Trading places or Training Day?

“Welcome home” that is exactly how I felt this pass Monday morning when I walked into my job.  As many of you know almost 10 months ago I walked away from a job that I had been doing for 20+ years so of course I had to pray and seek Gods wisdom ( and the next wisest person I know my wife).  I don’t intent to go into the details of reasons for my parting ways from a job that I loved up to that point but I’m sure many of you are by now aware that it involved the fact of new ownership and my realization that I was more loyal to the man and not so much the brand. When the impact of knowing that I was actually giving up something that I’d done for so long and was truly happy with and thought that I was kinda good at hit me I had to pause and ask myself “Ron what are you doing”? (even though up to that point I still hadn’t fully committed to leaving).  Did I worry about getting another job at my age starting over? No that thought never entered my mind cause in fact I had started over with the new ownership anyway. What I was more concerned about was walking away from the people here in Lexington and Davidson County that I loved and know so well. Naturally I wanted to find a job where I would not have to give that up so with that in mind the job search begin. Of course the field of fast food restaurant management is wide open so I applied to a few just for the heck of it to see what would happen. In a few days I received an e-mail from a Direct Supervisor from one of the places that I had applied. a few more days passed and I hadn’t returned the e-mail when I received a phone call from him. Ok I prayed God answered how can this not be right? ( well no it wasn’t God himself that answered my email but you know what I mean ) So I returned his call. The interview went well he was amazed that he’d found someone with my years of experience so of course he would hire me with one exception he needed someone to work in Siberia well actually he said Spencer but he might as well said Siberia. So I agreed with the assurance that I’d come back to Lexington soon. Now let me tell y’all, “if you ain’t  never been to Spencer don’t go to Spencer cause you won’t make it in Spencer”. I’m just joking with that I heard that line in a movie once and always wanted to say that, ( but they used the word Ghetto in place of Spencer ).  But seriously though I’m not meaning to bad mouth any place or anybody cause I know that there are people that will read this that lived there and have family there so believe me I get it.

The culture there is different therefore the people are different I grew up in the country so hey my culture is different. When I first got there to work my attitude was that I’m gonna make a difference their attitudes were that they were going to “run me off” because I’d heard that’s what that store was known for running off managers. I was in Siberia, I mean Spencer for 9 months during that time I saw 3 managers quit. And 2 out of 3 of those managers were from Lexington ( mind blown ). I’m really not sure how to access the attitudes, are the employee’s rude because of the attitudes  (not all ) of the customers in that area or are the customers (not all) rude because of the employees attitudes? I think that it was mostly the latter. The first few months there I spent most of my time working in the back of the house, once I was able to finally work up front at the counter and the drive thru I actually encountered some very friendly folks that I will truely  miss and I know will miss me some were actually amazed that there was someone working in the drive thru that was nice ( insert smiley face ). I had a family from the area that lives In Davidson County  that I saw a couple of times while I was there I remember that I hadn’t been working there very long during there first visit and I noticed that it wasn’t a very good experience not due to the rudeness of any employees but due to the fact that being understaffed and the inexperience of a new manager working that day (myself ). Anyway they came back again a few months later and their experience was worse this time due to the fact of being busy understaffed and attitude of a manager on duty I happened to be there that day but was finishing up my shift and preparing to leave. Before they left I noticed them talking to the manager that was working on the front when I walked up I heard her  apologizing and saying that she’d just got there and “yada yada yada”. So before they got in their vehicle I walked outside to apologize myself. They told me how bad it was but mostly about the overall “I don’t care because I just got here” attitude of the manager. One thing that he told me summed it all up in one sentence he said “I told her if it wasn’t for Ron we wouldn’t even come to this “S**t-hole” ( sorry but those were his words not mine ). And that was the last time that I saw them there.

Yeah I’ve finally left Siberia I mean Spencer and I’d like to think that I’d left that store a better place then it was from when I first arrived and you know I really think that I did I did notice that things were a little better but not the way that they need to be for customers to have a overall good experience there. Several employees told me that I would be missed a couple of them told me that they’ll be looking for another job now that I’ve left. Another manager told me that the whole atmosphere in the place changed when I came in to work ( my prayer every day before I went in was “let them see Jesus in Me” ) I can only wish the best for that store and their employee’s there and the people in the area that goes there because it’s the only fast food restaurant near by. I truly wish that I could have stayed  and was able to bring in help to turn this store into what it should be. Anyone that reads this please don’t think that I’m putting down this store or the area because that’s not what this is all about. What I’m trying to relate here is how a person can make a difference no matter who you are or who you’re around or where you are it’s all about you changing them not them changing you. While I’m writing this I can’t help but to think of two movies Trading Places staring Eddie Murphy and the fact that two rich men that had everything and lost it all and left with nothing but were unable or unwilling to adapt to the change. This is my way of saying yeah I was in Spencer but was I able or even willing to change to the ways of the people there? The other movie is Training Day staring Denzel Washington. In this movie an undercover cop has to act and be like the drug dealers and criminals that he’s investigating so in fact he becomes a drug dealer and criminal. This also is my way of saying yeah I was in Spencer but was I able or even willing to change to the ways of the people there?

So no matter if you’re faced with a ‘Trading places’ situation or a Training Day situation, it’s all up to you how you handle it. You can find a way to adapt to the circumstances that you’re surrounded with meanwhile staying true to the person that God made you to be and standing strong in your beliefs or you can give up on your beliefs and become “one of them”. Being different is hard, being “one of them” is easy. Siberia or Spencer it doesn’t really matter, but like Glinda said I’ve had the power to come home at any time all I had to do was to click my heels together three times and say “there’s no place like home” “there’s no place like home” “there’s no place like home”.  Welcome home”.