Why I Was Too Busy at Work that I Accidentally Stole Something

By a show of hands, who here has all experienced a time when you rushed to get something finished and your brain was so frazzled by the end of the task, you made a mistake or did something without realizing it?

Yeah, I thought so. Even though I couldn’t see your hands raise, I know without a doubt that everyone has. I can’t tell you how many times I have, because these sort of blunders are almost as routine as washing my hands. But there is this one moment where I can thank my lucky stars it didn’t have a negative outcome. Or thank God. Or both!

Many moons ago in my pharmacy career back when I lived in the quaint small City of Westfield, Indiana, I was constantly rushing at the end of the night. There were more prescriptions needing filled in the queue each day than technician hours. And in corporate America, the new normal seems to be “increase productivity by reducing labor hours” which we all know does not work that way. This one particular night, I found myself scrambling around to fill the remaining thirty scripts in the queue within the last hour. My efforts to appease my cohorts opening the next morning seemed more important than a reasonable pace. You truly don’t understand this concept until you’re “unspoken-ly” reigned ‘the workplace whipping post.’

That night, we had a floater pharmacist closing with me and as you might already imagine it was just her and myself for the last five hours of the day. Unfortunately the politics of the pharmacy industry have worsened considerably since then in 2011. The fills remaining on the screen were only the automatic refills due for the following day. But there’s no worse feeling than starting out a shift with two pages of drugs to fill hours before the sun even rises. Somehow, I did it. The surprise was only due to the fact of working with a floater pharmacist who God bless her soul started her career in the days of apothecaries. Portia, if you are up in God’s kingdom by now, I say that with love and respect.

But my brain was so very tired. Not only did that mean filling the scripts, labeling them, and waiting for Portia to verify them–it also meant filing them away in the waiting bin. Also factor in putting away the stock bottles back to their respective shelves and the minor housekeeping of closing duties, and you had a very fretted Chuck/Carl by the time I was walking out to my van. In fact, I was only rushed out of the pharmacy because the the closing front-end supervisor was in a big hurry to leave (as per usual). So here I am using my key to unlock my driver’s side door.

The frigid negative twelve degrees on an icy December night in Indiana usually renders automated locks useless.

I climb into the seat so I could begin the wait for my windshield to defrost enough as I glance into my other hand. There I sat clattering my teeth in a freezing frenzy while noticing I was still holding onto my counting spatula. The pharmacy’s counting spatula. Let me tell you that theft of any reason is a bad thing, let alone from an environment which loss prevention and security are top priorities. I was mortified. I’d been running ragged the entire night and somehow my brain didn’t think to let go of it. To you, it was just a spatula. Thank goodness it wasn’t a stock bottle of medicine or something way worse, right? But theft is theft and I didn’t even intend to take it. My hand just never let it go.

I went into work the rest of the week wondering if someone had noticed, because it was the most favored counting spatula. You develop these sorts of preferences when you rely on something as simple as a spatula to help keep up a fast momentum. Obviously it was the most brought up subject behind the counter that following day and nobody let up on the subject the whole rest of the week until one of our favorite patients passed away and that became the new hot topic. Did I turn it back in? No, I didn’t.

I was too scared of the backlash it would have caused because I was already the resident whipping boy.

Neurodiverse adults tend to don some inscription on their forehead making them vulnerable to workplace bullying. And I was also not wanting to be watched like a hawk because I took something from the pharmacy. Since it wasn’t a drug bottle, and I would never have ever taken a drug bottle in my right mind, I didn’t want to unnecessarily add some target to my back. I’m just thankful it was something relatively innocent such as a spatula.

The moral of the story is, we too often are in a hurry and we make little mistakes. Steps are skipped and usually we become absentminded in what we’re doing. As we bring this week to a close, let this be a good reminder that God is in control of our lives and our feet, and we need not rush to the approval of others. While there is certainly something to be said for helping lighten the loads of our fellow man, we have to make sure that our ability to do so isn’t going to compromise the quality of our intentions. Sometimes, just sometimes, the morning techs will have to start out their shifts with a few extra things to complete.

Why I Almost Gave Up… but Now I Get to Give Out!

There’s a reason that we don’t know God’s plan until it happens. Lord knows that’s true for me in my life– and several times over. But you know? Through the disarray of my disrupted routine, it’s nice to be back on schedule… and a quite good one I might add. (I’ll touch on that a bit later.) Also at the end, take a listen to the lyrics in the Brandon Heath song. I find the relevance in his lyrical gifts to befit today’s topic.

