The Door

In 1989 I was on my way down the stairs from my office on the third floor, when I arrived to the ground level were we had our food storage I saw that the door was open. It was a door that I had imported from Sweden a real heavy door with a barn key, this so nobody should be able to brake in or things could be taken out without my knowledge. I had given the barn key to our store manager let’s call him Albert.

I was now standing right in front of the storeroom and saw three rats big as cats running out from the store room, honestly I am big but I jump higher than any Asian cat and sounded like a wounded mouse. After I cooled down I called the attention of Albert and asked him why in the heck he allowed the store room door to be opened. I was so angry maybe because I lost my status as a Viking when I jumped and screamed in front of all the workers.

I now told Albert that I did not want that door to be opened anymore and he promised me by saying in a very nice way “promise Sir” I went on to my daily tasks and did not think about it anymore.

The next day to my horror I saw that the door was opened again, I lost my Swedish calm and shouted to little Albert “I don’t ever want to see this door open again, Do you understand, next time I will see it opened again I will fire you, do you understand?” He looked down on the floor and answered with a low voice “yes sir” Now I had made my point and I was sure it would work out to everybody’s best. I thought that my communication with Albert was crystal clear so I was back to my Swedish calm spirit again.

The next morning it was inventory day and I called Albert to my office and said that we together should go down to the store room and make an inventory. He looked at me with his big brown eyes and with a little smile on his face. We walked down together and I asked nicely for the barn key and he politely gave it to me. I put in the big key in the keyhole and tried to open the door but somehow it was jammed. I tried to pull harder and now my Swedish Viking cool started to fade away once again. Albert just stood quietly behind me and said nothing. After a couple of minutes trying to open the door I gave up and turned to Albert and said, what the heck is going on? He looked at me and with a big smile and said with a calm voice I nailed it sir. He had nailed it with 24 nails in the belief that he would not be fired. Have you ever seen a boiling Viking with the horns on the helmet turning towards the matador?

I am still learning and the moral of the story is that I was wrong and he was right BUT it Hurts……..