If you could be remembered by one moment in your life for the rest of existence, what would it be?
Hm.
Here's a good story. But I promise it leads up to the one moment. I'll leave a TL;DR at the bottom for all you lazy folks.
I used to work at Blockbuster. I had a manager who was very lazy, and I often worked her shifts and did extra things outside my job to keep the store looking good and running well. She was a nice person but just not cut out to be a manager. She had a lot of personal life crap going on, and I was empathetic: sometimes too much so. We had a student program where students, often for so-called 'special needs' students who would come work 3 or 4 hours a week and get credit for school in lieu of pay. One of these students I'll call Caleb for privacy reasons.
Caleb was
awesome. I mean, I hated working at Blockbuster. I am not cut out for retail in general, and that store was shoddy in particular. But Caleb was always happy to be there. I guess his dad works as an actor and so movies were something he could really bond with his father over. He also had some mild autism. We'd set him to work restocking shelves and he'd get distracted reading the backs of movie cases. Something I would have begrudged an actual employee for doing (returns shouldn't take an hour!) but that's all we needed him to do, so I was glad he found enjoyment doing it. He was also great to talk to. He was enthusiastic about everything, always upbeat and positive. I don't have a bad word to say about this kid. He was 15 when he started working for us and when he turned 16 (minimum age to work there), he wanted to apply for a real job here during the summer.
My manager, who I'll call Karen, told him maybe. She was kind of spineless, and I knew her maybe meant no, but I was surprised. He was the
ideal employee and we'd suffered through a lot of crappy employees at the time. We needed more staff, too. In private she told me he was "a fucking retard." I was crushed. Not only was caught off guard -I'd never heard her say something so mean-spirited- but also Caleb was just so damn great. By the by, for whatever it's worth, although it was obvious his personality was 'different', he was as intelligent as I'd expect any person that age to be: not 'retarded' by any measure.
Anyway. One evening, I was working as the manager on-duty. I was trained as assistant manager but working as a shift supervisor until I officially received the promotion -our assistant manager, a wonderful human being by the fake-name of Jeremy was looking to be promoted to manager and get his own store.
Caleb shows up on this busy Saturday night, looking to start work. I was completely surprised. I had no idea he'd been hired, and no one told me he was going to come in. His mother was with him, and she seemed vexed at my surprised -one can hardly blame her. I ran to the back room to call Karen.
"Hey, did you hire Caleb after all?" There was a long, awkward pause.
"Oh... fuck... I might have... sort-of given him that impression."
"So... is he hired?"
"No, definitely not. Just tell him sorry for the miscommunication."
"Are you fucking kidding me Karen." I hung up on her. I'd rarely been angrier. I felt some kind of moral rage overcome me, and then, clarity, and a plan.
I was allowed to give job interviews. I was allowed to fill out hiring paperwork. The only thing I wasn't allowed to do was actually hire someone. But the assistant manager could. I called Jeremy. Jeremy readily agreed to sign the papers the next morning if I filled them out.
I left the office and ran back to the front. I explained to Caleb, and I am slightly ashamed of the lie, that the mix-up was that tonight was the job interview, a formality, as we had to have paperwork, and that we'd call him during the week with his first shift. I took him to the back room and did the interview. I did my due diligence, just in case Karen tried to stop anything: I got some references and called them. Solid. Everyone who'd met Caleb had great things to say about him.
I don't remember exactly when, but I had the privilege of calling Caleb and telling him his first shift. About two years after I quit, I ran into him, still working there. The only staff member I recognised as everyone else had moved on. And he remembered me, too. And that's when I felt really proud. That night, when I interviewed him and made sure he'd get hired, despite my superior's insistence that he not be... I did the right thing.
TL;DR: I went behind my manager's back to hire someone who deserved a job when she was being a jerk about it.