Have you ever thought about the concept of compensation for attitude?

As we see more and more people losing their jobs, what are the jobless doing? Are they finding other jobs? Collecting unemployment? Watching “Oprah?”

In the agricultural industry, we have a large Hispanic population working on farms from coast to coast. Why? Why aren’t these jobs of picking veggies and milking cows occupied by U.S. citizens? Is it because the job is too hard? Is it because the pay is too low?
Or, is it because of the attitude of the American workforce?

Recently I decided to kill three birds with one stone. I needed my tire fixed, an oil change and groceries. So, of course I went to the nearby superstore – where you can get your ears pierced, pick out a computer and play the Lotto all at the same time.

By the time I got done, I decided they had too much money or too much business. I bought my groceries and headed back to the tire and lube department and saw my van sitting in the same place I parked it. When I stared at the kid who was standing behind the counter while the older department manager was bickering on the phone over some meaningless point, the kid told another mechanic just passing through to “get that blue van done.”

At that point I observed that I had done all my grocery shopping, looked over a few magazines at the checkout lane, chatted with a neighbor and they still didn’t complete their end of the deal.

I watched as the mechanic meandered over to my van, bent over to look at the low tire and meandered back in to tell me they can’t fix it, something about not the right tire on the car, paying for it if something were to happen, don’t want to be responsible ... sorry.
By this time, I’m about ready to shake every person in that shop, because this could’ve been done while I was checking for cracked eggs and whining about the price of butter. They had no other cars to work on – mine was the only one – and it took them a half-hour to bend over and look at one tire!

I looked at Junior behind the counter and he looked back at me with a pained face and said with a nasal, whiny tone, “You don’t want to get your oil changed still ... do you?”

“Why, heavens no! Why would I want to get my oil changed? I came in here, asked you to change my oil, told you what package I wanted, told you how nice it was to have my oil changed while I shopped, gave you all kinds of positive reinforcement about what a great shop you had – only to have you do NOTHING. Why would I want you to change my oil?

“I do this all the time. In fact, I wake up every Monday morning, run out to my van, look at the mileage, check the oil change sticker in the corner of the windshield to see if it’s time to change the oil, because I can’t wait to come in here and have you treat me like I’m asking you to bail out Wall Street with the change you have in your pocket! I live for this.”

No, I didn’t rant and rave. Although they both deserved a good kick in the pants, I just said “no thanks, I’ll be going now.”

And I walked out the door, almost running into the older manager mumbling to himself about winning some battle with some other manager, and high-fiving everyone he could get to raise their hand like he had just beat Michael Phelps in the 200-meter.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I stood and visited with a woman last week at my son’s football game. I asked her how her job at the neighborhood superstore was going, and she excitedly said, “Great!”

Wondering why she was so elated at working a third shift job stocking shelves, then coming home to get her kids ready for school and sleep all day long, I asked. Her reply was that she made more money working third shift and felt blessed that she even had a job.

With that kind of attitude, she deserves twice the pay as those “whiny hineys” in the tire and lube department. In fact, I wish she worked in the tire and lube department.

Attitude counts for so much in this life. It affects everyone around us, especially ourselves. So … how much would your “attitude pay” be?

Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.