Mister B.
was one of the kindest and most honorable persons that I have ever known.
He owned and ran a distributorship for appliances from a western state.
He was very successful for many years until a recession hit.
Many appliance stores and distributors had to close their doors.
Mister B.
wanted to stay opened.
He knew this time would pass, but he had to hold on.
During the successful years he blessed his employees with bonuses and shopping sprees at the local supermarket, including a Christmas ham and turkey.
This year people were not buying appliances as they had in the past.
This caused a great strain on Mister B.
finances.
He did not want to lay off or fire anyone.
He did need to reduce expenses since the economy was taking its toll.
He was forced to cut back on overtime and bonuses.
As the year cut dramatically into his profits, it was difficult to remain in the black.
When the end of the year came he found the business could no longer afford the extravagant shopping spree.
This year his instructions to the supermarket was the employee could have either a turkey or ham and only enough side items for one meal.
He explained that he had to cut back at an employees meeting before the gift certificates were issued.
I was not one of Mister B's employees.
I represented one of the appliance manufacturers that supplied the distributorship.
However, about two weeks prior to Christmas I received one of the annual gift certificates as I had for the preceding years.
I thought this was great, because I knew that merchandise was not moving as it had in previous years.
I believed that Mister B.
was doing all that he could to help all of his employees.
In spite of what he was doing just to hang on to his business, several employees were disgruntled.
They never missed an opportunity to badmouth Mister B.
for how he had treated them.
However, one brave employee stood up and reminded them that they still had jobs that would have been eliminated by anyone else.
That employee also reminded them that the former shopping spree was too costly to continue since the economical down turn.
Mister B.
was doing the best he could, he just did not have the funds that he previously enjoyed.
We all need to remind ourselves that we need to be real before we criticize others and that in similar circumstances we might not be as generous.