Closed Captioning

My crystal today comes from my husband. He shared with me the most wonderful story last night. Michael works in retail and has been in management for several years. Michael’s management style includes hard work, loyalty, honesty, fairness and integrity. Often times Michael is perceived as a “tough” manager, but once you work for him and understand his expectations, he really is a “great” manager to work for.

In his business there are times when management and an employee are not a good fit. There are challenges and struggles that make the working relationship unproductive and not a positive environment to work. One solution, “transfer” the employee to another location and in return receive another employee. When this happens, a store will not give up their best employee, but rather one that is not a good fit for that management team. Do you see where I am going with this?

Well, this scenario recently happened with Michael. Due to a transfer, he now has a young man working for him who has a hearing impairment. Because of his hearing impairment, he has difficulty talking. Michael knows there were challenges with this young man at his previous store, however; Michael wipes the slate clean and lets the young man know, this is a fresh start and all is well with his new store. So far, this employee has been working out great for Michael. The young man is a hard worker and has proven himself to be loyal.

Yesterday, the young man needed to complete a required CBT (Computer Based Training) course. This course takes an average of 2.5 hours to complete. There is a substantial amount of reading followed by comprehension questions. After 45 minutes the young man brought his printed certificate of completion to Michael. Michael looked at his watch, looked at the young man and looked at the certificate. Michael was puzzled; this CBT course takes 2.5 hours. Thinking the young man had not completed all of the required modules, Michael signed on to his computer. All of the modules were completed and all the comprehension questions were not only answered but were 100% correct. Michael looked at the young man and said “how did you do it?” The young man looks at Michael and says “closed captioning.” Michael smiled and gave the young man a high five. The young man with a sincere voice says to Michael, “people think I am stupid, because I can’t hear and I talk funny. My Mom taught me how to read when I was a little boy, I have been watching closed captioning since I was 2 years old. I am smart.”

When Michael shared this story with me, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Emotions of how this young man has had to struggle his whole life with other people’s perception of him because of his hearing impairment. How people are treated differently because of their impairments. But more importantly, I was grateful. Grateful that my husband treats people fairly, he gives them a chance. There are many stories like this one; Michael is a good person and he leads by example. I am grateful Tara and Lily have his example and know they will continue to learn so much from their Daddy.