soupy says

I attended the “state of the company 06″ meeting before work today. They fed us delicious coffee. They are also fed us delicious corporate propaganda. I happily slurped up both.

Yum.

Yes, that’s right. I have become a company cheerleader. I work for a major retailer (I am not saying which company here because sometimes that causes trouble). In the past, I have not had the best of times working for for-profit companies. For example, everyday I worked at Best Buy, I felt my soul draining from my heart (ok, slight exaggeration).

My current employer won me over by their fantastic employee benefits. A living wage for everyone (ok, I don’t know about the cleaning staff). They also really do give a damn about customer service. Really. Every employee I’ve asked says they like working for the company, and so far I do too. However, what really warmed my heart was to hear that life partners get the exact same benefits as marriage partners. Company Policy.

I attended the all girls camp Kickapoo Kamp in Kerrville, TX for three summers. Since the time I spent there occured during middle school, the summers weren’t all the best of times. However, I looked back on the experience positively, and I decided to apply for a counselor position before the end of my freshman year of college. I remembered my cabin leaders as being cool ass college kids, and it seemed like fun (especially if I could get assigned grades other than 6th - 8th). I sent an email and requested an application to be apart of the Kickapoo team. However, on the application I came to a question:

Do you have any tendicies toward homosexuality? Explain.

I stopped and stared at it. This section wasn’t optional.

Due to the relationship of trust imposed upon us and each of our staff members, it is imperative that only persons of the highest fitness - mentally, morally, physically, and psychologically - be employed to work at our camp.

This particular question was sandwiched between questions concerning “records of criminal acts” and “any job related injury.”

I closed the application.

Next year, I thought again about to the last year’s aborted application process. I wanted to be apart of Kickapoo. I requested the application again. Again, I came to the question:

Do you have any tendicies toward homosexuality? Explain.

Again, I couldn’t answer it. I wanted to do this. But I just couldn’t answer that question.

It was the first time I remember making such a hard line decision based on my values. These weren’t values that were passed down by my church, school, government or family. I had developed these values for myself. I could not work for an organization that asked a question such as Kickapoo did.

I will stand up and sing to all about my current employeer. I am proud to drive sales until I leave to spend the next two years of my life in a hut someplace.