Another INNER WINNER

Corey T., and a co-worker (who we'll call "Don") were cashiers at a large supermarket chain. They were both proud of their productivity and the efficient job they did.

Then one day, out of the blue, their arrogant Store Manager called them to his office. He angrily confronted them with the fact that the cash drawers which Corey and Don had turned in at the end of their shifts, were consistently found to be short. Always less than a dollar.

But rules were rules and if you had a “short drawer” of any amount, you were suspended for a week. Without pay!

Both Don and Corey, who had worked at the store for over ten years, couldn’t understand what was happening. They were always very careful. Never had a problem before.

But less than a week after they returned from their suspensions, they were again harangued by their Manager who informed them that their cash drawers had come up short again and gave them both  
-- the dreaded...

Corey had learned the secret of the “Inner Boss”. Don, on the other hand, totally freaked, lashing out at what he considered an “injustice”.

He went to the manger and threatened to sue. He called his union, but there was nothing they could do. Technically, the manager was following procedure to the letter. Don was a basket case. The tension was so bad, Don’s terror of possibly being fired for making one little mistake was so great, that within three days he totally cracked and was fired.

Not for having a drawer come up short again, but for punching out the Store Manager in the supermarket parking lot.

Unlike Don, Corey had immediately put her Inner Boss to work. You see, a great advantage to having an Inner Boss is that you can lay off all the “work” on them. It’s hard under some stressful situations to handle things all by yourself. Your own ego, emotions and fear take over. And get in the way. Just like they did with Don. But if there’s someone ELSE in there to guide you, things’ll go a whole lot easier.

Instead of going ballistic over what she thought was a total crock, she looked to see if there was anything she could do to improve her job performance. She had her Inner Boss look at the “big picture”.

To analyze her situation unemotionally to see if anything could be done to improve things. Corey questioned herself as to all the reasons her cash drawer might be coming up short. After careful consideration, she realized the only thing she could possibly be doing wrong is not giving her customers back the correct change.

So she went to the next step...

She began to circle the change on the receipt after every ring-up, to remind her to give back and keep a record of the exact amount. When she came to work the next day, her drawer was fine.

Corey was totally ga-ga over a pair of buckaroo-style cowboy boots she saw for sale at a small shop near her house. She had the store put them on layaway for her. And every day that she came to work and found that her drawer was balanced, she would give the shoe store another dollar. The way she figured it, by the time her extended probation was over, she’d have just about paid for the boots!

But how did Corey deal with the constant pressure of having a whole year to worry about her drawer coming up short again?

Corey's true passion was horses. She put an ad in the local paper as a trainer and got several jobs working a few days a week breaking some thoroughbreds. It wasn’t very much money, but since she couldn’t afford a horse of her own, it gave her the outlet to do some riding which always calmed her.

Finally, as a hedge against any forces beyond her control which could lead to her being fired, Corey let her Inner Boss again take charge.

Becoming her own career guidance counselor, every morning before work, Corey would sit down at the kitchen table and go through the want ads, looking for an interesting replacement job, in case she needed it. Looking now, before the panic set in.

Everything went perfectly for two weeks.

Then one morning -- it happened!  

Corey got an urgent call from her Store Manager. He told her to come into work early. That he had to speak with her immediately!

But Corey didn’t panic. Her Inner Boss had prepped her so well for whatever the future might throw at her that she was actually looking forward to moving on with her life. She could truly deal with being fired.

But what she heard when she arrived at work caught her totally off guard.

It turns out that her Manager had called her in so he could apologize. It seems a computer glitch in their accounting software had been pegging a number of cashiers’ drawers for “discrepancies.” When they corrected it, they found that none of the drawers, including hers and Don’s, were ever short!

 She should never have been on probation or suspended.

They were going to pay her time-and-half for the days she had not worked due to her wrongful suspension.

And because she had handled herself with such grace and professionalism under the circumstances, she would receive a nice bonus. The bonus, in fact was more than enough to let her reward herself with those boots!

Of course, the irony here is that there was no way her friend Don could ever be reinstated after having lost it and punched-out the store manager. Real tough to blame a right hook on a computer glitch.

By listening to your Inner Boss you’ll finally be able to see past the tail of the dog ahead of you and really start to enjoy the scenery. You’ll be amazed how it’ll make your daily “pull” go a whole lot easier.

And most importantly -- by relying on your INNER BOSS to prevent any “outside forces” from turning your life into an unnecessary hell--