The Power of Reframing - Change Your Mind, Change Your Life

2003: I am a 2nd-year journalism student and finally landed a part-time job at Pick ‘n Pay. I was thrilled! Before we started, the new recruits were called to the head office where I received my first ever and what I still consider to be THE best orientation I have ever experienced. Why? 

Because when I first walked through those doors, I was still trying to figure out how to duck and dive if my friends ever visited the store and saw me packing groceries at the till. While I was thankful for the work, I was millennial enough to be embarrassed by the position. Until that orientation, that is. Here is the narrative as I remember it that had the most impact on my 19-year young self: 

‘Every position has value. You might be embarrassed about being a till packer, but if you really think about it, YOU are the last person the customer sees before they leave the store. What an opportunity! You are their last interaction before they step out and you can either make or break their shopping experience. They might have had a terrible experience inside the store, or even somewhere in the mall, but as the last person they see, YOU can shift the whole experience for them.’

I wish I could explain to you the pride, care and seriousness that I showed up with the next day. In fact, I got to town and realised I had forgotten my name badge. Unacceptable! I made my brother take a taxi all the way to town to bring it to me. For the next year and a half, I can honestly say, I was the best till packer I have ever met. Old ladies would laugh with me and drop change in my shirt pocket, customers would give compliments to the manager. EVERYone adored my smile and, coincidentally, my curly hair (there’s a separate story about how I came to love my hair while working here). 

I became the first till packer they asked to promote to cashier, and I said no. Turned out, I loved till packing. There was freedom to move around, I could be more helpful to customers this way and I just plain enjoyed it. Then, we had the talk and I was forced to become a cashier, and left three months later. 

I always think about this when I think about the power of reframing, or the term: you can’t change your circumstances, but you can change your mind. I learned a lot about customer service – and life – from being a till-packer. It instilled a deep value system in me that HOW you do something is much more important than WHAT you are doing. I’ve also had to endure hard lessons since then that not every organisation operates this way, and that most people cannot see further than titles. 

I’ll end off by saying that one of my proudest moments was visiting the V&A Waterfront after graduation and seeing copies of Femina Magazine – with my name in it – at the very tills I had packed at. It was a full circle moment, although I still carry those values with me into every role I take on.

Lenina Rassool is a journalist from Cape Town, South Africa. She has worked for mainstream publications such as Femina and Cosmopolitan Magazines and has spent the past five years producing and presenting The Womxn Show, a TV show on gender-based violence, funded by the Ford Foundation.