I was visiting a spark plug manufacturing plant.  Workers sat across from each other along a short assembly line.  Some workers laid parts on a slow-moving conveyor belt, consisting of a threaded steel base, porcelain core, steel electrode, brass connector, stick-on labels, and other parts.  As the belt progressed, other workers assembled the parts.  The final person on the line took the newly assembled sparkplug and positioned it in a scope to determine if the new plug matched design specks.  If so, the plug went to Packaging; if not, it went into a reject bin.  This final step was quality control.

The assembly line was alive with idle social chatter, except for the person on the scope.  I joined the chatter by asking who on the line made the most money.  Everyone pointed to the person on the scope.  So I asked, does everyone want to move up to the scope.  No way, one guy declared.  The person on the scope has to think.

A mindful employee is a worker who is thinking about what s/he is doing on the job.  The worker is focused on the task, concentrating on the details, and mindful of both the process AND the content of the work task.  In supervisory jargon, this is referred to as Hands-On Minds-On work activity.

The forthcoming lesson plan on Concentrating on the Job develops a skills set on being mindful.