Some people.

0patience

This is one of those rants I debated posting.
It seems to happen way more than it should.

I'm a firm believer in treating people right.

There is a group of handicap folks who come in and clean our shop here at work. 
Most of them smile alot, love it when you acknowledge them and are pretty happy with life. They are people that little things make them happy. I see them quite often and usually when I do, it means I'll be there for a little while, because each one has to tell me everything they think is important.
Until today, I usually cringe when I see them coming, but listen to what they have to say.

When a few of them see me pull up with my service truck, the tend to get all happy and wound up, it seems talking to them makes their day.

I told you that story, to understand this story and why I wasn't happy about what happened.

This morning, they were at a parts store washing windows when I pulled up. One young man, his name is Kyle, got wound up when he saw my truck and went to put his stuff down to come talk to me. When he did, the washing mop or whatever its called, kind of swung around and got a few drips of water on a guy. 
This guy went off and started screaming at him and calling him a stupid re****.
I don't have a lot of patience for that.
So clear as I could, I said, "You need to apologize." 
Kyle started to apologize.
"Not you, Kyle. Him!"
The guy says, "I'm not apologizing to that re****.

My reply. "Really? You're a big man talking down to someone who works hard? Realize that being a d***, when you are driving a vehicle with the company name on it is not a very bright move? Pretty sure your boss may not like how you are treating people and since I do business with him, I'm pretty sure he won't like it."
The guy stormed off mad as hell.

As the guy was leaving, Kyle looks at me and says, "Mr. Tony, that guy was a jerk."
Yes, Kyle, that guy was a jerk. LOL!

I can't believe that some people are total tools like that. 
Then I started thinking about how often does this happen to them? 

So, if you see people like this, working hard and trying to make it on their own, a simple "how are you?" or "hello" will probably make their day.

They amaze me how they see life and each time I am around them, I usually walk away with some story tell. 

90+_Irishman

Thank you Tony for doing the right thing and having he courage to call someone on it. I myself and my wife have heard someone make an offhanded comment or say down thing they think we won't hear about our son in a really derogatory manner. It never goes over well and it's an instant way to get me furious, I don't put up with it in my own family and never put up with it when I see it out and about. I salute you sir. 

Brett

miller65rod

Well all I can say is that many people are miserable with their lives and they look for any excuse to take it out on someone else, especially a person they see as a simple minded scapegoat.. Makes them feel justified I guess, they blame anyone and everyone for their problems, when the only person they should be blaming is themselves. 

To be honest I am far from shocked that something like this would occur, let alone at the work place. I had 1500 employees under me at one time, I spent more time with HR than I did with my job and some of it was the most stupidest stuff ever. I had to remain professional. If I could have truly spoke my mind I would have likely been fired but I learned along time ago if a situation is not defused immediately in the work place it will only get worse over time. 

Not everyone plays nice and more often than not it is the nice people who get taken to the woodshed by many. 

Just my experiences in life. 

Myself... I enjoy life and have been blessed to have seen and done many things. I always remind myself of how hard my Mom worked to feed us kids and I will never forget that. She never complained. Like most we didn't have the posh lifestyle growing up. I can be very blunt at times and many have no idea on how to handle it it seems. Oh well. 


BTW I am not a physic, Dr. or a Dear Abby. I like Seegars!!

johnnyB

Tony that's  awesome,if only more people would stand up for their fellow man. No matter their capabilities. My son started a job a few months ago,working at a group home for adults with disabilities. It's been awesome to see the way it's changed his outlook on people and the world. It's hard to think that some people think that they are so great that they look down on another,because of this or that. Thank you for your kindness,your a good Man.

Echambers

This is why I  you so much big guy. 

skydiverD

totally agree with you.  I remember managing an oil change place, and one of our workers had CP.  He worked hard and did very well.  One day he was carrying a little oil and unfortunately tripped and spilled the oil on a customers tire.  The lady went off on him and me.  I apologized and of course offered to cover any and all cleanup costs, but she kept going on and on about how "someone like that" shouldn't work here.  Well, I blew my top and told her that her business is no longer welcome here.  She stormed out without even paying for her oil change and we still had to cover the cleanup costs.  Got me in even more trouble as she called corporate and I had an all out shouting match with some corp ****.  Ended up being asked to leave, and I gladly did. I was just furious over the whole thing.  As far as I know though, Craig was able to stay on working.  Good for him.

silvermouse

Thank You, Tony and Brett.

“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.” 

― Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times

bert873

That's awesome Tony! I hate seeing people look down on others. It's so true how excited some get with simple gestures of just acknowledging their existence.
When I was in college they had a program set up that allowed adults with disabilities to come in and work various jobs around campus. There was one guy named John who I became friends with and anytime he saw me would yell my name and come running over. The best part was he came up with a secret handshake for us that we did everyday. 

