I had a rather puzzling experience last week which, at

the time, seemed very minor – just a thing that happened – but has, over the past few days, refused to shake itself from my mind.

I was at the local branch of M&S grabbing a (rather disappointing) sandwich. I wasn’t particularly looking for anything mind blowing – which was lucky as I don’t

think such a thing exists in these pre-packed, largely soggy, ‘meals’ – rather I was in need of fuel and it happened to be the shop I was passing.

But as I was looking what was on offer (I admit I was more focused

on what was the cheapest than what looked the

nicest) I was suddenly, and rather rudely, barged out of the way. I turned to look at what this battering ram was, fully prepared to voice my feelings on their eyesight. What I saw left me very bemused.

This wasn’t some ‘busy-busy’ guy thinking his lack of time means he is more important; this wasn’t a mother struggling with a pram; this wasn’t a little old lady with no control over her balance; this wasn’t a toddler running around unattended – all of these I could probably accept.

What I saw when I turned around was, however, a member of the shop’s staff who seemed completely oblivious to what had happened and was now proceeding to tidy the sandwich shelf.

Let me repeat that: tidy the sandwich shelf. Not re-stock the sandwich self. Tidy.

If it had been re-stocking I possibly could have understood it – a shop needs to sell stuff to make money and if the stuff isn’t there to sell then they don’t make money. Simple.

But this was merely tidying. Not that the shelf was particularly messy, which made it even more bemusing as it really just looked like they were moving sandwiches around to pass the time.

Ok, so this all sounds very mundane and humdrum – which is exactly what I thought at the time. But then I got thinking….who was the tidying for?

It clearly wasn’t an act of Caring for the customer as I (the customer) had been pushed out of the way, therefore making the tidying the priority, not the customer.

So the only other thing it could be is filling time.

Whether this role of ‘filling time’ is actually this guy’s job title and part of M&S store policy, I have no idea. But I couldn’t help think that this guy needs to have a think about Purpose. If you’re in a job which regularly involves you ‘filling time’ then you need to get out because it most likely means it is lacking in any kind of Purpose.

Ok, so maybe he hates his job and is just doing it to support his family, put himself through Uni. or buy himself an apartment. But if that is the case the surely Caring shouldn’t go out of the window.

Caring is the key to a Life with Purpose. Without it, you’re just filling in time.

As we all have a limited amount of it then why stick with something that wastes it away?