Should Managers Provide Free Café Rio Lunches? [An essay by Chelsea and Cassi]

Today at work my coworker and I decided we wanted free lunch. My boss told us that in order for this to happen we had to convince him. He also said that food was more important than customers (in jest, but we took it as truth) so we wrote the following proposal to convince him using the 5 paragraph persuasive essay format from elementary school. Who knew it would actually become handy in real life? ;)

Have you ever been sitting at a lonely desk in a front office building when suddenly your stomach begins to speak to you?  There’s a solution for this problem that will be addressed in the following paragraphs and it begins with a tortilla and ends with a “Thank you for choosing Café Rio”. Café Rio should be purchased for hungry customer service employees because they are hungry and food is a basic human right, they are hard workers, and a dessert of choice will be provided for the supplier of the Café Rio.

First of all, food is a basic human right. Depriving employees by not supplying free lunch may cause such symptoms as hunger, fatigue, hallucinations, angry outburst at customers and bosses, an overall grumpy attitude, and in severe cases, death. When faced with the options of supplying the food or not, it appears that the choice should be an easy one. Some may say that only providing free Café Rio for customer service employees is unfair to the other works in the warehouse. But we disagree. The nuances of customer service lend these employees to hold a level of digression that would keep there from being any issues with the warehouse workers in question.

Along with saving your employees from a painful death of starvation, providing Café Rio will also show your employees that you appreciate their hard work and uplifting manners. As opposed to the side effects mentioned above from hunger, the side effects of supplying Café Rio for hard working employees are overflowing with positive outcomes such as: faster resolution to customer service issues, a more enjoyable demeanor, and a happy, satisfied stomach. Rewarding these employees will encourage the continuation of hard work and perseverance through the hard times on the front line of communication with angry customers. As Steve Maraboli said, “A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.”

Finally, there is the issue of compensation. No favor should be asked without a plan of action from the receiver of the favor to reciprocate the gift of Café Rio. A suitable plan of action is that a dessert of the manager or bosses choice be made by the customer service representatives. This will satisfy the sweet tooth of the receiver as well as bring joy to his stomach and joy to those he shares the gift with.  The manager’s happiness will also brighten the day of the customer service representatives, bringing the cycle full circle. Opening up the gift options by letting the manager choose the dessert also shows the maturity and dedication to excellence of the customer service representatives.

In conclusion there are many reasons why the customer service representatives should receive free Café Rio. The main reasons are, the provision of food is a basic human right, providing free lunch will reward them for their hard work and insure more hard work in the future, and compensation will be given by way of baked goods of the manager’s choice. So as you sit and read these words, think back on a time when you were hungry and your stomach began to speak to you. What is it saying to you now? Free Café Rio for the girls it is!

C.R.M.

xoxo

p.s. We got Cafe Rio. Success.  

I Guess I'm Deprived

Some of my coworkers are planning a camping trip to Moab over Memorial Day at the end of the month and have invited me to come along. At first thought it sounded like a blast: a chance to go to Arches again, get some sun, try not to come back looking like a lobster (you can get really sick of people trying to spread butter on you and crack open your shell), and jamming out to music road trip style. You know, the perfect summer vacation weekend trip. As I was contemplating again this morning the pros and cons of joining the trip, I realized something rather surprising:

I have only been "real" camping a handful of times and only twice that I can remember where it wasn't something church related where the leaders of my church group planned everything for us and supplied the important things like tents and marshmallows.

My family has never been the camping type or to be completely honest, the "let's-go-outside-in-the-mountains-and-have-family-bonding-experiences" type. For recreation we would rather go play a game of three on three basketball at the church (where my dad just stuffs everyone and we foul uncontrollably) or even better, watch BYU basketball on TV and dream about the Jimmer glory days.

We see hiking the "Y" in Provo as a challenge.

Going on a "bike ride" = a couple turns around the cul-de-sac.

Climbing is only mentioned when stairs are involved.

So what are the two camping experiences my family has had you might ask? Well, let me 'splain.

Trip One:

I honestly don't remember much of this experience. I was only 6 or 7 at the time, it was a ward camp-out, we probably ate some smores, pretty sure my mom didn't sleep at all, and I recall a lot of snoring. Not sure if the snoring was from my father or other ward members. Possibly both.

We also have some excellent home video footage of all of us wide awake in our tent at 11pm (my little brother and I can hardly hold in our excitement at the chance to sleep on cots, in a tent, in the mountains, which of course equals two wired children not even close to falling asleep), 1am (my little brother is asleep, I'm getting there and my mom has that "we are never doing this again" look in her eye and some awesome 80's inspired glasses adorning the look), and then somewhere around 3am (mom and dad are still awake, but to their relief I am sure, the kidos have drifted off to dreamland and my dad blinds my mom with the video camera light which results in much squinting and whispered complaints).

