When most people talk about their co-workers, it's with dread or disdain. There's usually at least one that makes work a painful experience.
Fortunately, when I talk about my co-workers, I'm talking about my best friends. These are the people who I spend most of my time with, and we have to all be on the same page in order to work together and make the night go smoothly. Over time, this has forged a strong bond between us which makes work feel less like work!
When I started working there over a year ago, I could tell that everyone was close, and I felt sort of envious because I thought all their crazy shenanigans together sounded like so much fun.
At first, I was really shy and I had no idea how to befriend any of them. But it happened naturally over time. When I needed advice, I could bring it up over rolling silverware and everyone would all share opinions and tell funny stories about how they could relate. We laughed, cried, and worked hard together through it all, and it's pretty much impossible to not love people who you share that bond with.
Of course, it's still work, and we still have to make sure we are always working hard to make everything go smoothly. When things go wrong or one of us messes up, we are still held responsible and it's all business when we're figuring out how to fix the problem and get better. However, after that's taken care of, our managers are right there with us, joking about the stupid mistakes we all made and the crazy things customers asked that night. In so many ways, we are a family, and that means we are loved and scolded like a family, too.
When you are a member of this family, you are never forgotten. At Christmas, we all exchange gifts. Everyone's birthday calls for cake, presents, and decorations. If someone makes a trip to the store before work, it's almost guaranteed they will bring coffees back for everyone because when is that not a great thing to have before starting a shift?
During the shift, we all work together and try to pick up the slack if someone is falling behind. It is this genuine love that everyone has for each other that makes all the hard work feel effortless.
Because we spend so much time together, we understand each other and appreciate each other's quirks. For example, I am definitely the clumsiest one there, so I am constantly breaking things. They all know this, so instead of getting mad when they hear a crash, they just laugh and ask what I broke this time.
Having best friends for co-workers has made something dull like work a time to look forward to, because no matter how hard the night is or how bad we mess up, we can laugh it off and talk it out over folding silverware.
