A Little Recognition

Summer has been good for the soul besides the fact that it is going by way too fast. Story of my life. There just seems to be less worries and stress in the summer. Maybe all the sunshine is doing me good. If that's the case then I can certainly see why people retire in Florida or Arizona. I don't love the heat, but I could get used to less stress.

I want to write about something I have been thinking about for a few days. It has to do with lower-wage jobs. It seems to me that more and more, these types of entry-level jobs are geared towards sales. If you work as a bank teller, you are not just a teller anymore. You have to sell the bank's services. If you work at a fast food place, you can't just make food. You have to sell the latest creation. If you work in a store, you can't just stock the shelves and help customers. You have to get people to sign up for the store credit card or to buy something more than what they came in for.

I'm not trying to imply that sales are not important or that some people have a great ability to sell. I'm saying that sales seem to have become the all-important master of the business world, and everything else is secondary. That is all good and fine for people who are good at selling things. But what about those who are not? You may have tons of amazing skills, but if you don't sell you are unimportant and unrecognized. You might even loose your job if you don't become one of the sales masters.

Why is it that we all have to become sales people? What happened to focusing on a person's strengths? I know sales are what keeps businesses going, but there are many other things that contribute to the bottom line. If a fast food restaurant is dirty, no one will want to eat there. Yet the cleaning person doesn't get congratulated for helping bring customers back. If no one did the paperwork at a bank, how long do you think it would stay in business? But you don't see any employees getting congratulated for getting their paperwork done. Same thing goes for retail stores. If no one worked to display products, would any customers come and shop there? I don't think so.

All I'm saying is, yes, sales are important, but they are not the most important. Nothing is. You see, a business is like a machine where all the parts are working together. Take out one part and the whole machine breaks down. All the parts are important and all should be recognized as such.