Staff meetings

I know I will never come close to being a great manager. I've had really excellent managers. Megan at North Beach Outfitters, and of course Adam in Milford top the list. I've had really horrible managers... the 19 year old Cliff, Emily and her really long explanations of the mundane... Anyway, I am aware of what it takes to manage well, and know that I don't have most of the qualities. I hate confrontation for one, and I am often laid back to a fault. Managing effectively takes a diligence and attention to details that, quite frankly, I can find a bit dull. I do however take great pride in certain things and have found that I can be encouraging and a positive voice in trying situations. These traits can be used successfully on a so-called "management team".
At any rate, tonight we had a staff meeting. Few people dislike meetings more than I do. I will grumble, bitch, moan, cry, and grumble some more whenever one is scheduled for me. I hate them. But I do understand that they can sometimes be worthwhile. We need to be on one page and we need to be able to voice our individual and collectiove frustrations, blah blah blah.
The thing that I love most about my job is the customers, and I know our customers love us just as much. Tonight we handed out cards to our 'regulars' asking if they would mind writing something nice about an individual staff person, or as a whole. I pictured this task taking days to complete. I imagined some awkward looks and put-out groans. Amazingly, we distributed enough cards for each staff person to get at least one within a few minutes. I was overwhelmed with how thankful customers were to be able to thank us. The things they wrote were beautiful, encouraging, thoughtful and funny. I knew the idea was a bit cheesy, but that it would probably be appreciated by even the toughest of our crew. I think in the end, it was.

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Worst customers of the day:
The yoga crew. You have expanded this week, some sort of suburban-guru yoganite convention group with sweaty purple mats. You ask 8,000 questions, never listen to the answers, treat us like we are termites and then leave us with your trash. I hate you and your soy-chai drinking, danskin cropped yoga pants wearing, calorie counting, cheese avoiding, pigtailed, shavasana loving faces.

Favorite customer of the day:
Jessica.