When to call in sick

Okay, you’re at work.  Your job is to keep the place clean – it’s a fast food joint.  Your tasks for the hour are 1) clean bathrooms 2) sweep 3) mop 4) take out trash 5) wipe tables.  What should your priority be?  And in what order should these items be done?  Let me tell you what shouldn’t happen.  And let me just say I only know this because I sat somewhere the other day and observed exactly this.  First the girl mopped – spreading crumbs around because she hadn’t swept.  Then she took out trash – leaving a trail of slime because she had just mopped.  All the while, tables hadn’t been bussed and wiped.   Next, she swept – making the floors even worse.  On to the bathrooms she went – I was afraid to go in there to see what chaos had been left in her wake.  Finally, she cleaned the tables – fine, this was good because by that time every table in the place was dirty.  It had been over an hour after all since she had touched any of those tables.  Problem was she wiped everything except the abandoned trays onto the floor which was still damp.  It’s times like these which make me never want to eat at fast food places.  The service tends to be bad, the food doesn’t taste very good, and often the tables don’t look very clean.  But more importantly, why do people work at a job which they obviously don’t care anything about?  Now, I’m not trying to pick on those who work at low income jobs – I’ve see this kind of attitude from those who have “good” jobs as well.  I was raised to believe if you do a job, do it well.  If you can’t, find something else.  However, I think this concept has been lost today – or others were never taught it.  So, think as you go to work today.  How can you show you care about what you do?  And if you can’t even dig up an ounce of interest – call in sick permanently.