Laughing is good for the Soul

Laughter helps with a lot of things. A good example of a time I laughed at a situation and it made it better was when one time when I was at work and I showed up on time and nothing was done and the store was an absolute disaster. Sometimes the store is in good condition and other times, bad condition, but rarely is it ever this bad. I was closing alone, but I had dinner help until seven. When I walked into work to the store like this, I was furious and upset that my coworker would leave the store looking this bad for the closer. Nothing was done. The line was empty: meat pull wasn’t done, sauces on the line hadn’t been switched or filled and backup sauces hadn’t been made, dishes were stacked so high and all the sinks were full, the bread cabinet was empty and there was no bread being made, the line was empty and there was hardly any backups of food. I was super stressed and had only four hours till close and I had to pick up this mess, on top of doing all of the night and closing stuff I needed to do. All of these things were supposed to be done between three and five in the afternoon, when it was the slower time of the day. I kept thinking I am never going to be able to get out of here on time tonight. I was thankful I had my best, favorite co worker until seven. We were both super frustrated with the whole situation and just kept fuming about it together. It got to the point where we both just looked at each other and started dying of laughter at just how poor the store looked and the fact that someone would leave it like that. We started to try and get as much done as we could before we knew the dinner rush would come. We kept smiling and laughing while running around the store and throwing things together and trying to make the best of the situation. Laughing distracted the bad part if the situation and helped with what was going on. It made it a little easier to deal with. Before you knew it, we had sauces filled and backups made, meat pull done, bread rolled, panned and in the proofer. Dishes hadn’t been touched yet, but that was the next project when we got our dinner rush. We were both a little relieved with the progress we had made, but still frustrated because we were all caught up yet. We took care of the customers as fast as we could and tried to get them done quick so we would have more time to get more things done. As we were making sandwiches we were making the best out of it, having conversation with people about it and telling our regulars about everything that was going on and they laughed with us wishing us luck, and knowing what it feels like. It was almost seven and my coworkers shift was almost over, and yet still hadn’t made anymore progress, I asked her if she was able to stay a little late so she could help me catch up. She was able to and she cranked dishes out, while I changed the trashes, filled chip rack, stocked cooler and baked the bread. As we were catching up, we kept making jokes and laughing and once we got going we couldn’t stop. We kept getting busy and getting interrupted with customers the whole time and kept making jokes about how if the night keeps going like this, I will never get anything done and will not get out of here until midnight the rate the night was going. She left around seven thirty/ eight o’clock once I was all caught up and not screwed over anymore, and I ended up getting out of there a few minutes later than normal. As much as a rough night it was, it was kind of enjoyable because I had my best, favorite coworker by my side through all of it and she was so helpful and it was just super funny, and it eased the situation off my mind a little bit.

Photo by marc kjerland on Foter.com / CC BY-SA