This is
Ellen's Star Dust Diner!
And no. By Ellen I do not mean ...
Ellen Degeneres.
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(Even though that was my first initial thought as well) |
Last February, Green Movement took the adventure of a lifetime to the Big Apple for our color team excursion. We had to cross dangerous roads filled with heavy traffic and angry taxi drivers, navigate among some of the world's tallest sky scrapers, and fight off pick pockets and bank robbers, all before lunch time at Ellen's.
By the time we got there we were very tired and very hungry.
Now this is Sean.
Sean was our waiter.
After a long day of saving the world, Sean Johnson greeted us with a warm smile, and a comfy booth. For those of you who don't know about Ellen's, it's no ordinary diner. Here all the waitresses and waiters are singers, actors, photographers, or dancers. You name it! So while you're eating your three cheese omelet, you could be getting serenaded to "Why Can't We Be Friends" by your waiter/ress. No wonder they call it Star Dust! I was even more shocked when we started to talk to Sean about the lessons he had learned about life, work, and teamwork while working at Ellen's. The best part was that the themes he talked about could all be relate back to NSO.
Sean's 4 Themes to a Happy Life and Career
1. Be Happy
Sean was telling us just how powerful a smile can be. A smile could help turn someone else's bad day into a good day, it can give another person encouragement, and it can empower your team members to give their 110% on a particularly stressful day. Usually every day at Ellen's is jam-packed with people; in this a fast-paced environment it is easy to become overwhelmed or discouraged. For Sean, on particularly stressful days at work, smiles from his co-workers and customers always makes the job less like work and more fun. He also finds this to be true outside the work place. Smiling is contagious, and it is able to bring complete strangers closer together. As OL's,we need to remember that during the summer not every student is going to be ecstatic at what we do during orientation. Or there might even be a staff member who might not be having the best day. But with a smile, even when it seems hard to continue on with the day's activities, we can encourage each other to keep going, and give it our best.
2. Making Teamwork, Dreamwork
Sean explained how it's so easy to feel like some days you're not yourself, and it's those days that make it hard to get out of bed and actually work. But he explained how at Ellen's you have to be prepared to work even when you're feeling off, because you're part of team. From taking orders, to serving food, or singing and entertaining the crowd, you have a role to play. So you're not really allowed to have a bad day if you don't want to let your team down.
(Sean making it work)
For OL's we have to use the same mind set. From now until the end of the summer we train and work as a team. We learn together, we laugh together, and sometimes we make mistakes together and that's okay. What's most important is that we're doing our best and trying, because we know a team can only perform as well as its weakest link. We have a responsibility to our bosses, co-workers, and even our students that we're always going to give our 110%, whether it's helping facilitate an activity, give a tour, or handle a sticky-situation. This is the responsibility each of us hold as a team member.
3. Going the Extra Mile
Sean told us working at Ellen's is a great place for someone to get experience under your belt and put your name out there, while making some extra cash. However, working at Ellen's isn't enough to get your name in bright lights. He said if employees want to make it big in the big apple they have to work even harder; for example, if a waitress is an inspiring actor she's going to have to still go out and audition for shows. They have to be willing to do more if they want to make it. I think this concept is perfect for OL's. If we're going to have the best summer ever in NSO history, then doing the basics isn't going to cut it. That means it's going take more than just getting out of bed, putting on our polo, standing in front of a group of people and saying, "Hi my name is....". We're going to have to think of fun ways to incorporate ice breakers in our circles. We're going to have to come up with innovative ways to make campus tours more than just a tour. We're going to have to encourage our students to go out there and learn about the organizations we have here at Rutgers. It's this extra mile that separates NSO leaders from all the rest.
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| (Green Movement with Sean) 4. Being Accepting One of Sean's values is the acceptance of others and their cultures, ideas, traditions, and values. He used the example of being Democratic or Republican; Sean is Republican, but he knows that even though the Democratic beliefs, values, and principals are polar opposite to the Republican's, both parties only want what's best for the security, lively hood, and the future of America. If you were to take ideas and values from both parties and put them together you would have a solution better than the preceding one. This is a idea OL's can apply during the summer. Over the summer, there are going to be times when we may have opposing views on how one should handle a certain situation; but that doesn't mean either is wrong or right. Instead of one person's idea being the "right way" or one's opinion being the "right one", if we work together and mesh our ideas we can come up with solutions that are better than any that we thought of by ourselves. In order to have a happy and efficient work place, acceptability of all ideas is crucial. Disagreeing isn't wrong, and agreeing to disagree respectfully is sometimes the best solution. Concluding Thoughts Walking into Ellen's I didn't really know what to expect. I certainly didn't expect to have such an awesome waiter giving us his views to a happy life and career, and later singing a wonderful rendition of "Journey" to us. But it was definitely one of the best surprise I've ever experienced. I think my group got more than lucky getting paired with Sean. I think it was fate. Because who would've guessed that we would meet such a great guy, who seemed to know exactly what we're going through. To learn more about Sean visit: www.seandavidjohnson.com |
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