Curious George and the Status Quo

I never learned what exactly a person is supposed to do with their anger.  I wasn't angry too much as a child, and if I was, it was usually because Kathryn was getting under my skin so I'd just be condescending and horrible.  Since learning that is not a socially acceptable response and makes me the brat, I've given that route up.  Maybe part of anger management is anger venting.  That's about to happen, so if you don't want to read on, that's fine.  It will be just as effective without you reading it.

I started work at Sylvia's, like I told you.  It's been going well.  I love the food we serve, the clientele are generally laid back, and the pay's not bad.  Slowly, I've gotten to know the different wait staff that works there during different shifts.  For the most part, they've been great.  They're all eager to help me learn the ropes and show me where things are.  For this, I am grateful.  I know it's too much to ask to get along with everyone a person works with, so I guess this rant is unreasonable of me.  I would throw the whole thing out, but there's a moral to the story, so I guess it's worth writing. 

I was working with a girl named Lisa for the first time.  She was friendly, pleasant, talkative, all that.  That's part of the problem.  During our shift together, she was friendly, pleasant and talkative… to the kitchen staff, to the other wait staff, even to the customers, but there's a time for being chatty with the guy making the French onion soup, and there's a time to be wiping down tables and checking on customers.  I understand that not everyone has a Depression Era work ethic passed down to them from their forefathers.  It just frustrates me when I'm picking gum off the floor with my fingernails and she's sampling the latest batch of rye bread. 

These small shops are an interesting situation because there isn't much room for vertical movement.  It's not as though really great waitresses are promoted to a corner office with dental benefits.  You just go from being an OK waitress to a great waitress, and you get paid the same.  It brings the idea of the status quo to mind.  If people aren't motivated to be excellent at all they do by the allure of promotion and pay raises, there are two options.  They're motivated by something internal, or they're content to just get by.  Getting by is certainly attractive because it means less work for the same amount of reward.  As a society, there will always be a status quo - a middle ground, an average.  It doesn't mathematically make sense for everyone to be outstanding, but nothing outstanding ever got done by being average or just OK. 

Rant concluded, much obliged,

George