A gray-haired woman stood in front of the classroom filled with bored students, a stack of flyers clutched in her arms, a blue shopping cart behind her. A young man walked through the door, smiled politely and attempted to walk past her, but she blocked his path. “Good day,” she said, stepping in front of him, “and welcome to Kafka Mart, or as we call it, K. Mart. Would you like a wagon today? How about a flyer with all of our current specials?”

The young man said a quiet, “Thank you,” took a flyer from her hand and rushed on passed her. He walked out the other door, closing it behind him. As soon as the door shut, the trainer, a man, roughly in his thirties, who had been sitting behind the desk in the corner of the small room, stood up and walked over to the older woman.

“Very good A.,” he said, gesturing towards the door, “Thank you.” He turned back to the class as she left the room. “What did we learn from this demonstration?” The classroom remained silent. The trainer looked at the faces of his new hires; some showed mild comprehension, others were twisted in thought, and still others were totally devoid of expression. He was already dividing them into their separate workstations. “Well,” he continued, “What happened just now?” A couple of tentative hands rose. The trainer singled out an intelligent looking college student. “Yes, J., what did you see?”

“Well, she greeted him, but he ignored her,” J. said.

“Yes, and what should we learn from that?” Again hands rose. The trainer called on a different person, a young woman.

“We should learn that some customers are going to be rude, but we have to be polite to them,” she said. J. very nearly had to bite his lips to keep himself quiet until the trainer responded to this, as it was the first day of his new job and he didn’t want to be singled out as the argumentative employee.

The trainer paced in front of the group for a few seconds, fingering the large carriage standing just below the empty blackboard. When he finally turned around he looked right at J. “You disagree, Mr. J.?” he asked.