But through it all– the suffering of my past year and the pure madness, God wasn’t giving up. He knew exactly where I was to be and now I am the Community Wellness Ambassador for a pharmacy chain in my city. And right now, the ONLY one I might add. It’s such a new role that none of our stores/pharmacies know much about it and the training required. It’s going to be an interesting training process, but yet again because I have faith in God, this will be an awesome thing.

To get all of you to understand just how I’ve reached my conclusion, I need to provide a bit of back story. I came from a torrential madness of an employer where fear and intimidation are used as motivators and success driven tools. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty damn well sure that fear and motivation should never belong in the same sentence. Psychologically, I know all too well of their game. But because it caused me to develop a heart condition that’s going to take a year of hard work to reverse, I had to get out of there– and with God’s grace I finally did. (More like forced upon me.) Months prior, I’d approached our iCampus pastor, Lonnie, a prayer request. This was a definite prayer that took some time to develop. Imagine a 35mm roll of film taking half a year to turn out.

But how do you know this was a blessing by God, Carl? Well that’s an excellent question and it didn’t take too much deduction to figure this out (after the fact). Most who know me in the flesh, know that I thrive best in a healthcare/pharmacy environment. Well it just took several months of waiting and enduring– much like the life of David– to reach my peace. I will call it bliss, but that would be gloating. But it feels idyllic and just right up my alley. In fact, it is the ONLY thing that’s had any semblance of working out since trying to get out of the former employer. (See: canned, fired for reasonable consequence because I tried suing them)

In the past month, I’d attempted to apply other places– all of which did not work in my favor. But I figured something great was coming. It didn’t change how frustrated I felt and with a rising blood pressure of 180/100 and a resting heart rate never lower than 120 bpm, being fired before having another job might have been a life saver. Though beforehand, I’d applied at an insurance company (which would have been yet another phone-desk job) but the pay was going to be phenomenal. I was stoked to apply and get hired, yet it didn’t happen that very minute. What did happen was ultimately my separation at the “then” employer and God’s immediate assistance in the form of food stamps, state health benefits and one of the quickest unemployment claims known to man!

Jesus had my six before I even realized it myself.

Well then my application and multi-level interview process arose for my “now” employer. The process took forever and I’d started losing hope in what I thought was the perfect job title since becoming a Host with the most at IHOP which was my very first paying job– decades ago I may add. But through their paperwork and procedure, I was finally called in for an interview at the insurance job. I was excited to just start somewhere– no matter where it would have been. But out of the pure power of God, I bombed that interview. I think I should note that I haven’t ever failed an interview in the history of my life. I hadn’t known the interview results at the time and was going through mental chaos trying to figure out if I wanted yet another desk-phone job that paid exactly $1/hr more than the pharmacy related job or if I’d take this job even though $160/month LESS wasn’t as appetizing.

Then it occurred to me– money is only an object. I am still making the best dang salary I’ve ever earned in my life thus far and I am content with the decision of pursuing the faith in my new role. Ultimately, I knew that I’d be happier being able to reach out to the community, touch lives and have a personal fulfillment knowing that I’m actually helping people live well in their own worlds. And money cannot put a price tag on happiness. The hours? Oh yeah, they allow me to be very active in the online congregation activities that my Church home in Carmel, Indiana (Northview Church) has going on. This means my schedule will be bankers hours and Monday through Friday. Hello, iCampus EVERY Sunday! I am enthralled that my spiritual journey will not become affected by a hectic work schedule. Now that my friends, this is the definition of pure divine intervention and after the bedlam that was my life before, I can realize and respect it was a result of God’s fine tuning. Thank you Jesus, for the blessings and the perseverance when I wanted to just throw in the towel several times over the past year. And thank you to Lonnie and the prayer team at Northview for helping me keep the faith (though sometimes with a very thin shred of hope).

Instead of giving up, I finally get to give out– pouring out love, enthusiasm and becoming a prominent and very influential advocate for living well in my community. That right there is how I know God’s always in control no matter when we think we are or not. Now that my oatmeal is consumed, I get to jump in a hot shower and praise God for His handiwork. Then I’ll slide on my shirt and tie before skedaddling out the door to a job where I will finally enjoy going each day. But without God, I am nothing. So again, huge thanks to the Big Man on Campus for making my reward of perseverance and suffering such a humbling yet exciting opportunity for the new chapter in my life.