“The Temper on Thomas” | Insight Mentality Podcast Ep.5: Follow Yeti Voice everywhere:
The Story:
I first met Thomas when his brother Spencer asked me to hire him. Spencer was one of our best sales people and regularly topped the KPI charts. Spencer told us about Thomas, and I agreed to meet with him, along with two of my colleagues. I had a good feeling about Thomas from the start. He was focussed, he was eager, and he was extremely honest - to the point of overdoing it.
He was gigantic, too. A house of a gent, with muscles for days and a close buzzcut that gave off the distinct impression that this was a man who could have done some serious damage if he had wanted to. He was a weightlifter and seemed to grow even more during the time I knew him. Despite his intimidating stature, he was easy-going, kind, patient, thoughtful, and very slow to anger.
Our first meeting covered some changes he would need to make, including to his choice of words - but nothing major. His cultural profanity was charming in a social setting, but may have lost us some clients. He understood that, and agreed not to use that language in store.
We agreed he would be a good addition to the team and brought him on board.
On his first day, he was on time, tidy, and helpful. He mucked in, asked questions, and got on well with everyone on the team - except for the assistant manager of the store, David.
David had an issue with Thomas’ social grouping and proclaimed that “Chavs have no place in retail.” It’s a common slur aimed at the hip-hop-centric London youth culture. It’s offensive as slurs come, and did not sit well with Thomas.
He came over to me and asked me what he should do about David. I advised him to not rise to the taunting, to learn to outperform David, and to keep telling me whenever these incidents occurred.
For months, Thomas dealt with David’s disdain and offensive language. Despite many interventions with David and Thomas, nothing improved. David kept up the offensive slurs, and Thomas’ patience wore thin.
Despite the conditions, Thomas became hugely popular with the rest of the team and with clients. He was great, made sales, kept things tidy, and had a great attitude… as long as David wasn’t around.
Like any high school bully, David saw something in Thomas that triggered insecurity within himself. David was overcome with the need to get rid of Thomas, at any cost.
One very unlikely day, David and Thomas were working the same shift. They got through the whole morning before David began to mouth off at Thomas. After months of swallowing s*** sandwich after s*** sandwich, Thomas had reached his limit. As David brought his barrage to a crescendo, Thomas turned toward him, and with just his right index finger, cornered David’s back against a wall. Veins were popping out of Thomas' neck and temples. He had locked his eyes on David’s eyes, who was at this point in a position many bullies find themselves in when cornered - he was too scared to speak or move.
Thomas pinned him there for a few seconds, locked in a death-stare, before spitting out one furious syllable, “CHIEF!!!” (London slang for an extremely unintelligent person). Thomas held his stare for a few more seconds, apparently deciding what to do next - weighing up his options. In the end, he decided to turn and walk away, leaving David to slump down the wall in a depressed heap.
Thomas wasn’t punished for this. He had shown extreme resilience over months of endless abuse, and had finally snapped - but stopped himself from doing anything we would have had to act on. David tried to dispute that he had been needlessly harmed “for no reason,” but ultimately was given an ultimatum; stop your prejudice, or stop working with our team.
There are a few lessons to be learned from this.
- Taking a chance on the underdog can be a powerful decision: Thomas’ performance was awesome.
- Long-term team members are not worth protecting at the expense of other less-experienced team members.
- Anyone who behaves with intolerance, prejudice, racism, and aggression are not good team members.
Have you experienced anything like this? What did you learn? Drop a message in the comments and share this post with anyone you think may need to read it.
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💡 Jeff Allen is the Yeti at YetiVoice. YetiVoice is focused on Marketing, Content, Training, and Consulting.
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