Change your job or the way you do your job?

I know they get a bad rap sometimes, but I think we have some of the finest post office employees in our local post office. I just finished mailing for the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library the annual federal, state, and attorney general reports that non-profit organizations are required to submit. Since each package contained a different numbers of sheets of paper, I couldn't just slap on a couple of stamps and hope for the best. Besides, I needed another roll of 100 stamps.

The postal clerk was decorated with dozens of pins (flair??) to give anyone an opening into a conversation with him. He asked the person four customers ahead of me the usual "Do you need something else?", "Would you like some of our latest stamps?", "Would you like extra cash back?", and finally "Would you like to pay for the next four or five people in line?" Those of us paying any attention at all just cracked up at that while the customer took a moment or two to realize he was being ribbed.

Two customers ahead of me, the clerk said, "Okay, everyone listen up. Who can come up with the names of all seven dwarves?" Although I'm sure he'd played this more times than I can count, he pretended to be just as puzzled and working just as hard to come up with the names as we were.

As I got to his window, he yelled pleasantly to the other clerk, "Hey, quit working so fast over there. You've taken care of four customers to my one." Those of us keeping track knew that wasn't the case, but it did express what many of us have felt from time to time. More laughter. I thanked him for bringing a smile to us and making us feel that he enjoyed his job. He replied that he had attended a seminar some years back where the instructor had advised the group, "If you don't enjoy your job, change!! You may not be able to change jobs or afford to quit your job, but you can always change the way you do your job. Since then, he said, he's decided to make his job as enjoyable for him and his customers as he can possibly make it. And it shows. Thanks, Tom.