Abigail and Iris worked in the produce section of a grocery store. Their responsibilities were fairly simple—restock the fruits and vegetables, remove overripe items, spray water on certain ones to keep them moist, and maintain cleanliness in their part of the store.
When one of the store managers transferred to a different location, the produce manager, Tim, applied to fill that position and was given the job. He invited Abigail to apply to replace him as produce manager, which she did.
When Abigail was hired to replace Tim, Iris complained to him in the employees-only section of the store. “Why didn’t anyone say anything to me about the produce manager job?” she asked. “I would have applied for it.” She folded her arms and frowned deeply.
Tim looked steadily at her for a few moments. “Come with me,” he said. He led the way to the produce section and chose a bank of fruit where there were no customers at the moment. “Look at these oranges and bananas,” Tim said. “Can you tell me what’s wrong here?”
Iris scanned them and handled some of them. “They look fine to me. Everything is in good shape. … Well, I guess I see a bruise or two,” she added with a wrinkled forehead and another frown.
“Yes,” Tim agreed, “and that’s only part of the problem. I’ve talked with you multiple times about carefully placing the fruit and arranging it so it looks neat and inviting. But you haven’t changed how you stock things yet.” Tim rearranged some of the oranges.
He beckoned, and Iris followed him to where some of the vegetable displays stood. “You’ve just restocked the broccoli this morning, right?” he asked. Iris nodded. Tim proceeded to move some of the bunches, which had been lying pointed in various directions. “Not only is this arranged haphazardly, but this area over here is pretty dry, while this side is wetter than it needs to be. We’ve gone over how to evenly water these vegetables numerous times.”
Finally, Tim showed Iris some areas of the produce section that needed to be swept and mopped. He pointed out that it looked like it hadn’t been done since Abigail’s last shift ended.
“I’ll be honest with you, Iris,” he said. “I had no idea you would have been interested in applying for the produce manager job because the way you work tells me you’re not very interested in the job you have now, let alone in doing what it takes to manage the entire produce section. When Abigail has a shift, I don’t have to go through and rearrange after she’s restocked; I don’t have to look for overripe produce to remove; I don’t have unevenly watered vegetables; I don’t have to remind her to sweep, mop, or wipe things down.”
Iris looked at the floor, and Tim waited until she met his gaze again. “If you show me and the other managers by the way you work that you want to be here and you can do everything that’s needed on your own initiative, then we can trust you to take on more responsibility.” He raised his eyebrows, waiting for a response.
Iris nodded.
“Another opportunity will come up if you stick around long enough. In the meantime, because Abigail is now your manager, I suggest you learn all you can from her.”
Photo by Matheus Cenali on Pexels.com
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