From time to time I had to supplement my meager income with a part time job. One such job was working for our local food co-op. I shopped there and enjoyed the people and atmosphere. I thought I would enjoy the work and get a discount on the food I would buy there anyway. At 40+ years old I was probably twice the age of the other employees excepting the manager. She was newly hired with the mandate of cleaning up the image of the co-op from the past as a place where hippies would shop and smoke pot in the back room. I fit the image they wanted to portray as someone older and more mature so the older people of the community would feel more comfortable shopping leading to increased sales hopefully. I had worked for a couple of weeks when the manager hired "Ron". Well let me tell you about Ron. He couldn't have been more opposite the mandate. Barely 21 with shoulder length hair he had a full beard, wore a long flowing robe, beads and bangles everywhere. Not that there's anything wrong with any of that, he just didn't fit the new scheme at all! Did I say he stank. If it wasn't B.O. it was cheap and strong Patchouly incense that seemed to follow him wherever he went. I questioned the manager about the wisdom of his hiring given that she wanted to erase the past image of the co-op as a hippie hangout. She replied but oh isn't he just marvelous he looks just like Jesus and isn't he just wonderful? Ok--I think I see where this is going.
But how was he as a worker? Well let me tell you. He constantly mixed up the beans in the bulk bins leading to us selling the mixture at a much reduced rate. Whenever the floor needed to be mopped he was never around. We bought a brand new computerized cash register to keep track of all the members purchases during the year so they would get money back depending on how much they bought. Ron spilled his soft drink into it shorting out the computer and losing several months worth of calculations. This despite being warned not to set drinks on the cash register. He was given the task of dropping off the days cash at the after hours bank deposit box. He forgot the first 3 days straight. I had to take over from then on. When it came time each week to unload the semi shipment he and the manager would stand outside and watch me unload it all by myself! Here he is a strapping 6 footer young in the prime of his life and they would criticize the way I unloaded the truck. As I struggled with 100 pound bags of beans and flour and whatnot. When I questioned the logic of Ron not helping she would say -well someone has to man the cash register.
Then one day the manager asked me into her office. She explained that I seemed to be complaining a lot and asked what was wrong. I told her about Ron not pulling his own weight and that I seemed to be doing most of the heavy work all 145 lbs of me. She replied that was not true and that she thought my aura was the wrong color. My aura is the wrong color? Oh yes she said she could see peoples' auras and mine was definitely the wrong color and that if I didn't change the color of my aura in 2 weeks that she would fire me.
So much for that mandate. I'm not sure if there is a moral to this story or not. I guess all stories don't have to have a moral . Anyway there it is. Of course my aura did not change color, even if I knew how to which I don't, I wouldn't have anyway. Last I heard of the manager she changed her name to Two Moons and moved to New Mexico. That's their problem.
Stay tuned.
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