Brenton Chin's Blog

One of the most profound lessons that I have learned comes from my previous manager at Staples Business Depot.  I was first hired at Staples during the end of grade nine. It was my job, and I certainly felt overwhelmed with the new sense of responsibility that I had now undertaken. The General Manager’s name was J.P. and it was him who had hired me. Feeling fearful of such an “higher power” or, superior, I was immediately intimidated and sought to work as hard as I could to impress J.P, who really me scared to death. As I was being trained I always had my guard up, making sure that I was always 100% focused on the task so that J.P. would see me as a hard-working employee… after all, I was the youngest employee at the job.

Keeping my guard up was not easy, because it wasn’t like myself to maintain such a serious demeanor. I think J.P. caught on to this, because he brought a garbage can towards me and showed me how kick trash into the garbage can. At first I was shocked, and thought to myself how could a manager be acting so mature… I mean, isn’t he supposed to be professional? Well, being an obedient employee I complied when he asked me to attempt what he had just done. Well after a couple of tries, I felt myself relax and a little part of my personality (which I had been concealing so far) began to shine its way out. After laughing with J.P., I felt less uptight and more at ease. J.P. then told me he had sensed my unease and told me when he works, he always tries to make sure he is having fun; even if he has to act immature at times! I smiled, and then realised that there was no reason for me to need to feel uptight, I could enjoy my work and be myself! From then on, there are times when I think back to the summer of grade nine when J.P. taught me a valuable lesson and after thinking about it, I then try to enjoy myself by being myself on the job: there is such thing as work and play.