Respect has to be Earned
By: Juliano Righetto
Tags: Careers, Life Lessons, Store, Boss, Workplace

When he arrived at the store and saw me sitting on the cashier’s stool, he was angry. I didn’t understand why. He called the manager in a corner and said something to her. A few moments later, he started attending a client. The man was an EXCELLENT salesman. While the shop’s salespeople sold one, two, three clothing pieces, he sold twenty. During the service, he explained the “proposal” for the pants she wanted to buy.

I was fascinated… Did a pair of pants have a “proposal”? I paid attention to what he was saying.

But it only pissed him off even more…

A few moments later, he came to the manager — who was talking to me — and said, “Ask that cashier to buy me a coffee!”.

Wait… Why didn’t he speak to me directly?

That was not my job, but I did when the manager placed the order. And I left the store. She came with me:

SHE — Juliano, are you enjoying working here?

ME — Yes, why?

SHE — Because the owner said he would fire you.

ME — (SURPRISED) Why ???

SHE — He is angry because he arrived at the other store in the mall and saw the cashier there with his back to the door, sitting on the bench, talking on the store’s phone on a private call. When he saw you sitting, he got even angrier! I told him that you are an excellent employee, so he decided not to fire you… But you need to stand up whenever he is in the store. And you should ignore what he says to customers.

I returned to the store very angry but determined to keep my job. So I stood in the middle of the cashier’s counter like I was a soldier at Buckingham Palace. I attended them all with the same resourcefulness as one and left.

I wasn’t fired, but…

My relationship with the owner, however, has always been terrible. He never looked me in the eye. He always treated me as if I wasn’t there, giving orders to the manager who passed them on to me.

My colleague, the other cashier, was astonished:

HE — How can you not find the store owner the best? He’s the famous So-and-So! Owner of this well-known brand! He’s a millionaire!

ME — Yes, because he came out of nowhere and became a millionaire, I admire him. But I can’t respect someone who judges other people according to their bad mood. I am one of the most dedicated employees in his stores, and all he sees is the boy sitting on the bench on a day when he was angry with benches.

And Christmas came

Our bad relationship lasted until the end of the year, a time when stores are crowded. Our case, in particular, was worse. It was a time of hyperinflation in Brazil, so those who used a credit card paid more for their purchases. And the store staff discovered a loophole: if we gave a specific type of invoice — which took ages to complete — they would save on taxes.

That caused gigantic queues at the cashiers. We still didn’t use printers to fill invoices; everything was done by hand, so each customer was at least forty-five minutes waiting for his turn.

It was on one of the days of December, then, that my relationship with him began to change

I was at the register with my friend and another girl. Around us were dozens of customer bags. It was impossible to walk inside the cashier’s counter, which formed a square at the store's center.

While I was answering someone, the store owner, who was talking to another customer, turned to me — the manager was away, so he finally had to speak to me directly — and said:

HE — Take the ashtray from the store that I want to show her!

The ashtray was a silver piece that he had made to sell with that collection. I looked where the ashtray was: on the other side of the counter. I looked at the floor: there was no way for me to get there because the bags prevented me from walking inside. Outside, however, the store was not that crowded. He, the owner, could reach the ashtray with some ease, just bypassing the box. So I looked at him… And I laughed.

HE — (ANGRY) What are you laughing at?

ME — Sorry… But I can’t get there. Can’t you take the ashtray yourself?

HE — (PISSED OFF) Are you refusing an order from me???

ME — (TRYING TO BE POLITE) I suggested that you look for the ashtray because, as you can see, it is not possible to walk inside the counter since we have so many sales to process. I’m just trying to make your store work as well as possible. Could you, then, please, catch the ashtray yourself?

He looked at me with the expression of the man in the picture above… And he went to get the ashtray. When he left the counter, I said goodbye to my friends. I was sure I would be fired that night.

For that, I did not expect…

When the store closed and all the customers left, the owner decided to go too. He said goodbye to each of the employees, wishing them Merry Christmas… And he came to me. I expected the scolding, but what he said was:

HE — (SINCERE) Merry Christmas, Juliano. And thank you for making my store work as well as possible.

It was the first time he greeted me since I started working at that store!

The fact that I imposed myself, the fact that I showed him that I was doing a greater good by maintaining my position than being a doormat, made him finally respect me.

From that day on, every time we met, he was friendly to me.

That did not stop him from firing me almost a year later, but this is another story…

What matters here is that we know that when we do the right thing, sooner or later, even people who are totally irrational and as beastly as that man will recognize it.

And that is how you earn respect. Without intimidating, without pressing… Just doing, with conviction, the right thing.

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