Since my “
Ritalin Rant” remains my most popular node to-date, and I took a big chance with it, (because it matters) I thought I'd try again. I was not expecting so many pat's on the back for that one, nor do I for this one. But I think this needs to be said. I'm sorry in advance for offending anyone, it's honestly not my intention... my intention is to give those reading this a momentary pause to think about the truth in what I am suggesting.
I know this will be taken personally by a few but I hope you'll see the points I'm trying to make are
valid.
As I mentioned before, I work in a
fast food restaurant for
exercise. I'm the gal in the 'back booth' who collects your money. Everyone today is in a hurry, that's obvious, and yet 2 out of 4 customers sit at my window digging through their purse or car for change to give me. This may only take a few seconds, but often takes up to a minute. The people behind them in line each have to wait while they are digging for this change, multiply this by the 10 cars in line, each having to wait 3 or 4 times and it honestly adds up. Now it wouldn't be a big deal to me, those 3 or 4 minutes extra that each person has to wait in the drive through (that they could be spending at home snuggling with thie lil one)
if there was a point to this,
any point at all.
Let me ask you this, ok? You dig, and dig and find a few pennies to give me so that you won't get any back. Now what? What is it your going to do the next time when you don't have pennies? You'll GET those same pennies you didn't want from me and all those behind you in line had to wait for you to dig up.
Does this make sense?
If you do succeed in getting rid of your pennies, while making everyone behind you wait, it just means the next time you'll be getting those pennies back! I see it as a pointless cycle, the
boomerang change that just keeps coming back to you.
(banging head on cash drawer)
Just imagine the thousands of people in drive through lines as I write this... waiting an extra few minutes in the line while those in front of them dig out change. Thousands of wasted minutes a day all for absolutely no good reason, because if you give me your change, your just going to GET change the next time.
So you might be thinking, “I don't want 5 pounds of change in my purse!” There are plenty of alternatives to this - buy a pretty vase and put it in your house wherever you keep your purse and toss the change into it. When the vase gets full toss the change into a mayonaisse jar and drop it off at the local
homeless shelter,
domestic violence shelter, or
Red Cross. If you can't afford to do that, then take it to the grocery store and toss it in the coin counting machine. Those are just two of the many other options available. Such as
donating to E2!!
I have your change ready when you get to my window.
Your total? $12.37, so in my hand I have .63 cents (any good drive thru person should do this) so you could be at my window and gone in a few seconds... but on any given day I have at least 20 cars who take a minute or more digging for a few pennies to give me so they won't get a few pennies back.
I suppose to most this may seem trival, but our time is valuable and so is the time of the 8 people behind you in line. If you stop and think about the sheer # of people on any given day going through drive-thru's I think you'll see just how much wasted time there is a day on this pointless activity.
In an ideal world everyone would realize that change is a boomerang - no matter how many times you get rid of it, unless you have some with you - you are just going to get more! This is not an ideal world... so we will all continue to wait, and I kid you not most days there are people who will take 2 minutes just to avoid getting back a few pennies. And you know they accomplished a major feat, they have no pennies, woohoo - next stop the gas station - ooops guess what? Their total is 12.02 and they have no pennies. You'll
never guess what happens next...
The moral of this lil rant?? If you're one of 'them' the next time your diggin' for change - think about the extra minutes at home the 10 cars behind you could spend hopefully snuggling with their loved ones because I think (Or I sure hope!) I've proven my point about the change 'boomerang'. Don't worry about the pennies they are worthless, take them! Toss 'em back out the window, what's a few pennies for the precious moments the folks behind you might get to spend with thier lil ones?
And lets not
even get *into*
syncronicity and '6 degrees of seperation' and imagine the lives you digging for change could be changing. (or for that matter you listening to this rant and NOT digging for change could cause...)
By the way, all customers are important and treated very well by me, even those who do are guilty of this. I smile as the -8 degree wind chill burns my ears and I wait for you to find those 2 pennies... “they'll have that for you at the next window, have a great day!”
(end rant)
While I'm discussing this issue, for anyone who doesn't know how to count back change it's pretty simple and I've yet to figure out why all managers don't teach this.
Here's how it works:
12.36 (the total of the customers order)
Now to figure out their change, the # after the decimal will need to equal 9. In this case what you would need to get the number after the decimal
3 = 9 is 6. The last # will need to = 10, in this case the
6 would need to be increased to 4.. to = 10. So their change is .64 cents.
Another example - stay with me for a few examples and it'll become so clear it's child's play.
5.
48 ( the
4 first # after the decimal will need to add 5 to = 9 and the
8 will need to add 2 to = 10, so the change is .52
4.24 (change = what? 76)
9.19 (change = what? .81)
see how it works? easy! The first # after the decimal needs to = 9, add what you need to to make it so. The last # needs to = 10 add what you need to make it so.
After doing this hundreds of times the change is just obvious takes a split second to figure out, and a few hundred times later it's just automatic.
On an unrelated note, I feel good today. I accidently ran over a dog in the dark years ago, it bothered me very badly (still does). I'm not and have never been a dog fan, but twice this year I've rescued dogs from likely getting run over. The first time last spring on a very busy highway, there were two dogs on a bridge with nowhere to go but into busy traffic. My girlfriend and I stopped traffic and managed to get the dogs in her car and take them to the pound. Their owners were never found but both were
adopted. (I ended up with two skinned knees and a skinned elbow trying to catch one of the two who decided we were no longer friends when we got to the pound)
Today when I walked to the store there was a beautiful puppy walking across a busy street. He followed me home, and I was going to just ignore him but couldn't, he was heading back towards that busy street. So I called the
dog pound and went through heck (oh boy!) trying to keep him here till they got here. He's young and very pretty, I have no doubt if his owners are not found he'll find a good home.
It's a
good deed that most would probably do, but since I really don't like dogs - I do pat myself on the back for it and it does help me feel better that I saved yet another dog from getting run over (and another person from feeling as bad as I did when I ran one over)