Since the time that Steven finished school, I had graduated from university and starting working in the telemarketing industry. Because of my age I was finding it difficult having supervisors that in some cases were barely 18 years old. I had more life experience and office experience then any of these supervisors. It wasn??™t easy for me to take orders from these people. I felt they were still wet behind the ears so to speak.

In May of 2002, I started working for a call center here in Montreal. It was a relief not to be in telemarketing. Instead of having to make calls I received calls as a customer service representative. Finally I had a legitimate job in a well run company. The supervisors came in all ages and there was another important difference besides the age factor ??“ these supervisors were experienced and had a genuine concern and respect for the teams that worked for them.

My first supervisor was Robert, he was a great guy unfortunately I only had him for a week before I was transferred to another supervisor. I only had the second supervisor for a short while as well because she had an evening shift and I had a day shift. It just was not practical. Finally I was offered a position in a newly formed team that would service the clients of a very large American Bank. When I told my friends in the call center about it they said that it was an honour to be chosen. Even though I had only been with the company for about a month to be chosen for the new team meant that you had to be GOOD! When I told them that my new supervisor was to be Kondwani, they told me that I had lucked out. Kondwani was the favourite supervisor on the call center floor at that time. Everyone loved him.

The day came and I started working for Kondwani. He was everything that they said that he was. Kondwani was friendly and very personable. He had a genuine concern for all of his team members and he was fair to everyone. You would never see him showing favouritism and he did what he could for every single member on the team that needed his help. It was such a pleasure working for him.

Though Kondwani was young I did not feel offended that he was in fact my supervisor and not vice visa. Kondwani treated me with respect and I appreciated him for it. I really loved Kondwani as a supervisor and as a human being.

I came home one evening not long after I got onto the team and mentioned something that Kondwani had said during the day that I particularly liked. My son who had never really paid attention to the names of my supervisors before looked up and said what did you say his name was again? When I told him Steven told me that my supervisor was little Kondi from his school.

???No way???, I said.

Montreal is a big city with close to 3 million people on the Island so what was the odds that this would be the same Kondi from his youth?

Well Steven said does he come from Africa? Is he about my age? Is he kind of quiet and at the same time very nice? And how many people have you heard of with the name of Kondwani?

I had to admit I never heard that name before. I went back to the call center the next day and asked Kondwani if he could be the same person and lo and behold he was the one!

Only a mother would understand what I am about to say but in the team I was a mother figure at the time to the male team members who were all about my son??™s age. In my heart Kondwani was my supervisor and I respected for that but he was my son as well. His joys would become my joys and his successes would become my successes.

Our team was very upset when we had to transfer over to another supervisor to accommodate the needs of the call center. It was hard saying goodbye to Kondwani. Kondwani reassured me that I was going to have another good supervisor.

I didn??™t believe him.

I could not imagine any other supervisor being as nice as he was to his team. I went to the new team with a heavy heart. There was no way Brigitte could ever mean as much to me as Kondwani.

But I was wrong!

Brigitte is one superb lady. She has helped me so much since I have been on her team. There is no way that I will be able to thank her enough.

Let??™s face it I am just a softie. I love everyone who loves me back! But I did learn one important message from all of this: just because you are older it doesn??™t necessarily mean that you are wiser. Kondwani told me I would like Brigitte and that she would be just as nice as he was and he was right!

Little Kondi the smartest kid in the class turned out to be a very wise man indeed.

Carol Roach

winterose@videotron.ca

If you enjoyed this story and would like to read more of my work please contact me at my email address: winterose@videotron.ca or you can join my newsletter storytime_tapestry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Stay tuned for my book: Picking Up The Pieces: A Woman??™s Journey which will be out in bookstores, at www.publishamerica.com and www.amazon.com within the next month or two.  I like to thank all of you who have supported me all these years and encouraged me to write the book.  I will be eternally grateful.