This final meeting with John was an amazing reflection of how I changed this semester and what this employment means to me. One of the most significant parts of this meeting was when John asked me what I developed most in terms of the six Ideals Into Practice competencies and how he went even further to say what did I not expect to learn by working for Summerfields. To his question, I replied I feel that my communication skills developed the most this semester because I learned how to better communicate with my co-workers, my managers, and most importantly, the customers that we are serving. It was helpful to be working on these skills every week while picking up more shifts this semester than last. I got to interact with many different kinds of customers and learn more about people and where they were coming from. In this way, I also find that my sociocultural awareness skills developed. I became more understanding of the diversity of people at Wesleyan and how to better work with and serve them. Working at Summerfields gave me the opportunity to meet new people and how to also work better with rude and ignorant customers. As I reflected, I remember some of the students and customers that I was helping and how they were not very nice or polite to me and my co-workers. During this time I had the choice of reciprocating this same rudeness or to serve them with respect. Having always taken the high road, I feel that my sociocultural awareness skills developed as I often took into account these customers’ backgrounds and feelings and how these experiences could be impacting how they are acting at that moment.
This question also allowed me to hear about John’s experiences with customers and how he has handled some of the unfortunate situations where customers were rude and were not listening to him. He told me about extreme cases where he had to work with some kids who refused to leave the place even after they cursed him out. He also went on to say that after he dealt with that situation, he addressed the next customer with respect and a smile. He emphasized how it was not the next customer’s fault and how he it is important to put this smile on because customer service is crucial in the food industry. John’s outlook on this job and on life frankly is very inspiring and makes me want to be a more compassionate and understanding person. I am very grateful to get to work and learn alongside John. I hope to continue growing working at Summerfields next semester.
