KenNitro vs The Facility: All things considered

Today was like any other day on the island. I stood with one of the other holders of the word and spoke about the world outside of the island, the weather was a bit colder than what I was comfortable with.  As my equal and I spoke about the things we do our children stand close, not so close to be told to go and be amongst themselves, but close enough to be seen and not heard.

Those are my favorites.

I noticed in the distance that one of the footballs was off in the distance; I decided to see how my young charges have improved on their interactions with one another and critical thinking. So I said to them, whoever can bring that football first, I will give a bonus point. Before I could say go, one of my wayward youths took into consideration that everything has a point and he did something amazing.

He thought it through!

He stops everyone and says, “Look if we all go and get it and bring it back we can all receive a bonus point” I actually held back a smile because he is applying a lesson that I taught in a group several months ago. Everyone seemed to be in agreement with his plan.

So I said, “Go”

With that, these kids took off like the wind, these are the good kids so seeing them run in any direction does not alarm anyone, but we still pay very close attention. I would like to tell you that they each took turns carrying the ball equally sharing in the work load so that they may equally share in the ever elusive bonus point from Mr. Ken A.K.A Dr. Doom-Megatron , but that is not what happened.

Instead the faster kid got out ahead of everyone scooped up the ball and ran it back to me with a smile on his face. As his peers made it back to me, they were all upset. I asked him, “Why would you do that, everyone could have gotten a bonus point if you all would have worked together?”

His response was probably the most honest thing I have heard anyone say in several months.

“I know we all could have gotten a bonus point, but I didn’t want them to have a bonus point”

In that above statement lies a deeper truth.

OCCUPY THE FACILITY!!!!

I’m just kidding, but if you are serious though, I mean, we can do it…I’m just saying.  Working at the facility is not a job, it’s an adventure.   The work at the facility is not work, but art and must be practiced every day. I say all this to say, and this may be the first time that I say, “I think I speak for everyone “when I say,  I need a day off!

No, I am not talking about the two days that I get off every week, but I need like a day off that I don’t normally get off.  The truth is I work in a very “Reactive” environment, but what is confusing is that being proactive really just creates more work for an already over worked group of individuals.  So scheduling is essentially a love /hate relationship. Geez, relationships are never fair though, and when you do what you are suppose to and you do(put the time that you want off in when you are suppose to do) and you do not get the results(the time you asked off).

You tend to feel some sort of way about it.

Did I tell you about my most recent waffle house adventure?

Ok, see me and a friend were getting down on that waffle house awesomeness, I was enjoying my usual waffle and bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich with my hash browns covered and chunked, and they well I can’t really remember what they had but they enjoyed it none the less and we got spoke with our waitress (Wait, is it still ok to call them that? Whatever) and we talked about how it is hard out there for everybody and she went on to talk about how she had been working for the Waffle House for thirty years.

He saved your soul, so he can feed
it to the DINO's!!!!

WHAT!!!! SWEET JESUS RIDING A DINOSAUR did you say you have been working at the waffle house for 30 years!!!!

I felt really bad about bitching about my job for the length of time that I did, when this poor woman has been hustling waffles to every drunk, hipster, family, pre and post party going from the Regan Era to Obama. I should be happy to have my job cause well I don’t get paid as much as I feel like I am worth but hey I’m not grinding this waffle house gig ya know?

See that is where I fucked up, time for my favorite part of blogs

PUT YOU UP ON SOME GAME!!!!!

Waffle house servers make like 7.25 cent and hour waiting tables. Most servers at the corporate cafeterias that most of you all spend your dinner dollars at make 2.13 cent and hour. Now no one goes to the Waffle House and spends less than 10 bucks and if you tip based on the fact that you were not raised by wolves you probably throw down 20% like a BOSS!!!

This is what happens to your
brain when you realize that the WaHo
folks are living the dream, and you aren't

So 7.25 plus 2.00 bucks, but wait, I had a friend with me, so we have to add another 2.00. So right now we have 7.25+4.00 so now she is making 11.25 an hour and that was the one table we were at. Let’s say she had 3 tables of 2 people all spending 10 dollars apiece and dropping the 20% LIKE A BOSS! That is 7.25 + 12 dollars so that comes out to be 19.25 an hour.  And she went on to talk about how getting time off is never an issue because for some known unknown waffle house folks have figured out how to make the most people happy most of the time.

I was mad all over again.

The source of the Strength

You couldn't ask for a
better handbook

If you keep you with my facebook statuses, you may see a lot of statuses that say “Strength Based on Deck” or something of that sort. Well, you may find it hard to believe but the strength based program is a living, breathing, document, similar to the constitution in the fact that it can be changed and adjusted as needed, but what I want to talk about is the secret to the strength of the strength based program. It is really quite simple these are the two words that hold the most weight at the facility:

                      Rewards and Consequences

The State will take everything
away from you, and we will take the rest

It’s pretty simple really, kids that do good get rewarded for their efforts and kids that do not do good do not get rewarded. Now the system starts to shake when there are kids doing good and they have to wait on the reward, a shake is not so bad though, kids need to learn that everything in life does not happen like clockwork and I do strategically promise and not deliver. The system breaks when there are no rewards to be earned and those that do not do good receive the attention from staff. What happens is the system is turned on its head, the bad continue to be bad and flourish in the attention they receive from Us, and the good ones fall into that behavior because they are confused as to why they are doing good in the first place.

So the new challenge is turning what should have never been upside down in the first place back to its original place and keeping it there, but the answer is right in front of you.

                                                                     Consequences and Rewards  
 

You can get with this

Actually, it is all about holding yourself accountable to the islands inhabitants, support for your team, and unity in the face of adversity. 

On the island, we had to put the pyramid in its proper place and once we did everyone and I mean everyone was on the same page as to what direction the sun comes up, and that page simply said, “Whatever direction I say it

or you can get with that

does”Real(clap)Talk(Clap).

Once the islanders understood that those that make the right decisions will be rewarded and those that made the wrong one would not be, and that whatever the reward was going to be was going to happen, regardless of how those that normally make the wrong decisions act, the kids understand is that the best choice is to follow the lead of those in charge otherwise nobody wins.