Shake the Sugar Tree: Are you Essential or Non-essential?

I work in a retail ecommerce environment in the Human Resources Department.  All of the departments not associated with dealing directly with the customers are normally off the day of holidays or the day after with the exception of Black Friday.  On Black Friday, we are required to have at least the bare minimal of staff working for part of the day while the departments dealing with Customer Service are needed the full day.  Normally my team shows up on this day, after doing all of our early morning shopping, to encourage the team working with moral support or snacks to keep them motivated while functioning through one of the busiest days of the year. 

It never fails that someone will come into the office on Black Friday and say to me, "No one's working today."

This year when one of the floor Supervisors walked in and said, “No one’s working today.”  I replied, "Some people are”.  And our conversation continued with him stating, "I mean a lot of the people in various departments aren’t."  I asked him which departments and he said "Well, some people are working. I was really talking about the non-essentials."

I hadn't heard that phrase in a while. I remember hearing it on big snow days in the Virginia area when I lived there a few years ago – an area that hosts a large number of government and university employees.

“You don’t want to be non-essential – do you?” I asked.  I was actually asking that question of myself but said it aloud to him.  I stood there thinking I never would want to be thought of as non-essential or what I had to offer was not needed.

Think about it, the dictionary states:

• essential (adjective): of the utmost importance
• nonessential (adjective): not essential

So what I'm getting to is this...

As a submissive, we have choices.  We can be an “essential” part of our Master’s life or we can be “non-essential” by forgetting to serve (or choosing not to).

Everyone can be essential. It's a matter of becoming important to someone else (whether it's behind the scenes or out in front). And that happens by making good things happen for other people.  How about you?  Are you challenged to Shake the Sugar Tree by always being essential to your Master?