Wild Oats Employee Nailed

©peterguess. Image from BigStockPhoto.com

In my last post I talked about the nail I discovered in my father's old boots.

This problem was brought to my attention with even newer shoes a few years ago. I used to do the employee benefit program for Wild Oats. It was a lot of fun to do and quite challenging.

I was leaving from the store after working on several employees. One of the employees I hadn't worked on stopped me. "You have to work on me. I have terrible sciatica and the pain is overwhelming." he said.

I just whipped open my portable chair right in the middle of his department. I had him sit down and take off his shoes and socks. He took off his shoes. I said,"Is the pain on the right side?"

He was quite puzzled that I knew which side it was on. I said, "That is easy. Your sock on your right foot has a perfect hole and the left one doesn't." With that I reach inside his brand new boots and found the culprit. It was a very sharp nail that apparently had been a misfire in the manufacturing process.

The employee had spent a lot of money on these boots and was quite angry about his defective boots. I said that that was the downside of assembly line shoe making. Even expensive shoes can be mishandled.

The nail was directly working on his sciatic nerve which stirrups around the heel. And the reason he didn't feel it in the foot reflected what my father learned. The foot has incredible pain killing abilities. Unfortunately that is not always a blessing. It can be a pain in the butt.

Kevin Kunz