I got to witness a small vignette at lunch today that I would have never expected at the beginning of my day. While I was at iHop eatting an omlette and salad, the owner was in to take care of some business and eat lunch with his wife and mom and dad. They came in, chatted with the staff and ordered their lunch - business as usual.

After a while, the manager brought the owner an envelope. The owner’s head dropped as he sighed and paused for a moment. The owner thanked the manager as he went back to tend to the cash register. The owner then explained to his parents that what was in the envelope was the last pay check of a teenage employee that had been killed in a car wreck while drag racing this past weekend. He was going to write a personal note to go with it and hand deliver it to the parents after their lunch.

Man, what a heavy afternoon. It just made me step outside my world and all the things that I’m concerned about and think about the events that someone in a completely different world is going through. I don’t own several franchises with people that depend on the business for the livelyhood of their familes. I don’t have to deal with the personal issues of the people that work for me - directly or indirectly. What an unexpected glimpse of someone else’s world it was.

Sidenote: The service was GREAT!