so... what exactly do you do?

It is a regular occurrence at work for me to be asked the question: "So... what exactly do you do?" Sometimes this question breaks a little piece of my heart and makes me wonder, "am I not doing a good job?" or "am I not pulling my weight?" But I think in reality, the question is asked out of pure curiosity- so I decided to share what an average day in my life at Chick-fil-A of Waynesboro might look like.

I get to work around 11 o'clock and routinely forget to clock in or get distracted from clocking in until about 20 minutes later.

Then I sit down at an empty booth to check my email. Fast wi-fi is honestly the best thing since sliced bread! Makes my life that much easier. Sometimes I have fun stuff to respond to and other times I just wish I did.

At about noon the lunch rush starts- so I vacate my booth and tip-toe through the kitchen (in the shoes I know better than to wear- but I wear anyways), trying not to fall with my arms full of my mac, purse, phone, keys, and Katherine's and my "notebook of life" (this little notebook holds all of our secrets and keeps us sane on a daily basis).

Once lunch gets rolling you can find me in one of a few places: most days I am in the dining room helping out cleaning tables, "refreshing" drinks, and clearing trays. One of my favorite tasks is to be outside in the drive-thru doing what Chick-fil-A calls "face-to-face;" this is where we take our drive-thru customers' orders ourselves to make their wait a little shorter and hopefully their experience a little more personal- a little more "Chick-fil-A." Lately I've enjoyed sneaking over to the drive-thru window inside the store to help out with drinks and making milkshakes. I adore the girls in drive-thru, and I get to say hello to and chit-chat with all of our customers as they come by the window.

Once lunch slows down and things get back under control (aka I become useless in the front of the store), I have a few other responsibilities to take care of. Since we are a new store, we tend to make a lot of mistakes- we add pickles to our "CFAs with no pickles," we forget orders of fries in the drive-thru, we even had one lovely gentleman complain that we added too much ice to his "medium lemonade with lite ice." So it is in my job description to apologize for those mistakes- big and small. I send out sweet little notes inviting those unhappy customers to "contact me personally if they have any other concerns" and (hopefully) pacifying them with coupons to "use at their convenience."

Katherine and I plan all of the events that we hold at the store- anything from Bingo (first Tuesday of every month) to Superhero Night (which was a huge hit) to Daddy-Daughter Date Night (to be held August 28th). We add these events to our handmade calendars, create flyers, and advertise on our facebook and website (www.waynesborocfa.com). Then when the big days roll around we are in charge of carrying them out the very best we can. We meet and greet and keep things running as smoothly as we know how in the chaos that can so easily erupt in restaurant life. Controlled chaos is the best we can hope for.

This week I had my first ever experience with sampling; this is another part of my job. We got to sample a tray of Chicken Salad Sandwiches that we made for an order that was later cancelled. People loved it! (And I especially loved sampling them out the drive-thru window.)

I get tons of emails requesting donations, so after checking with Jay and getting his input, I respond to those. People are super familiar with Chick-fil-A's generous reputation so sometimes their requests get a little far-fetched, but other times we get to build really sweet relationships in the community because we are able to fill a need.

I'm not going to lie- Katherine and I enjoy shopping. So together or separate, we make several trips to Target, Michael's, and Staples for all of the supplies and accessories we just can't live without (for the store and all of our events of course).

Sometime in here I take a break and eat lunch- I am known for taking ages to make a decision on my meal. (Usually I settle on a kid's meal of 4-6 nuggets, a small fry, a cookie parfait... and a brownie- yum!) I take that time to hang out with Katherine or some of our other girls if they are on break too. A lot of times our high schoolers will find me and share with me their thoughts (and yes, often complaints) in hopes that I can be a sort of advocate for them- it's sweet! Also during the day awkward things usually happen to me like one of our 16-year-olds telling me that he told his mom he knew I'd be cute from the first time I called him to set up his training date and that "its only a 6-year difference." Oh dear!

Then the dinner rush hits and it's lunch time all over again! (Right now our store is #13 in the nation for dinner! And when we first opened we were #3! Insane, I know!)

Around 7 o'clock I usually decide that I've done all I can do for one day, and (after of course forgetting to clock out) I head home.

So it may be a toss up for what I can be found doing at any given moment, but I know I am giving it my all, and in all honesty, I love my job. I love everything about it. I love the people I get the opportunity to work with, I love our customers- the regulars and those just passing through, I love what our company stands for (and it's way more than selling chicken! Our mission statement begins with "to glorify God...")

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,

do it all for the glory of God."

1 Corinthians 10:31

I even love our building. It is a good place and it is exactly where I am called to be. The peace I have from that calling

"transcends all understanding." (Philippians 4:7)

God is so good!

In Him,

B