above the radar

Out Standing Diana

On my way to work this morning, I stopped to grab a tea and paper. It is the same place I wrote about just before Christmas, where I met the muffin lady, Diana and ended up sharing a heartfelt moment chatting it up in the middle of the store. Today was no different, though it had been a while since I had seen her. As usual, when I walked into the store which is filled with customers at this time of day, I greeted Diana with a good morning. She in turn lifted her head up from the muffin shelves and with an amazing exuberance greeted me with a big hello........

"Look at you today! Where did you get those capris pants? I love the little black and white checks. And it goes so well with your red coat..........OH you always look so beautiful and bright," she says quite loudly for all to hear. The woman makes me feel good and makes me laugh. Good thing I don't embarrass easily.

As I poured the hot water for my tea, we began chatting.........me asking her how she's doing.....is she excited about retiring in the summer..........how she looks healthy and rested (she was feeling ill the last time I saw her).......and she asking me about my plans for the day.

"I'm on the road most of today, visiting people in their homes."

"Oh, how lucky they are to have you visit them," she replies with a big smile on her face. The woman is a delight.

Then, she closes in and begins to whisper..........her face changes from happiness to desperation.

"I know you're busy, but I'm wondering if you could visit me at my home. I'm having a terrible time of it. Terrible! I have to get out of here and find another job. Can you help me find another job?"

"What's the matter? What's happened? You're so close to retiring." I ask.

"My Manager keeps yelling at me in front of customers. He's an evil man and treats me like I'm doing something wrong all the time. He has done this 4 times.....yelling at me and cursing me out in front of everyone. It happened on Sunday. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. My daughter is so upset with him. I'm not sleeping at night. All of sudden after 4 years working here, I get stomach pains when I have to come in for my shift. He's a hateful man. He has no right talking to me like that."

Then, we head outside away from other ears..............to continue talking. This beautiful full of sunshine woman is being brow beaten by a crazy maker of a boss who tells her to shut up and do her work, who emotionally harasses her with words like "stupid", "unfocused", "nosey", "dense." I wanted to go find the guy and choke him.

I shared with her a little bit of what is going on in my work life.......just enough so that she knew that crazymakers are everywhere and that I totally understood her situation.

I said.......

"Diana.....you're not someone who can just put your head down and do your work are you? You need to connect with people and help them. I'm afraid you are in this guy's radar, and the others arent because of this......"

Oh, no, no, no. I CAN'T work under the radar.........that's not me! And I bet that's not you either!"

"Nope............I'm an above the radar person too. We are always in the line of fire you know with crazy maker bosses! For some reason we threaten them. I think it's because we can connect with people. You know........it's much better to live above the radar don't you think?

"Oh yes, oh yes......." she said smiling. "I couldn't live any other way. We would never have met if we had both gone about our business with our heads down, now would we honey? But, then God would've found a way for us to meet don' t you think? He knows what He's doing....."

Then, Diana laughed...........gave me a hug...............which I returned..........and then went back to work, as I went off to do my work.

I thought about her all day...........hoping that she could get through the rest of her shift without any scenes. 3 months to go before the woman retires and the boss is browbeating her? What a sicko that man is.......displacing his own anger and self-loathing on an innocent 64 year old woman.

Why are there so many crazymaker bosses out there? How is it that they manage to secure jobs where they are allowed to treat people like shit? It's beginning to feel like it's a prerequisite.