Before my current job, I worked as a community youth program manager at
a major California museum. Part of the program day entailed serving
lunch to over 40 kids. Just to get a perspective on this, think about
the biggest family party you’ve had then imagine preparing for it every
day for six weeks.
Luckily my wife and the program’s teacher
handled the lunch preparation. They pretty much had to as I was working
60-70 hour weeks including weekends. And if I wasn’t working, we were
shopping for the next day’s lunch. They would always complain and I
understood it wasn’t a fun task but how hard could it be?
I
found out after two weeks of this when I had to make the lunch one day.
It was tons of work, just for PB&J sandwiches and a few assorted
goodies.
The very next day, I remembered that during my summer
job in high school, I had worked serving food to kids during the
summer. The lunch program still existed and I was able to connect to
the agency rather quickly. We were very lucky that the local operation
was run out of a nearby school. Within a week of paperwork and
logistics (which seemed like an eternity) they scheduled a truck to
come out to the museum, provided a server, and it was free for the rest
of the summer. Score!
I learned that day that if an employee or
co-worker says that something is really hard, it probably is and this
problem needs to be addressed. Either that or try it yourself and feel
the pain first hand.
~~~Originally posted at NaBloPoMo on July 4, 2008~~~