Trip Two:

I guess my mom and dad either had some sort of out of body experience that made them forget how horrible the first camping experience was, or decided to give camping the benefit of the doubt and accept it's request of a second date--"everyone deserves a second chance"--because when ward camp-out time rolled around, we were packing our sleeping bags. I had my baby bags full of enough toys to entertain myself for months, let alone two days and one night, my childhood innocence having masked just how uncomfortable those cots really were. 

I'm sure the majority of the first day went much like the year before: exploring, dinner, smores, campfire, bugs, bear sightings (I wish) and restless excitement when bedtime rolled around. There was also probably some snoring and blinding from the video camera lazer light.

But there was one difference: the rain.

And I'm not talking a soft sprinkling, I'm talking a wash-away-your-cat-down-the-gutter type of downpour. At one time in the past (stone age maybe?) our tent had been waterproofed, but needless to say any preemptive actions had long ago been washed away (pun intended). We didn't really understand just how bad the situation was until pools of rainwater started forming on top of our tent...and the dripping began. Then the rain came down and the floods came up and the bottom of our tent was starting to dampen our backsides. This was not good. In my 6 or 7 year old memories I imagine it looking something like this:

I believe (surprisingly enough) that I was asleep for most of the decision making period of what to do with a tent full of rainwater at 4 in the morning, but I remember being rudely awakened, told to grab whatever I didn't want to get wet, being wrapped in a blanket or sleeping bag and being carried to our minivan my dad had pulled up and parked (probably illegally) close to the campsite. My parents ran back and forth from the tent grabbing the essentials as if the rain was acid and anything left behind would be dust before we could retrieve it in the morning.
We waved goodbye to our tents, gunned the engine, and headed home in the downpour. I like to think that the other ward members woke up the next morning in their dry little tents and came out to see our abandoned campsite and panicked, thinking it must have been a bear attack that took us away. I mean, nothing else would make you leave a perfectly good campsite in the middle of the night, and abandon your tents right?

I guess my parents learned their lesson the second time because we have not joined in on a full fledged camping trip in the mountains ever since (at least that I can remember...my mom will probably remind me of some later that have been erased from my remembrance). I feel as if I can rightly blame my parents for my lack of interest and participation in anything that has to do with sleeping on the ground.

I guess you could call me deprived. But maybe I'm just lucky.


C.R.M.
xoxo

I Think I'm Getting Stupider

I know guys, it's been what, 4 months since I last posted? Pretty sad. Especially considering my last post was all about how I was going to be better about blogging. The only responses I have for that is the following: school and work. Which is translated to: the end to life. But guess what? It's SUMMER TIME BABY! And that means I get to make another whole-hearted attempt at blogging that may or may not die off by the end of the month as slowly and painfully as the cheese I threw away this morning that was so covered in mold I could have mistaken it for a mouse. But hey, at least I can say I tried.

Lately I have been inspired to write again because of this wonderfully hilarious blog called It Just Gets Stranger. If you have never read it, you really should. Like right now. I've spent many a minute being distracted by island adventures and rather spunky sense of humor that has me laughing in my swivel chair at work like a madwoman trying to hold it all in and make me look productive. It's made me think to myself: 

Funny things happen to me too! I'm calling my mom about them all the time! Why not put this writing bug that's gotten inside of me to good use and share the hilarity with others. Or at least try. 

So that's the plan folks :) I may or may not also include shameless plugs for my Etsy site: Stylish Stitchings and of course tutorials if I ever get around to sewing again (I have a mound of fabric the size of Mount Everest that is trying to be contained by boxes in my apartment and my room at home. It's almost as large as the pile of laundry that desperately needs cleaning.  Almost.)

So to start things off, a conversation today at work:

Ms. Wayne  (my roommate and coworker, she's practically married to Batman *cough* Bruce Wayne. No big deal.): I think we need to up the prices on the website so people will stop ordering. I keep getting emails from people who have never used the Internet.

Me: They say they have never used the computer before in their email?

Ms. Wayne: No, they just complain that they can't see their tracking information, I mean hello, it shipped two minutes ago!

Me: I'm sorry?

Ms. Wayne: It's not your fault. I just feel stupider by the second! Is stupider even a word? See! They are already working on me!

Me: At least you have a job!

30 minutes later

Ms. Wayne: I'm nervous to pee.

Me: Why??

Ms. Wayne: It's dark and scary outside!! So I'm nervous!

Me: And going to the bathroom is related to how dark it is outside?

Ms. Wayne: YES!

Me: Ain't nobody got time for that.


C.R.M.
xoxo