Last night I stayed late at BakerRipley NRG Center. Left about 2:00AM.
I’ve been in a room for days with people I love, whose talents and skills I respect. At times I’ve led but often I’ve followed the other leaders in the room when they were “on it” and knew best what needed to be done. We have great “on scene” performers.
I went down last night about midnight to see what was going on at our front door. We had some “disturbers of the peace” folks that weren’t coming in. Period. Nope. Our guests need rest.
We also had guests coming back from work – really late. Looking pretty beat.
For the fifteen time I noticed the floor was really dirty. Got annoyed. Thinking why can’t we keep this clean. We all like a clean home. Right?
Then I started chatting with the workers coming in, about using the signout form so we can look out for them. This sweet couple said “we’re so late because the guy paying us made us wait until midnight to get our checks”.
“What work are you doing?”
“Well, we can’t go back to our regular cleaning jobs so we’re cleaning out houses.”
Next person. same story. His girlfriend met him at the front door He had signed out as working late.
Cleaning out houses.
I looked at his boots. Covered in that particular grime we all know so well.
Now I know why our lobby needs mopping every hour.
Recovery starts with cleaning crap out of your homes and businesses.
Pay these people. Fairly. Treat them right.