Work Ethic; Why I Work Too Hard

So last night's post was a prime example of why I don't write on the days I don't have ideas. It was meaningless drivel if not at least, hopefully, slightly interesting. I much prefer to have an intent behind it, a reason to be sitting in front of a keyboard besides to blather on. On that note, tonight I'm going to intentionally waste some time talking about work ethic.
I believe my work ethic came from fear of being seen as expendable. While at work, I become an obnoxious perfectionist in some ways while at home, I lounge in front of Netflix or YouTube despite the clear need to tidy up my room. Throughout school, I strove to prove that I wasn't as brainless as I sound when I have to read aloud. Despite reading on my own all the time, the moment I read out loud, I start stumbling through the sentences. You can imagine that since I felt like a pro at reading to myself, I wasn't nervous about my ability to read aloud until the day I had to do so. In middle school, I had finished saying the word photograph, then realized there was a "y" at the end and decided to just add the "e" sound to the end of what had just come out of my mouth. You can imagine how that went over.
Anyway, back to the work ethic I maintain at Panera. Since I had practiced running a two story Panera solo for a few months, this Panera feels like a breeze. Still plenty of work especially on Saturdays, but at least I don't spend several minutes a day on stairs or elevators. Recently, I had a new-hire tell me about how so-and-so was asking him "Why can't you be more like Charlotte? You're slacking too much. She's always in the dining room doing what needs doing." Why he was letting me know about this, I have no idea, but I assured him that I'm not working so hard in order to raise the stakes for others, but in order to make sure I'm needed or at the very least, that they see me as an asset. I want to do everything I can to make the place presentable to the customers continually. Not just when it's easiest. I don't want them to be sitting down looking at dirty tables any more than I want them sitting at a dirty table. They should be seeing me scurrying all over the place bending over backwards to make the place run as smoothly as possible. I've had customers tell me they miss me on my days off. It's important to work hard when running a dining room. If you're ever wondering what to do, wash the windows. If it takes 5 minutes for the coffee to brew, don't stand there waiting on it, go do more things. I always do 2 or 3 tasks and then go back to wiping the tables down. I never wait for anything besides the bathroom and I rarely check my phone.
I enjoy busy days because time moves along faster and because I enjoy the physical challenge of being everywhere at once performing various modes of damage control.