Unusually for me, there’s just a single photo in this post, for reasons that will become clear as it goes. I was in Cirencester this morning, catching up on one or two errands, each of which involved a young man who went above and beyond his duties to provide first class service.

First, I had a package to collect in the small Marks and Spencer Food store and was rather sorry to stop Lochlann mid-task, filling up the shelves of drinks. “No problem”, he smiled, and went off to find my package. He had to make this journey a couple times more because this was no simple collection - a glitch in the delivery meant that it wasn’t all there and by the time the rest of the order arrived, I wouldn’t be able to come in and collect it. Suffice to say that all of this was handled with such good grace and generous spirit, I thanked him and made note of the spelling of Lochlann’s name before leaving, so that I could email his employer with well deserved praise.

Next stop was the phone shop. The battery in my phone developed one or two problems in the last few days and the whole thing began to expand and burst open. Oooer! Here in Vodafone, I encountered another young man who was generous with his time and expertise, who listened respectfully to my phone requirements and without a hint of patronising manner in his response, came up with a great solution for me. He offered to transfer everything from the broken phone to the new one, suggesting that I go off and get a coffee whilst he did so.

Of course, I wouldn’t dream of getting a coffee for myself in such circumstances without getting him one too - though I thought better of buying an actual drink and thought it better to give him a gift card or voucher of some kind. Here was young man #3, who explained that sadly, this coffee shop didn’t have such things. He thought about it as he made my drink and returned to complete one of their loyalty cards for a drink on the house and handed it to me - “This will work”, he said.

What impressed me most about each of these three young men was their initiative and willingness to resolve the situation they were managing. I don’t expect one of them was in the job of their dreams and doubt very much that their career plan included working in retail or a coffee shop. I think their generation of young men and women have been amongst the hardest hit by the Coronavirus pandemic, their education interrupted at such a crucial time. Yet each one took a first class professional approach to their work and made my morning brighter as a result.

When I returned to the phone shop, my new phone was ready to go as promised. I offered my sincere thanks and received a smile in return. “It was a pleasure”, spoken with heart. I will send compliments to their respective companies, of course, but I wish I could also send congratulations to three parents too, for raising such confident young men with initiative and first class inter-personal skills, for whom nothing was too much trouble.