Positive Attitude

 If we don’t have one, we should get one; “Positive Attitude”. 

               Our garbage man started me to thinking about the subject of, “Positive Attitude”, and this article is about him.

The fellow that picks up our garbage every Monday is a young man possibly late 20s or early 30’s.  I had the opportunity to speak with him when I had about 20 bags of shredded leaves and grass clippings.  Basically the garbage collectors are supposed to take what is in the trash container and not pick up any additional bags.

               One day I waited for the garbage truck to arrive. I indicated that I want to speak to the driver and he stopped the truck, got out so we could talked. As he dismounted the vehicle he had a big smile and reached out to shake hands. He is not a tall man and he is premature balding. We had a short conversation about the bags and he explained how we would handle them saying he would pick up 5 bags at a time until we had them all gone.

               The next week I put 5 bags out along with the trash container.  The garbage truck picked up only the trash container.  I was somewhat confused. We had agreed that I would put 5 bags out and he would take them. I called the City of Hewitt, who in turned called the trash company, who in turn called me.  They apologized saying there was a different driver and he did not know of the agreement. They asked if it would be ok if they came by on Thursday and picked them up.  We agreed on Thursday.  Thursday came, two trucks arrived at our house at the same time, and the bags were picked up.

               A week later the original driver was on the route.  After loading the trash on the truck he got out of the truck, petted Tejas, and then we talked.  He started with a big smile and a hand shake.  He began to tell me that he was going to train on a different type of garbage truck.  The one he operates now is a one person truck; this truck has a mechanical arm the reaches out and picks up the container then dumps in in the hopper and replaces the container at the curb. The new truck he will train on picks up the open top containers (that are located at business such as restaurants) using two arms in front of the truck, lifting it over the cab and dumping it into the back of the truck. He was literally bubbling with enthusiasm, the positive attitude was contagious. He went on to say, I will later be trained on the trucks the pick up the roll-off containers. A roll-off is a large contained that are attached to a building and have a compactor that pushes the trash in to the container.

               My focus of this story is, his positive attitude, his willingness to learn, the overt optimism. This person collects our garbage, a job that most of us would look down on and yet his attitude and optimism was infectious. I could feel myself getting excited listening to him.   

More people need the garbage man’s positive attitude, his happy disposition, a pleasant smile and his willingness to learn.  Just imagine what a company could do if one out of 5 of their employees were as positive and happy as the garbage man.

From the never ending thoughts of Don Ford      

Thanks.

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