During my high school days, I took a retailing class where they showed a movie -- on actual film, not a video or DVD -- on how to interact with your employer.
A series of vignettes revealed a teenaged employee being questioned by their boss on some workplace issue. The teenager would reply and then the film, after posing the question "Did so-and-so say the magic words?" was stopped.
We would then discuss if the teenager’s response was appropriate. Or did they say the "magic words?"
If the magic -- a.k.a. totally inappropriate -- words were uttered, then the teen was fired when the film was turned back on.
It was a lesson on what not to say, when not to say it and how not to say it.
After all these years, I still remember that movie.
At the time, I thought it was kind of funny. Today, I wonder if the magic words even exist?
They apparently don't if you’re a productive professional athlete.
The Tigers' Delmon Young allegedly said a lot of magic words last Friday in New York, when he was arrested on a hate-crime harassment charge.
Young has been suspended for seven days by Major League Baseball and could return to the Detroit lineup this Friday against the Chicago White Sox.
Check that, he will return to the lineup because the Tigers need him.
Whether Young should ever wear a Tigers uniform again, that’s not for us to decide. That’s up to owner Mike Ilitch.
Well, Mr. I, did Delmon Young say the magic words?
The film has stopped, and we’re all waiting for your response.
