Taking A Loss for Your Values

This story was recently shared with us by my friend:

“As a philosophy major, turned last minute English major, my husband John graduated college with little to no clue as to what to do with his life. He took a job working for a high end retail chain where the pay was decent and the employee discount would come in handy as we started to furnish our newlywed apartment. John generally enjoyed working with customers and selling the various product lines, but he simply wasn’t happy working in retail. One evening a man came in with his young son and demanded a full return on an item that was no longer in stock. He also didn’t have his receipt. John tried to accomodate him, but without his reciept it was impossible for him to give the man a full price return onto his credit card. The man became irate and began swearing at my husband. John then walked away from his register and refused to help him any further. At least not until the man apologized for swearing…not at my husband, but for swearing in front of his young son. I too worked retail and my response to this story was “What? Are you nuts?”

This would be one of the last days my husband ever worked retail. The customer complained, his boss wasn’t pleased

After leaving his job in big box retail, my husband became a teacher. This meant he would have to go back to school and our dreams of owning a home would be put off a little while longer, but John refused to work in an enviroment that wasn’t condusive to his values. Now, as you might have guessed, there is a zero tolerance policy on swearing and hurtful language in his classroom. Except, now he is praised for it by parents, peers and principals alike. And he couldn’t be happier.”

Are you willing to take a loss for your values?