Get your Greeter a Coffee
WAL-MART SENIOR GREETER
You just have to appreciate this one. People sometimes forget that old people had a career before they retired……
Charley, a new retiree-greeter at Wal-Mart, just couldn’t seem to get to work on time. Every day he was 5, 10, 15 minutes late. But he was a good worker, really tidy, clean-shaven, sharp-minded and a real credit to the company and obviously demonstrating their “Older Person Friendly” policies.
One day the boss called him into the office for a talk.
“Charley, I have to tell you, I like your work ethic, you do a bang-up job when you finally get here; but your being late so often is quite bothersome.”
“Yes, I know boss, and I am working on it.”
“Well good, you are a team player. That’s what I like to hear.”
“Yes sir, I understand your concern and I’ll try harder.”
Seeming puzzled, the manager went on to comment, “It’s odd though your coming in late. I know you’re retired from the Armed Forces. What did they say to you there if you showed up in the morning so late and so often?”
The old man looked down at the floor, then smiled. He chuckled quietly, then said with a grin, “They usually saluted and said, ‘Good morning, Admiral, can I get your coffee, sir?’”
Loved the story - it may or may not be true (my experience with retired service men and women is that they are always on time). But my point in sharing the story is that it may serve as a reminder to us all that we are generally surrounded by more real world wisdom than we may ever find with a search engine. Google seems easier to ask than the elderly, and I love Google, it is wonderful in so many ways. Yet, there is also something wonderful about this story to me. I feel it inviting me to take a closer and more reverant and respectful look at those who have been traveling longer on life’s road than I… and maybe inviting me to get them a coffee as well.
Quote from my Rebecca “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.”
Kirk Out
February 26th, 2013 at 9:34 am
I, too, love this story. One of the things that breaks my heart on a regular basis is the way we treat or don’t treat our elderly. We tend to start discarding them little by little the older they get. We let them quietly drift off to pasture in hopes that their journey there doesn’t interfere with ours too greatly. That is so sad, so cruel, so disrespectful and so stupid. We would not be where we are today nor have what we have without their contributions. Why, we wouldn’t even be here at all if it weren’t for them. We should listen to them without interruption and absorb all we can. If we can’t learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it. Treat others like you yourself want to be treated. Our own feet are walking in that same direction. You get what you give.