Whining, Wine-ing & Winning

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

I LOVE quotes—mostly movie quotes, which I know this one isn’t about, so today I promise not to squirrel and actually stay on topic…

I’ve always loved the quote, “Work to live, don’t live to work.”

I’ve had a lot of jobs that sucked the life out of me—mostly salary ones, because that’s where they take advantage of your work ethic. If you’re hourly, when it’s time to go, they’re suddenly very serious about you clocking out so they don’t have to pay overtime.

Restaurants—you’re a manager, opening at 8 a.m. for prep, scheduled to leave at 6 p.m. But dinner starts at 6, so if you’ve got that shift, you’re not leaving. You stay to help because the place would “fall apart” without you…they’d be fine.

Grocery store management? This one ruined retail for me. Your out time is never your out time. There’s always a corporate visit, which means the store has to be perfect. It never is. No matter how hard you push, the corporate team still makes you feel like you didn’t just work three days straight for a one-hour visit. And when do they show up? Never when they should. Always after the after-work crowd has already wrecked your masterpiece.

These places don’t actually need you there those extra hours. They just make it feel like they do. If you trust your team instead of micromanaging them, you’ll have a better team—one that actually respects you as their boss, and if you do stay that extra six hours…just promise me you’ll wine-d down harder when you get home.