Grunt Work

The little guy doesn’t get appreciated in America.

Yup, that’s right. The people who take what is considered jobs “beneath us” aren’t appreciated. You know who I’m talking about. Fast food workers, data entry processors, gate agents, flight attendants, retail salespersons, janitors, laborers, etc. These jobs can be hard, and are extremly thankless work.

They need a bit more recognition.

I’ve seen the debate on minimum wage. Folks argue for or against people being able to support their families. That’s really the point of it all. In our selfish world, we don’t want the minimum wage raised because it will somehow affect us. People say things like, “you shouldn’t get paid well if you have minimum skills.” That’s quite degrading, and very close-minded. These jobs may not need a PhD, but they deserve your respect. Why?

They make commerce press forward.

Oh yes, they do. We live in a capitalist society based on consumerism. Everywhere we turn there is a store, a fast food restaurant, a mall, a car lot, etc. Something is being sold 100% of almost every day. Let’s analyze this.

The corporate conglomerate McDonald’s makes 75.18 million in revenue per day. Overall, they generated 27.441300 billion dollars in revenue for 2014. They returned 6.4 billion dollars to investors and shareholders via dividends and repurchases. Their three year cash return goal is $18-20 billion for 2014-2016.

They considered this a decline in sales.

That’s right. A multi-billion dollar company considered grossing upwards of $27 billion a decline. How insane is that? It’s wild, but that’s how big business works. They have CEOs, CFOs, and marketing execs that can proudly say they work for McDonald’s because they make over six figures. They are the important people that know how to expand the brand. You know who else knows how to expand the brand? The drive-thru worker. The cashier. The cook.

The little people.

Get this. McDonald’s doesn’t run if there are no people on the front lines making it happen every day. Conversely, McDonald’s doesn’t run if there are no people making big decisions on the company’s behalf. That brings us to being people. I know that disrupts the scheme of importance in a corporate structure, but think about it. Just one negative experience with a cashier at McDonald’s can make you shun the restaurant forever. It doesn’t matter how many commercials, flyers, and coupons come across your eyes. That one person made you hate an entire organization

But they don’t have power right?

Wrong. They have power, and plenty of it. Maybe a cashier can’t fire anyone, but they can persuade you into bringing your business back. Yet, we look down on these people. They make these business excel forward. Without them, the food is uncooked, the money stays in our pockets, and we have no one tell our order. Of course, there are more people who are competent enough to do these positions as opposed to being a CEO. So, we lump the low man on the totem poll as being unimportant.

We are wrong.

The guy that mops the floor is just as important as the CEO. If the CEO does not realize that, then he will have a failing business. The gate agent at the airport who has to be at work at 3:00 am is just as important as the marketing exec in charge of brand awareness. The front line people are important. Let’s stop thinking they aren’t, and appreciate their efforts.

Today, I’m sending out a huge THANK YOU to the people who do the grunt work. If no one else appreciates you, I do.