0patience

@bert873,
I would bet to this day, if he saw you, he would want the secret handshake.
These guys are told they are learning disabled and not smart, yet when one of them made the comment about not being smart, I asked him what my service truck is. He could name the year, make, model, engine and transmission. Most smart people have no idea.

CigarPunk

Tony, great job. I am afraid I would have offered to kick the guys teeth in. 

peter4jc

People like that dickwad are what's wrong with this world.  Edward's post hits right at the core of the problem; too many people won't look at themselves and see the darkness they've managed to cover up and/or polish so it's not obvious... but it's there.  Kindness and love always win.  I had a pastor who used to say, "It's just nice to be nice."  I like the bumper sticker that says Mean People Suck.

dirtdude

well done Tony

0patience

CigarPunk said:

Tony, great job. I am afraid I would have offered to kick the guys teeth in. 

If I hadn't been working, that would have been a possibility.
But then again, I know the owner of the company that guy works for and he's not happy. He wanted to fire the guy, but I didn't think that was a good solution. So the guy won't lose his job, but will have some training that he will have to do and he has to go apologize. 

Lee.mcglynn

I agree! They work hard and don't realize stuff as we do but you can only do your best! Personally I'm always kind hearted to them and do realize it happens. Some people are just plain out a holes and should be purged on a regular basis! But the only time I ever was "rude" to a disabled person was when I caught her stealing. My response was can you please put that back?! She said I was just testing you. I said ok well please put it back and it was done. Otherwise just treat people like people and well karmas a B!

bert873

0patience said:

@bert873,
I would bet to this day, if he saw you, he would want the secret handshake.
These guys are told they are learning disabled and not smart, yet when one of them made the comment about not being smart, I asked him what my service truck is. He could name the year, make, model, engine and transmission. Most smart people have no idea.

Yes they are very intelligent. Every body has their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to knowledge and they are no different. 

90+_Irishman

Having a developmentally disabled son myself there is a lot I've learned. Most people would meet my son and due to ignorance as well as fear of the unknown would call him stupid. Funny thing is he has already had his IQ tested several times and they cannot accurately measure it, off the charts they said. He just started preschool and each month the school had to being in a team of autism specialist because his teacher couldn't keep up with how fast he was learning. By the end of the semester he was already teaching himself how to read, write and do addition, subtraction, and multiplication. These people, not just autism, but so many other situations are absolutely brilliant and society as a whole simply pigeon holes them and won't let their true potential shine like the bright beacon they really are. I'm blessed and very grateful my son ended up being autistic as it completely opened my eyes and showed me just how much of a close minded idiot I was without even meaning to be before. Anyone that's calls these people dumb doesn't even have two brains cells to rub together to power an ants motorcycle halfway around a cheerio, assuming brains were gasoline. 

Rant bat over and climbing off my soapbox for all of 30 min


Brett

Bigshizza

My daughter is DD and has taken a lot of crap over the years, she's almost 26. If she still lived with me, a few heads would have rolled. Their major road block is... No you can't do that.. BS I say!

Sasquatch

Good job Tony!
We employ a group of "special people" to do simple tasks twice weekly. I think they treat it more like a field trip than work. When you go past their area, you will spend about 20 minutes chatting with them no matter how busy you are. One of them collects watches & prolly knows as much as any museum curator.  Treat everyone professionally & with courtesy for a nicer public environment

Yakster

When I met my Wife, she had a DD roommate that she was helping with some life skills who stayed on until our daughter was born and we needed the room, real close member of the family.  I've always enjoyed patronizing businesses who include DD in their workforce.

90+_Irishman

Yakster said:

When I met my Wife, she had a DD roommate that she was helping with some life skills who stayed on until our daughter was born and we needed the room, real close member of the family.  I've always enjoyed patronizing businesses who include DD in their workforce.

Yakster, thank you and please thank your wife as well on behalf of my family and I. That is true class right there and absolutely agree on giving business to those that support that population. 

Brett

90+_Irishman

Sasquatch said:

Good job Tony!
We employ a group of "special people" to do simple tasks twice weekly. I think they treat it more like a field trip than work. When you go past their area, you will spend about 20 minutes chatting with them no matter how busy you are. One of them collects watches & prolly knows as much as any museum curator.  Treat everyone professionally & with courtesy for a nicer public environment

As I said for Yakster above, thank you and your employees from my family and I for giving something back and enriching the lives of the group you employ Sas, that's a huge thing to me and always makes me a bit choked up with what's going on with our family too. 

Brett

YankeeMan

Thank you for doing the right thing.  It's sad that for a moment Kyle thought he had to apologize.  It says a lot about you that he was that excited to see you.