Bosses

I was just sitting here thinking of the bosses I have had in my life. I guess you might say that every person I ever worked for was, in a way, a boss. It was my job to keep them happy. Then if you wanted to stretch things you might say it was my job to keep audiences happy too if I wanted recommendations and referrals. With another stretch of the imagination you might say that it was my job during my working career to keep hundreds of thousands of people satisfied.

I can only recall one really dissatisfied client and darned if they didn’t call and invite me back two years later. I declined.

The truth without stretching it is that once I and my family moved in 1961 from Detroit to Battle Creek, Michigan I always considered myself sort of a “free agent.” My boss was located 112 miles away and I only saw him once or twice a year. Somehow I managed to keep all of my railroad bosses that same 112 miles away from me right up until my retirement in 1983.

When I hear people talking badly about a miserable, inconsiderate, demanding boss they must deal with on a daily basis all I can relate to is a produce manager in the Varsity Market in Detroit who I worked with one summer just before I turned thirteen years of age. In that case after weeks of abuse and being shorted on my actual hours, like the lyrics of that song say, “I told my boss where he could shove it.”

Before this moment, I never realized how blessed my life has been without having a boss hanging around my elbow.