Lucy always tried so hard. If nothing else, she had a ton of energy and a positive attitude, just what anyone needs to make a good first impression and be appreciated at the workplace.
This clip from the “I Love Lucy” show is one of my favorites. Watching it as a kid, I laughed at how silly Lucy was believing she and Ethel could keep up with wrapping those chocolates on their first day in the candy factory.
I recently started a new job at a thrift store. I was Lucy and didn’t know it. Apparently, I’d learned nothing from my favorite Lucy lesson of all.
Instead of letting all the new information sink in slowly during my first day, I was a bull in a china closet. In my haste to impress, I shattered a coffee pot; I locked an antique chest shut for all time; I nearly broke the hydraulic lift on the store truck, and priced the cheap tin hand basket at $300 instead of three. Had they asked me to wrap candy, I’d have wrapped every one, been praised, then given more work to do, after secretly learning I’d wrapped the wrong chocolates.
There have been other jobs, too, where I tried to impress the boss right away and, unlike the thrift store experience, succeeded in doing just that. “Oh, that new fellow, Mike, is really smart, and he works really fast, too.” How could I live up to those standards every day from then on?
How silly I was. But a lot can be learned from comedy, if – after you laugh – you learn. Fortunately, Lucy had Ethel to confirm her laughable mistake. Is it just me, or has anyone else done the same stupid thing on their first day at work (and learned no lesson at all)?
Mike Andberg 