… being too cynical.

Unfortunately, as I grow older, this doesn’t seem to get any better. Perhaps it’s just my life experiences that have influenced this? I try to explain this to people that I’ve been around the block. I’ve seen behind the curtain and I’ve seen the strings. It’s not my first rodeo.

I find myself questioning everything and anything. I don’t trust anyone. Those that I do trust you had to earn it. This goes for even major corporations. McDonalds doesn’t get my trust just because they’ve served a quadrillion Big Macs. And a business like McDonalds has to earn that trust with every return visit. Because they can lose that trust on multiple levels. Customer Service. Was the person at the counter able to speak clearly? Did they greet me with a smile? Food Quality. Did the food look good? Was it delicious? Value. Was paying $15 for something, that just a few years ago was only $5, worth it? There is only a few fast food places that hasn’t lost that trust at least once or twice. This goes for big box stores too. Wal-mart or Home Depot have the same responsibilities.

With that said. I would say McDonalds and their trust depends on the day if that day’s name ends in “day.” I can’t count how many times, I’ve been unhappy with something that company has provided. There’s a day when I go their the drive-thru I basically make a dice roll. Yes, I’m very nit-picky. I basically look at things and wonder why can’t that be accomplished? Why is there dirty tables? Why is there no ice cream? Simple things that I don’t understand why they can’t be nearly perfect every day. It all comes down to dedication and work ethic. Those two things can make McDonalds run like a Chick-fil-A. And why I don’t go to McDonalds more often.

Another example. I work for a very large corporation. It pays the bills. This company is possibly the top dog in their market. So they have lots of money. Last week, they decided to treat everyone in the office to a “pizza party.” It’s these little things that bring joy to a mostly joyless day. Yet, if you didn’t line up fifteen minutes before the specified time, then you didn’t get any pizza. Many folks arrived to find only empty boxes. Why is that? Just to clarify: there’s not a lot of people in the office anymore. Heck there would be a lot less if they didn’t mandate employees to go into the office. I would say there may have only been a 100 people in the office that day. Each floor got about 12 pizzas. Which wasn’t enough. The aftermath of this “pizza party” looked like that scene in Bug’s Life when the locusts “come, eat and leave.”

I inquired how they determined how many pizzas to order. Those determinations were: individuals had to RSVP and each one of those individuals get 2 slices, 8 slices per pizza… I believe you can do the math. But did they think about how many people are in the office? Did they think that some may have not realized you had to RSVP? Did they tell everyone only to take 2 slices or less? This wasn’t the first time this has happened either. A few months back, they decided to treat us to bundt cakes…well, we got tiny slices of a bundt cake. They did the same math. Everyone gets two tiny slices. Now what they didn’t think about is that those rules were never stated. So what happens when someone takes 3 slices? or 4 slices. Back to the bundt cakes, it was witness that some people (people from other cultures) decided to literally load their plates with about 3 bundt cakes so that would be about 12 tiny slices.

Sorry I got distracted. The actions of bad people shouldn’t destroy the enjoyment of a “pizza party.” Yet, you know this will happen. And taking an extra slice of pizza when you weren’t told you were allocated only 2 slices because 3 slices is a nice hardy lunch. My point here is: where did we loose the generosity of providing a “pizza party”? Why is a billion dollar corporation worried about how many pizzas are ordered? Just for the record I used my Dominos Pizza App to order 100 medium pepperoni pizzas. I got a 20% coupon and requested a time several hours away and the app allowed me to order these pizzas. The total cost was something like $778 or just shy of $800. So let’s call this at a $1000 to give some employees a lunch. And they could eat as much as they wanted. And maybe have some to take home. (trust me, you leave food on the counter it will disappear) Now, I know what the nay sayers will say. Well, its just not those employees but if they did it for the whole company that could be like $20,000!! I get it. And I’d still call this out. $20K is nothing for a company that made $3.5B just last quarter.

Thus, my cynicism continues…