I woke up to the sun blazing through my window making my face feel warm. Winter just passed, and looking outside I saw the flowers beginning to bloom in the grass. I changed into shorts and a t-shirt since I knew it was going to be 70 degrees. I headed downstairs, and the smell of eggs, bacon, pancakes, and maple syrup flooded my nose. I sat down, talked to my family, and let the sweet taste of maple syrup take over my mouth. Finally, I grabbed my backpack, started my car, turned on the radio, and drove out of my driveway onto the freeway congested with cars going "beep." 

It was my second semester of senior year, and it felt like every day I came to school and did nothing; all I had to do was show up plus today was my easy day. After only two classes I finished for the day, and my friend and I left to get some food before I worked at 3:30.

“Where should we get food?” I asked while my stomach grumbled. “It needs to be a quick place,” I add remembering that I have work.

“Uh, I'm not too sure. Maybe ... uh sandwiches?” Neil asked. 

“Let's do it if the line is short” I responded as I began to back out of the school parking lot and drive toward the sandwich shop. We finally park and get in the two-person line. Even though there were only two people in line, in the back the sandwich shop four workers were all doing different tasks: cutting vegetables, cleaning utensils, restocking drinks, taking orders, and making sandwiches. 

“Can I do the number four with no tomato?” I said.

“Sure, sure. That will be $10.63. Would you like anything else with the sandwich?” responded the cashier.

“Uh, no Thanks. Just the sandwich today,” I responded.

Five minutes later, we received our lunch, got back in the car and drove towards Neil's house. While unwrapping the sandwich some sauce gets on my finger. I licked it off and I got excited to eat the rest of the sandwich because the sauce was so good. It was the place's secret sauce: a mix of mayo and garlic aioli. By the time we finished the food and finished the little homework we had, it was already 3 pm. 

“I got to go soon. I have work in 30 minutes,” I told my friend. 

“No problem. Let me know if you want to do something later,” replied my friend. 

At 3:28 I made it to Jamba Juice. Immediately my boss came up to me and told me that the two other people who were supposed to close the shop with me that day had both called out. I felt angry. This wasn’t the first time that I got stuck alone to close the shop.

“I will try to find someone to come in to help you close,” my boss said. 

Then I began doing some of the closing work that I knew I would need to do later: preparing extra fruits, washing dishes, and cutting the fresh fruit. I wanted to take advantage of the fact that the store had five people working at that time including me. After an hour or so my boss told me that two people from a different store would come in to help me close the store.

As a closer, I was technically a boss; that was the upside. The downside was that if anything was left unfinished or went wrong it was my responsibility. In addition, our store was larger compared to others nearby meaning there was more to clean. 

Finally, around six pm the two people from a different store arrived and my bosses left. Usually, we would begin the closing tasks at around 5:30 since our store closed at seven, but now we were starting late. I began assigning tasks to each of us in order to finish on time. 

“Can you take out the trash and then begin washing dishes?” I asked one person since I knew that all stores had this task. “And can you just take orders and make drinks?” I asked the other person. “I will start cleaning the ice chest, bring the outdoor stuff in and help with dishes and drinks,” I added. We worked at a good pace, almost fully closed up until ten minutes before seven when a little league baseball team showed up. 

I told my team that we should split the work up. One person filled blenders with juice, another added fruit, and the last person blended and poured. While this was a good idea, it was not well-executed. Since we were each one step of the process, half of the drinks we already assembled were messed up before I realized it. In addition, we did not have the same good communication or connection that I had with my regular coworkers. Usually, my store had a system of putting the receipts on the blenders to keep track of the drinks, but the two people subbing in didn’t have that. Moreover, we didn’t work as a team to help one another out. This was a mess. A waste of product and time. We finally corrected all the drinks, closed up, and recorded the waste on the paper log. 

“What happened yesterday?” my boss asked referring to the wasted product. I explained how we messed up drinks and had to toss them. She then reminded me about the importance of working as a team. She mentioned how if my coworkers and I did not communicate and all know what we had to do, we would end up wasting time and money as was painfully obvious. 

This made me think about my lunch earlier that day and made me realize that working in a team is like making sandwiches. If not all the pieces are put together and connected then the sandwich will fall apart and become a mess just like if not all the workers work together and communicate, then the team will fall apart and make a mess. In a sandwich, the bread holds all the pieces in. In a team, the leader should hold all the pieces of a team together. Furthermore, each piece in a sandwich is shaped a certain way to make all parts fit. This is like each member of the group. They must get trained and fit within the team to be successful. When a sandwich falls apart different pieces inside of it fall out. This is like a team since a team will fall apart when different members work outside of the team rather than with the team. When people don’t show up or miscommunicate a hole or empty space results. If enough ingredients or workers are missing, eventually there’s nothing but a bread sandwich. I believe working as a team is only effective when there is good communication and teamwork.

I understood the importance of working together. I realized if my coworkers and I do not think the same way then we can make a mistake. While mistakes are fine, it is important to learn from them. I learned that I need to work on my communication and teamwork skills to make sure my coworkers think the same as I think and work together rather than have each person do one step of the process. 

Good communication is essential to working as a team. If communication is lacking then there is a gap in the understanding of what needs to get done and what is getting done. This creates issues such as miscommunication, waste of time and money, and overall frustration. Although some might say that communication is not necessary for a team as long as the member plays their role, communication allows for each role to be connected creating a unified team. Furthermore, this increases the work quality as each member will work with the same intentions and goals in mind. In addition, some people prefer working alone over working in a group believing they get more work done. While this may be true to an extent, two people working together and communicating well can do more work than one person since two brains are better than one.