Gary

Many years ago, I was working in a kitchen, baking bread. I love baking. It is never work and I consider myself a good baker.

I worked for a woman who could not bake, but had been to culinary school. She gave everyone who graduated from the same culinary school she did a job. Right out of school, years of experience, did not matter. She hired them. At the cap. So they ended up making about $3 a hour less than me, who then had to train them.

One day, I get to work and there’s a guy in the dept. I do not recognize. I introduce myself, he says his name is Gary. I ask him what he’s doing there and he says he was hired by our boss. Okay, no problem. I go and find her, and ask why she hired him. “ he’s a culinary school graduate and will help us take our product to the next level, up a notch. This guy knows a lot about bread and ours is going to look spectacular!’ okay…but we didn’t need anyone. He’s extra. I can tell she’s irritated…” you’ll train him, he’ll train you and the bread will be the winner!!’ okay… no problem.

So I go back to work and ask him if he’s baked before. He quotes what school he’s been to and what awards he won when he was there. No problem. But have you ever baked as a profession? “No, but I know what I’m doing!’ okay, you got it. Let’s get the dough up on the table, you cut, I’ll shape. “sounds good. Please help me get the dough up on the table”….really, it’s maybe 25 pounds…” I don't want to ruin the gluten our mixer tried so hard to make!’ okay. No problem, let’s get it up on the table.

He asks me the weight of the loaf. 1 pound. The first cut is almost 2 pounds, second is a little better, but he is making a mess of this dough. I give him some advice…a pound of dough is roughly the size of a man’s hand, use that as a guide. He does not respond but uses my advice and we are off.

We work together off and on of the next week. He is okay, but I can tell the other bakers do not respect him. He will not join in our conversations and spends a lot of time speaking to our boss.

After about a week, he has loosened up a little more and will now participate in our conversations. I am on the bench, cutting and shaping, because he has to stay hydrated and take a break. So literally, the mixer is mixing, I am cutting and he is standing and watching us work. We’re laughing about something random and he makes a comment to disagree. I look at him and ask “what are you, nuts?”

He puts his water bottle down and leaves the kitchen. The mixer and I are so busy we don’t think anything about it, other than; maybe he needed to go to the bathroom.

15 minutes later, our boss comes to the kitchen and calls me to her office. She asks what I said to Gary. I really can’t remember and kind of brush her off. She is outwardly very mad and I cannot understand why. I recount the conversation to her, including the part about being nuts.

“And therein lies the problem. “

“What?”

“You asked him was he nuts. That offended him”.

If you know me, you know, that is a rhetorical question to me. I meant no harm and felt badly that I had offended him.

She said he left but was willing to come back to work if I apologized. I said of course I would. She said she would call him and to see if he would come in the next day.

I get to work the next day to begin my shift and my boss is in the kitchen waiting for me. “Gary would like to speak to you in my office”.

I walk in, close the door and offer him a genuine and heartfelt apology. I did not mean to offend him and felt bad about it.

He launched into a solid 10 minute diatribe about mental health and how words hurt and I should be ashamed of myself. Mental illness is a disease. Would I make fun of him if he had diabetes?! No, of course not. But I did not know he was mentally ill, and apologized again.

Our boss asked could he work with me. “of course, I am a consummate professional” (shoulders back, smug look).  Okay she says, then let’s get back to work!!

I got back to the kitchen and get started. But I am a little pissed of myself. We have been carrying this guy for the last week, he is not pulling his weight and now he’s offended? Guess what?! I’m offended.

He comes to the kitchen and I am cutting with a purpose. He cannot keep up and asks me can I help. I do but continue to cut like a fiend. I don’t want to be here. I’m pissed off. I just want to finish the day and go home.

We are working so fast, no one is talking. He tries to engage our mixer in conversation, but he can tell that I mean business and is working as fast I as I am to keep up. Our baker comes in and is like “whoa, what happened here?”

I don’t speak, just continue to work. We keep up this pace for 2 hours straight, when I announce that because of the pace we’ve kept and the amount of work we’ve gotten done, we’re going to do a little deep cleaning before we go home.

I can tell Gary is beginning to crack. And honestly, we aren’t even stretched out. He looks at me and says” I’m going to get a soda”….okay..

I am almost finished with 2^nd dough before I realize how long he’s been gone. Our mixer has gone to lunch and I ask him when he gets back did he see Gary in the break room, “nope”.

I peak in our boss’ office, empty. Take a quick look outside, nothing. Break room, empty.

This guy left.

The next day I get to work and asked my boss had she heard from him. No, but he was probably still embarrassed because of what I said to him....I think to myself..no, he was lazy and did not know or want to work hard.

A year goes by and I am shopping at Costco with my Dad. I would never buy anything from the bakery at Costco, but I always like to see what they have going on. I walk through the department, and then past their kitchen. It is open and you can talk to the bakers.

So, I’m standing there admiring their handy work, when I see someone I think I know. Cannot place where I know him from, but a few more seconds later and I realize its….GARY.

He does not see me. He walks away from me, into their back room.  I call one of the ladies behind the counter over and begin to chat with her. I ask lots of random questions and finally get her to name the people who do their production….”and Gary is our head baker”….what?!  seriously?!

I ask could I speak to him, I have a question about a bread they make. “Yes, of course, he loves to speak to our customers!”

I walk away from the window, because I know if he sees me, he’ll just turn around and leave.

He comes to the window, smiling. I approach him from the side.

“Hi Gary, did you ever get that soda?”

He turns white. His face, his lips, ears, everything, turns around and walks away. The young lady who had been helping me walks over..”did he answer your question?’

Yes he did.