You Will Be Nice To Yourself And You Will LIKE IT!

Let me tell you about what turned out to be one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. The job description was simple enough: working in a warehouse, packing up small orders for children’s toys to be shipped away. When I appeared for the interview, I knew this was going to be different; I noticed stickers on the walls of her office saying things like, “Positivity,” “Courage,” and, “Inner Strength,” as well as numerous motivational posters.

The owner hired me, and after she introduced me to her warehouse staff — all of them! — I quickly learned that she saw her staff more as family than as employees. For example, she didn’t like running operations in split shifts: we all started in the morning or we all started in the afternoon, and we all went on break at the same time. To be sure we all could make it to work, she actually bought a retired school bus that she would drive every weekday to pick us all up for work — which saved us a HECK of a lot of money on gas!

Each morning, we’d have a pep talk and review our progress as a whole; there were no separate departments. Occasionally, in the middle of the day, we would have to travel to another warehouse to pick up new shipments — and we all went as a group together.

Something I noticed throughout the warehouse was printed signs with “Self Bullying” in a red circle with a line going through it. I quickly found out what that was about when, one day, I was zoned out and realized I had screwed up an entire set of orders.

Me: “Oh, God, I’m an idiot! It’s right there, plain as day, and I screw it up like a moron!“

Immediately, my coworkers gasped and began vigorously shaking their heads “no,” like I had just used a string of profanities in front of a kid.

Owner: “Excuse me. Who said that?”

Me: *Defensively* “No, I was referring to myself. I was saying I was the idiot because…”

I started to explain my blatant error.

Owner: “I don’t care if you boxed up your muddy work boots and it got mailed to a customer. Would you have liked for me to come and scream what you said right to your face for making an honest mistake?”

Me: “No, but it was a dumb mistake—”

Owner: “I didn’t ask about the mistake. I asked you plain and simple: would you have liked it if I came and yelled what you said to your face?”

Me: “No. I wouldn’t.”

Owner: “Then why give yourself the same disrespect? Over here. This way! “

She escorted me to her office and pointed to a mirror on the wall that had a printed sign on it saying, “You are incredible!”

Owner: “Apologize to yourself. I mean it. And don’t smirk.”

I felt myself turn red as I apologized to myself in the mirror.

Owner: “Now stand there and think of ten positive things about yourself. Don’t come back until you do.”

She started to walk away.

Me: “Ten?!”

Owner: “That’s what I said.”

Having survived an abusive childhood, along with high school bullying and dealing with a serious self-image issue, I could barely come up with three! [Owner] let me back to work after about thirty minutes, despite my coming up with only six positive things. She made it clear that she wanted me to present a written list of ten positive things about myself by the end of the week — and she was serious!

It was after a few weeks of working there that I realized how much I had been subconsciously bullying myself on a consistent basis, and I realized I had to implement the same “zero-tolerance” policy at home as was enforced at work every time I had the urge to mutter to myself, “You’re such an idiot!” for leaving my fridge open or dropping juice on the floor.

Working like that as a family rather than as a group of coworkers helped me get over my social anxiety and eventually helped repair my badly damaged self-esteem.

I later learned from a close friend of [Owner]’s why she had such a low tolerance for self-bullying and was constantly promoting uplifting words. As it turns out, she had been married for nineteen years to a raging narcissist who had completely destroyed her psyche to the point where she ultimately tried to commit suicide because he had her feeling completely worthless.

Whatever therapy she went to after she’d left him DEFINITELY worked — so much so that she successfully passes it along to everyone else!

That job ranks as the best job I’ve ever had — and probably ever will have.

This story is part of our end-of-year Feel Good roundup for 2022!

Read the next Feel Good 2022 story!

Read the Feel Good 2022 roundup!