“They’re not throwaways,” retiree says
Photo by Robert Hoetink
When he ran a tree and shrub business in Edmonton, Alberta, Bill Bock made regular visits to the Bissell Centre employment office to hire casual help. Now, at 87, he still visits, but for a different reason. He goes as a volunteer, helping laborers (two or three a day) connect with employers. He then drives them to their work site or gets the employer to pay for a taxi. Bock started this informal mission after his wife died a decade ago, and he needed something to do. He talked to the folks at Bissell about matching people there with companies. He’s been at it ever since. As he wanders around the premises wearing a trademark black cap with a red maple leaf, workers approach him for help. Many have skills in drywall, carpentry, painting and plumbing. They want to work, “and they want to work badly,” Bock says. Being jobless adds to all the other problems of poverty, says Bock, who grew up during the Depression and recalls his “What if you and I had all our business affairs opened and examfamily struggling to afford food. “They’re ined at death and reported in the daily newspaper? What if all the depressed because they think they’re worthreaders could see our income statements, our balance sheets, our less. The first thing I do is try to make them corporate minutes? How would our Christian faithfulness be diagfeel they have something to offer. That they nosed? are not throwaways.” “Would such business autopsies reveal to our fellow church As an individual volunteer, Bock says members that we died in good spiritual health? That we tried to he can help people more readily than formal carry out our Christian responsibilities? programs slowed by “Would the autopsies show that we paid adequate bureaucracy. “If you wages and benefits? That we charged fair prices? That can do something our business practices were in harmony with what we independently of the said we believed? That we handled conflict with love and system, and assist the compassion? That we gave generously? system, it’s worth“I don’t care if they open my body to discover the while.” cause of death. But what would my brothers and sisters He believes his discover if they could see the inside of my business?” — work makes a difJohn H. Rudy in Moneywise Meditations: To Be Found ference. “You take a Faithful in God’s Audit personal interest in a person that is despondent, and you can Overheard: “One day your life will flash before your eyes. save a life,” he says. — Edmonton Journal Make sure it’s worth watching.” — Anonymous
Business autopsies
5
The Marketplace January February 2016
