HOW TRUE HUMAN CONNECTIONS IN THE WORKPLACE CAN SKYROCKET YOUR COMPANY'S SUCCESS
Written by: Stuart Knight
In 1996 I graduated from the school of business and economics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. I was the second person on both sides of the family to ever graduate with a post secondary degree, with my older brother being the first. Damn him! My immigrant parents were quite proud and thought, “Finally, our children will have good paying jobs, and the good life that comes with it.” So, you can imagine how happy they were when I told them I had secured employment as a waiter making minimum wage and tips. For the record, this was before the time when an expected 25% gratuity was the recommended baseline for walking the plate of food from the kitchen to the table.
It wasn’t my plan to work at this restaurant for life, but when I thought about jumping all the way into my first corporate love affair, let’s just say I was “commitmentphobic”, which isn’t a word, but you get the point. Now, if you’ve served tables in the past, you know there is a pecking order between new hires and the veteran wait staff with respect to who gets the most lucrative sections of the restaurant. You have to earn your stripes in order to move up the shift list, which also applies to the shit list ironically, but that’s a story for another article. I didn’t mind, because the establishment I landed a job at was nestled next to a major professional sports arena, and within the heart of the financial district, which meant lots of customers!