Spoonie: noun The internal company nickname for a person who works for JD Wetherspoon.
I know I previously promised pictures, and I will try to get some, but I haven't had the opportunity yet.
Today I would like to talk a little about how I feel I am getting on in my new place of work. It has taken me a little bit of time to summarise my feelings due to a number of reasons.
First and foremost, this is my first "real" job. The first job I've had outside of the family bar. It's a lot of hard work and a lot of late hours. For those who know me best, you will know I sweat an awful lot, and in bars, you work in the warmest places, be it the kitchen, the glass wash area, or just generally behind the bar. While you may feel comfortable and cool in your seat, we are constantly moving most of the time, standing over hot plates, or in front of equipment spewing out hot air. You can usually see the salt from my sweat on my black shirts at the end of a hard shift. Not an attractive image I realise, but true all the same. In addition to this, I'm about to buy my second pair of shoes bought specifically for this job, since my first pair are already un-wearable. Thanks Burtons.
I'm not a massive fan of corporations. Sales targets and product focuses and strict practices are all a bit much to think about at first and were a little overwhelming for me. I wasn't certain that I wanted to work in an environment that would put that kind of pressure on you, since usually they are things that you can influence, but ultimately they are out of your hands.
Those who have seen me in a working environment, whether it be in "the real world" or online, will be able to tell you that I generally strive to lead, and I generally think I'm the best to do it. My initial concerns were that there would be a lot of competition for this, but I'm getting the feeling that there isn't. Sure there's ambition for it, but the actual ability to do it I'm struggling to see in the majority of people I would have considered a threat initially.
So with that steady non threatening feeling rising up, I'm beginning to enjoy it a little more. My fun, exuberant personality is a very definitive part of how I work, and my colleagues recognise this, yet I feel that my commitment to standards, service and values, and more importantly my commitment to the trade generally, is something that is beginning to be noticed by the management team. I feel like I'm recognised as one of the hard workers who is very capable in just about every role that is asked of my position.
My aim now is to demonstrate that I'm able to remain consistent in those roles, and that I can listen to the advice of my managers. While doing this I need to show that I am capable of acting appropriately without a prompt from the managers, enabling both myself and the rest of the team to do the job expected of us without having to pull the managers away from their other duties.
Challenges are what I enjoy, and for the moment, it is these challenges which are keeping me motivated at The Lord Palmerston, and hopefully they will culminate in the management team feeling confident enough to take on further responsibility, for example, in a Team Leader capacity. Perhaps?
