How many times have we heard this phrase, or its equally irritating cousin, “I only work here?” Far too many times, I’m sure. I find these words even more annoying lately as we hear so much complaining about how people should be making more money or ‘a living wage’. This is not to say that I disagree with the sentiment, but there is a way to earn more, and it usually starts with doing more.

I saw a sad demonstration of this behavior just the other day. My family and I went out to dinner. I won’t name the restaurant but it is part of a national chain. As we walked in the door there were three young ladies ready to greet us. The first one came up to us and asked us our name and the second one wrote it down. The third employee looked over the restaurant, I guess to see if any tables were ready. As we were then informed that it would be ten or fifteen minutes until we could be seated, I also scanned the dining room. There were a number of tables filled with happy diners enjoying their meals but there were also quite a few empty tables that had yet to be cleaned after the previous party’s departure.

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