One More Time

Some of you might recall “Cleo” from my work that I turned in for prejudice comments (see Open Mouth and Insert Foot). Did you ever wonder what happen with my complaint? I discovered on the same day of this incident that it conveniently got lost. My guess is to protect Cleo’s employment.

As with the previous post, Cleo was in rare form at 9am in the employee break room. On the TV was a female discussion panel of four women of various ages and body types. The program title had the word “real” in it. The topic was female body image.

Cleo’s first unacceptable comment came out something like this (referring to one of the thinner women on the panel) “She doesn’t want to be that fat girl.” The next remark was made to a co-worker close to the TV screen. He was told something resembling “sit in front of the fat girl so I don’t have to look at her.”

Once again I kept my mouth shut, but I was fuming. I left before my break was over. This time I planned on going to his supervisor. I don’t hold irritation very well. I become flushed on my face and rather large and menacing. I went to several employees trying to find the right person.

One employee made this comment, “That’s just Cleo.” No one seemed to be surprised he was the employee I named. Translation: “Cleo has always gotten away with whatever he wishes to say. We are OK with him offending others even though this store has a 0% harassment policy.”

Eventually, I gave my account to the right person, and documented on paper this incident, and the prior one on paper. If I had to be the catalyst in changing stuff like this, so be it. I had at one time given Cleo the benefit of the doubt with being a bigot. With this second occurrence, I was convinced that he was prejudice.

Once I was calm enough to be back at the general merchandise door to greet, Cleo found out about my talk with his supervisor, and tried to come over to smooth things out.  (As angry as I still was this was a poor move on his part.)

His conversation consisted of tell me that I was taking this whole thing out of context. The translation for this means, “I’ve been caught and could lose my job. Please don’t take this any further.”I told Cleo I knew exactly what he’d meant with his words 

Cleo explained he had no problems with large women. He had a female relative that was one. I explained my wife was a former large woman. I would never say those kinds of things to her. Why would you do that?

By this time, I knew my former complaint on Cleo had never been filed. I asked Cleo why he’d made the negative comment about the guy on the talk show. His answer just showed his outright stupidity. He believed anyone in Hollywood deserved to be made fun of.

Two customers later in the afternoon were memorable after my fiasco. An older woman in an electric wheel chair with a violet fisherman’s cap (had no use of her arms) needed to pick up a pair of café curtains.  Before we found the right product with the correct color and a “coffee” design, I helped to adjust her right arm correctly for comfort.

A Hawaiian gentleman with tattoos asked me about elephant ear plants. My brain only heard “elephant ears.” Away we went to the pet section for dog treats (lots of pig ears on the shelves). Eventually things got clarified, and we walked over to the Home and Garden center. This customer did not find what he was looking for, but both of these shoppers seemed to be pleased with the personal attention I gave them.

By now you know life is full of the good (sunshine) and the bad (rain). Always do the best with what your lot is in life. If something is important to you, stand your grounds no matter the personal repercussions. You can’t feel good about whom you are unless you make was is valuable to you a priority.