Advice for that first job: it's all about the attitude

Ben got a job. I don't know whether to be excited, relieved, or worried that my 17-year-old will soon be dedicating his free time to flipping burgers at McDs in Tullahoma, but since he's tickled, I will be too.

Actually, I really am tickled for him. My first good job was at the same McDonald's exactly 30 years ago and although Ben isn't going to have the rare privilege for working for the then-owner Jim Devlin, I think he's going to like it there.

I like the fact that it's across from his school and while I might have to pick him up after work, at least I won't have to drop him off.

I know people like to make fun of the Golden Arches and McJobs, but I love the 7-odd years I worked there part time, both in high school and college. I learned important things there, as I've said in previous columns, from how to flip pancakes so they land on the griddle and not the floor, to how to disassemble, sanitize and reassemble a soft-serve ice cream machine in my sleep. I still have dreams where I'll be eating in the lobby on a busy Sunday morning and Jim will stick his head over the counter and yell at me, telling me to get on the grill right now! I loved it.

I couldn't help but recall those grease and salt-filled halcyon hamburger days when I was reading Betty Brown's blog, also on this page, about being overcharged at a local restaurant. If Jim or my manager at the time, Dave Cole, had read something like that about their establishment, the family would have eaten that meal free. And the next. And probably the next.

Don't believe me? I bought a used car from Jim while I was in college, a great little bright orange VW Rabbit. About a week after I had it, something went wrong with the universal joint or transmission or something else esoteric and expensive. At the time, there was only one mechanic in town who dealt with "them there furrin cars" and when Jim came in to have his own furrin car serviced, he saw my Rabbit up on the rack.

When I came in to pick up the car and pay the bill, I only had to pick up the car. Jim had paid the bill. That's the kind of guy he is, and that's the attitude he brought to his McDonald's and insisted his employees have as well.

The evening Ben found out he got the job at my alma mcmater, we sat him down for The Talk. No, not that talk, he's 17 for cryin' out loud. This was the First Job Talk. My contributions included:

* The customer is always right

* Don't just be on time, be early

* If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean

* Don't wait to be told what to do, ask what needs to be done

* The customer is always right

That first one was always the hardest for me to handle, because as anyone who has ever worked in the customer service industry can tell you, it's flat out wrong. The customer is not always right and the customer is occasionally rude. But once you are on the clock and behind the counter, the customer is always right.

I remember one time we had a regular come in. When this woman, who was slightly mentally challenged, very sweet, and guaranteed to drive you crazy within minutes, walked through the door, the front line disappeared faster than chocolate in the Reeves household. Poof. She always had about 10 different orders for her family members, all of them special orders, all of them confusing. She insisted they all be rung up separately (and this was back in the stone age, just before computers and just after stone tablets) -- then paid for them out of the same $20 bill.

It was always a challenge to get the orders right and it never failed that we didn't. The woman would just come back in from the car, where she and the 10 relatives were performing the postmortems on their special orders, and gently correct our mistake. You could watch the counterperson's blood pressure rise, the pulse in her neck matching the beep-beep-beep that meant someone was overcooking the fries.

"I know she did not order that without onions," she would fume as soon as the woman was gone with her re-cooked special order.

"It doesn't matter," said the manager, gentle Dave. "The customer is always right."

Over the years, the woman's family moved or died off and she came in more and more often alone, but always with her special order. Where she used to go to all of the fast food joints, soon it was only McDonald's. Why?

Because there, she was always right, and she was always treated with gentle courtesy and respect. It may have been the only place she was.

"The customer is always right," I stressed again to my son. "Be courteous, be kind, be considerate, be clean, and don't forget to tie your hair in a ponytail and put it under a hair net."

My husband, ever helpful, has his own contribution to the lecture.

"Don't screw up."

-- Mary Reeves is a Times-Gazette staff writer.