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John was angry. He sliced open the box with the cans in it and threw the box cutter onto the floor. He grabbed the cans and forced them into place in the shelf. How dare she? How dare she call him a bad manager, a terrible boss, and a toxic employer? He had built this business up from nothing. He was the reason people like her had work. When everyone told him there was no chance of anything succeeding in this neighborhood he had taken the chance, he had put in the long hours and the lean years to make this work. He was successful.

He finished the row of cans and pulled another box to him. He reached for the box cutter in his pocket and couldn’t find it. He had just had it. Where could it be? He patted all his pockets and looked around the cans he had just shelved. Great, just great. How was supposed to do this without the box cutter? Frustrated, he grabbed the box and ripped it open. He slammed the cans onto the shelf. When the box was empty he tore it apart and threw it in the corner. Looking down he saw his box cutter lying to one side where he had discarded it earlier. He snatched it up from the floor and shoved it back into his pocket. He grabbed the pieces of boxes and stuffed them into the recycling bin before flopping onto a chair.

How was he supposed to run a business if all his employees kept quitting? What was the matter with people these days that they couldn’t do an honest day’s work? He paid decent wages, not like the other stores. He didn’t care about the color of someone’s skin or their politics as long as they showed up on time, did their work, and helped keep the business going. He had even given a job to Diana when she was in recovery. He knew her history but gave her a chance. Everyone had said she wasn’t worth taking a risk on but he had. Then just like the others, she let him down by quitting part way through a shift. Just like Bobby, Carol, Henry, and that fellow whose name he always forgot. Why did he even bother?

“Hey, boss. Are you okay? ” Paul asked.

John looked up at the employee who had been with him the longest. “Whitney quit this morning.”

“Oh,” Paul shook his head. “I just came back here to see why she wasn’t out front.”

“She said she couldn’t take it anymore and quit without giving me any notice. I mean she’s a single mother, what is she going to do? I gave her a chance when no one else would and I was considerate when she needed her schedule modified because of the kids, wasn’t I?” John glared at Paul. “I even put that mirror up over there because she wanted somewhere to put in her contact lenses when the bathroom was occupied.”

“You did that for her. No question about that.”

“And what do I get? Grief. She says I’m hard to work with and angry all the time and a control freak.”

“You do like to have things done a certain way.”

“Of course, the right way.” John snorted. “If I let employees do whatever they thought was best, then things would fall apart around her pretty quickly.”

Paul shrugged.

“She had the audacity to say I was a monster when I called her ungrateful? Can you imagine that? Me?” John paused and glared at Paul. “Aren’t you supposed to be out front?”

Paul sighed. “I was just hoping that we wouldn’t be short staffed again today.”

“You can blame Whitney for that,” John said. “Get back out front. I don’t pay you to stand around yapping. I’ll help out again today until we find someone new. I mean what else can I do?”

“You could look in the mirror.” Paul muttered as he went out the door.

John glared at him and was about to tell Paul that he was fired when he caught sight himself in the mirror. A red-faced man with wild eyes looked back at him. The vein on his forehead was pulsing and the expression on the face was terrifying. John stared for the longest time. Where was the smile that he saw in his picture when he started this business? Where was the kind eyes which his mother always said he had? Where was the man who loved getting up each day to go to work? What had he become?

John felt his cheeks become wet. All the words his employees said to him as they quit came crashing down on him and he felt the sting of each truth that he had denied. He was harsh and cruel and unforgiving. He sat on the chair for a long time just letting the tears flow. Then he bowed his head and began to pray. He prayed for forgiveness and he asked for the wisdom to change. For John didn’t like the person he saw in the mirror.