At the restaurant his feet felt squeezed with such pain that he lost all appetite for food and conversation, but being brought up to be polite he didn’t dare take off his shoes at the table. George forced himself to eat his sandwich and forced himself to laugh when the others would tell a joke, and when he thought that his feet couldn’t stand any more torment, he excused himself to go to the men’s room. He decided he would sit in one of the stalls and take off his shoes for a few precious minutes. But when George entered the bathroom, all the stalls were occupied. George stamped his feet in anger. Wouldn’t anything go right today? And he stamped his feet again but stopped when he realized the stamping only made his feet feel worse. In his agony he decided right then and there, next to the urinal, to pull the shoes off his feet, but when he grabbed for the lace to untie his shoe, Mr. Sammon walked in and loudly proclaimed, “Why George, those have got to be the brightest shoes I have ever seen!”
George was happy to receive such a nice complement from his boss, and let go of the lace as he pretended to be only tying his shoe. In fact he felt a little guilty for getting so angry at these handsome shoes.
So George went back to work and persevered through the day. He handled more traveler’s checks, payroll checks, saving bonds, and opened another IRA account for a customer.
But no matter how hard George worked, the pain grew worse, and it was almost impossible to concentrate. He was giving too much money to some of his customers while shortchanging others. Soon a few customers complained to Mr. Sammon on the mistakes he was making. “He’s gypping us!” “Watch that boy, he’s got itchy fingers!” “He’s drunk!” “He’s a thief!” “Such dishonesty should not be tolerated by a bank!” And a few customers even threatened to close their accounts. Mr. Sammon was disturbed by this news, but assured the customers that the matter would be swiftly resolved. As he summoned George to his office he thought how a bank must instill confidence and trust, nothing less will do.
“George,” said Mr. Sammon, “there seems to be a problem, I have received numerous complaints about your work from some angry customers. I would like an explanation. You even seemed to be in a peculiar mood at lunch today. Are you ill? Or is there a problem at home?”