While it doesn’t offer any rewards, Employee of the Month is a title known by many employees. This honorific is given out once a month, and despite being void of perks, employees often work as hard as they can to get the award. This tradition is no different at the ROAR Store.
Sawyer McLaughlin, a senior at State High, was awarded with the role of Employee of the Month for the month of September, despite not knowing that it was even possible.
“Honestly, I don’t even know how I got it,” McLaughlin said. “It started as a joke, because I didn’t know it was a thing, and they were like, ‘Oh, yeah, someone gets employee of the month’ and I was like, ‘That’s gotta be me.’ “
Bridget Ciolkosz, the supervisor of the ROAR Store, had been observing McLaughlin’s performance long before his achievement.
“We chose Sawyer because I feel like all around he was driven from the first day until the month that we picked it,” she explained. “He was just always looking for something to do to keep himself busy and volunteered to do the tasks that people didn’t want to do. He has great customer service and great rapport not only with customers, but me. He gets along well with the other students that he works with, and he just has a very nice personality as well.”
Ciolkosz also explained the qualities they look for while deciding on an employee of the month.
“We are just looking for a student that is going above and beyond,” she said. “Are they showing up on time? Are they doing what we’re asked of them? Someone who’s the one that’s volunteering to do the tasks that maybe not someone wants to do, like cleaning cookie sheets. We also look at customer service, like who’s engaging in interacting with our customers, trying to help them find what they need, especially whenever teachers and community members come in. Also, whoever’s just working well to benefit the whole group as a whole and not just looking out for themselves individually.”
McLaughlin was not told that he received the award at first. “My mom actually sent me the Instagram post before I even knew that they posted anything,” he recalled.
Once he discovered that he was the recipient of this title for the month, Mc Laughlin reflected on why he might have received the title.
“I guess even though I make mistakes, I just genuinely enjoyed interacting with the customers and doing my job and I think that showed the enjoyment,” he said.
McLaughlin’s motives for his hard work revealed themselves once he started to recall his work from the past month.
“If I don’t [work hard], there will be consequences for the whole team,” McLaughlin said. “We work in an environment that’s run by like, the four of us in there; it’s a small group, so if I’m not doing something, I’m hurting somebody else in the group. But also because it’s something I want to give my best.”
Working hard doesn’t mean that he can’t still have a little fun.
“One funny thing I did was I made my own playlist,” McLaughlin said. “We used to play the teacher’s music, which was all like, really, really basic, like the radio songs. So I made my own playlist on my phone for the ROAR Store. Playing it creates a better vibe for the customers and I’ve actually gotten a lot of compliments on the aux, so I’m proud of that.”
Regardless of if he earned the title or not, McLaughlin feels that working at the ROAR Store has been a useful experience.
“It wasn’t like I was doing hard work, never messing up or any of that,” he said. I think it was just that I didn’t mind doing what I was doing. It’s a good opportunity, just try to enjoy it as much as you can.”
