly ramps back then. Dropped half the load ever time I had to go up and down another curb.)  But............I was determined to get it there. I was only nine years old and had no other way of making money.  I tried setting up a lemonade stand in front of my house to serve the foundry workers on their breaks during the hot summer months.  A few of them yelled at me because it had black specs in it.  The specs were floating in the air and settled in the glass.  Where were the specs from?  The foundry!!  Go figure.

Cara, although you probably didn't think this back when you were picking daffodils, it sounds like you are very grateful for the lessons your parents instilled at an early age.  Kudos to those mean parents of ours!!

Linda S. Cefalu

Sep 29, 2010 03:42 AM
Cara Marcelle Mancuso
Golden Girls with SW Desert Homes - Tucson, AZ
Call a Marana neighbor, I'm THERE!

Sally - I've never had the nerve to work as a waitress.  Terrified it would bring out all my faults!!!  I just KNOW I'd be dumping in someones lap - I can see you now!

Patricia - that WAS a lot of money!  Your job not only kept you in the money, but kept you slim and trim too! My very first efforts involved shoe shining and pulling a wagon of cucumbers around the neighborhood for a nickle!

Linda - nice to meet you! I understand the gas station choice.  My husband and I LOVE to dine out and if we get a server that loves their job, we make sure we really acknowledge it in a nice tip.  It sounds like you had a LOT of determination as a kid - you must be a great agent today!  You know what it takes to get results.  :)  And yes, we DID think our parents were mean, didn't we!

Sep 29, 2010 03:56 AM
Lindsey Hasford
Edina Realty - Elk River, MN
Bringing you home...

Wow. I loved the part about picking Daffodils. That is very interesting. But, I know that working McDonalds and like places are a great place to learn work ethic. I'm glad that you had the opportunity to start some of your work growth there.  My first job was at a flower shop. I can't say that I was always grateful for my job. There were several times that I took the fall for a fellow employee and in the end it bit me in the bum. Oh well. I CAN say that it taught me to always be willing to do what needed doing no matter the pay.

Sep 29, 2010 07:00 AM
Sharon Lee
Sharon Lee's Virtual Assistance - Jonesborough, TN
Retired and loving life

Hi Cara-I love daffodils especially double daffodils. This is a great post. Very nicely done. A life lesson I learned early on is really more about having a good work ethic. I worked in the family vending business from the age of ten. A lot of folks today want everything handed to them. You appreciate things more when you work for them and maybe that is my life lesson.

Sep 29, 2010 09:03 AM
Cara Marcelle Mancuso
Golden Girls with SW Desert Homes - Tucson, AZ
Call a Marana neighbor, I'm THERE!

It is never fun to take the fall for someone else, is it, Linsey.  I do agree with your final statement - back then we learned a certain willingness...

Sharon - Nice to meet you - thanks for your kind words!  The entitlement era is a little difficult to deal with, isn't it!!

Sep 29, 2010 04:26 PM
Karen Bernetti
Southington, CT

Cara - what a great story.  Our experiences - all of them - shape us.  We are who and what we are today because of them.  My first [real] job [outside of babysitting] was in retail - I worked in a clothing store and I learned that I had an intensely strong work ethic.  Not sure where it came from - I cared more than most about my [lousy] job for reasons I could never understand or explain.

Sep 29, 2010 04:57 PM
Juli Vosmik
Dominion Fine Properties - Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale/Cave Creek, AZ real estate 480-710-0739

I really LOVED my first job as a slave waitress at a major seafood restaurant.  I really did learn that knowledge (about the foods) and a smile goes a long way.  Thanks for the reminder.

Sep 29, 2010 07:02 PM