Yesterday was my last day of work at the convenience store. I had been working there following a layoff. In a crippled economy I am fortunate to be able to move on to a career that will be more personally rewarding.
I learned a lot over the past ten months. Folks who work in the nine to five, Monday through Friday world owe a lot of thanks to the people who make life convenient.
The business of convenience: McDonalds, Burger King, Wawa, 7-Eleven, etc is a business that never sleeps. There are no weekends off, heck there's not even a work schedule that is the same from one week to the next. The people who provide convenience do so at the sacrifice of a predictable personal life.
Hoping to make it to church on Easter? If you're a nine to fiver you can make those plans weeks in advance. The folks in the business of convenience won't know if they'll be able to make that church service until their work schedule for that week is posted.
Need to schedule a doctor appointment or a parent-teacher conference. No problem for a nine to fiver. For the convenience people - good luck, it's a crap shoot.
In the traditional business world paperwork can usually wait a day if you're sick. In the convenience world the food still has to be cooked, the coffee still has to be brewed, and someone is going to get called in on their scheduled day off if a co-worker is under the weather.
The next time you pull up to a drive through window, think about what other people give up so that you can have breakfast on the go.
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