LatinosUSA

That’s Rose. We call her the Riveter. Sometimes we call her the Captain. She knows more than the rest of us. She even knows more than the bosses. Sometimes she tells them what’s what, but they know she’s only trying to help, and she isn’t being disrespectful. Sometimes she acts like a cheerleader. She says we should all go to the restroom and splash water on our faces. She says a little cold water can open the pores and restore our esprit de corps. She takes calls like the rest of us and makes them too, but then she takes her headset off and gathers us around. She tells us when reports are due, orders released, quantities adjusted, backorder ETAs. This morning she tells me we have to start cancelling backorders. Cancelling backorders? I say that’s not right. I track them, I negotiate with the customer, expedite rushes –and oh: call the warehouse and get them to double check and make sure there isn’t any 23-280 squirreled away behind a pile of skids somewhere. Remember the hundred chair mats we didn’t know we had? The customer sent a case of Chardonnay he was so grateful. No backorders. With just-in-time production. Rose shrugs. The customer, we say it together, is always –wrong. We chuckle. Splash water on our faces. Put our headsets on and get ready for the next round of calls.