Day 17: Quiet is Good

It was a quiet Saturday.

“Hey sir, there are little square signs by the road with numbers on them. Make sure your car matches those numbers! Wait, where’d he go?”

I heard the comment as I came into the back of the restaurant after a delivery. It was the coworker that had given me the look when he handed me the clipboard with my daughters’ hairclip attached. The look on his face now was happy and playful. The comment was still a bit tangled.

“Ha! Why do you say that?” I asked with a smile. I stepped up to the dispatch computer. He had disappeared back into the prep area to my left.

“Because he thinks you’re a fast driver!” My manager said. She was perched on top of a pop crate unpacking two liter bottles of delicious carbonated diabeetus juice. She handed them down to a greeter who stacked them in a cooler.

Several deliveries earlier, the same coworker had given another complement. “You should open every morning!”

“Oh yeah? Why do you say that?”

I feel like I ask that a lot after I get a complement.

“Because, you get stuff done! You get dishes done. You’re a fast driver. You find things to do and you do them. I like opening with you.”

“Aww, thanks, Coworker!” I replied. That felt good. I try to make others’ lives easier when I’m working on a team. I chalk that one up to the owner of the house flipping company I worked for as I got ready for my mission. He taught me the concept of anticipation.

“If you can learn to anticipate what your boss needs before you are asked and then do it, you will always have a job,” he said. It stuck. The advice has proven valuable and satisfying.

Speaking of anticipation, I got called to the Project again. I recognized the apartment number. The name rang a bell.

There was no group of men outside this time. There was a very large man that greeted with a nice ‘hello’ and an old lady listening to music on her phone. She didn’t have headphones. She was just holding the speaker of the phone near her ear. She danced a little as she leaned against a wall. She also said hello.

I stepped into the vestibule. Nobody was coming at the moment. I called the customer, ready to have her come down.

“Hello?”

“Hi Ma’am, this is Tony from that one pizza restaurant.”

“Oh, I’ll be right down!”

My heart sank. Then lifted. Somebody had just come down the elevator and was pushing the inside door open.

“Oh no, that’s alright ma’am, somebody just opened the door. I just wanted to make sure it was ok to come in.”

That was a lie. I was calling to have her come to the door. I kicked myself for the lie. I celebrated her not having to come get me.

I greeted her at the door. She recognized me. She liked the hairclip on the clipboard. Thought it was cute. I handed over the food and wished her a good day.

“Thank you so much young man for coming all the way down here!” she said.

I didn’t think it was that long of a walk down the hall. Then again, I wasn’t crippled and restricted to a walker.

I told her it was no problem and wished her a great day.

I’ve mentioned my clipboard. I had another coworker stop me at the restaurant later.

“Hey Tony, look what I got!”

I looked over. This fiery, energetic coworker held up a clipboard of her own. It was purple with blue polka-dots.

“Rock on! That looks so you!” I said.

“Thanks, I got in at the dollar tree. It was a dollar,” she said.

I had never shown her my own clipboard. At least I don’t think I did. I never take it into the store because it is easier to leave it in the car. Maybe she heard about it from Coworker #1. Maybe she had seen it one of the few times I did bring it in. Maybe I had nothing to do with it.

I’m betting on that one.

My point is, it was a cool gesture. We’re a neat, diverse team of drivers. We had fun on our quiet Saturday. Quiet doesn’t always mean lazy or unproductive. Quiet is good.

ROE INTENSE