Great piece in the Washington Post this morning about Sally Dickerson, who works in a checkout lane at a Safeway store in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The reason for the piece? Dickerson is 85 years old, and has been working for Safeway since September 12, 1955. “Dickerson is the oldest of Safeway's roughly 200,000 full time employees across the country and has been working for the company for more than half a century,” the Post writes. Not has she worked with generations of employees, but she has seen generations of customers walk through her checkout lanes.
The Post writes: “Dickerson wakes up each morning at 2:30 to get ready for work. She has breakfast, then drives from her home in Bowie to the store in Silver Spring. From the start of her shift at 5 a.m. until it ends at 1:30 p.m., Dickerson is on her feet. She doesn't stop to eat and hates taking lunch breaks. The lull puts her to sleep, she said. She needs to keep moving.
“On a recent afternoon, she stood watch over checkout lane No. 1, the express line. Her hands flew over the register -- bananas, code 4011 -- and she bagged groceries in seconds. She drummed her fingers when another employee was slow to bring bus passes to one of her customers, slowing down the line … Dickerson worked so quickly that soon there was no one left to ring up. So she started teasing her co-workers with her famous razor-sharp tongue. Knight said the one thing that hasn't changed about Dickerson over the years is her wit. Whenever he broaches touchy subjects like slowing down or buying a hearing aid, she quickly dismisses him.”
Retirement, Dickerson tells the Post, isn’t on the schedule. She’s too busy even to think about it.
The reason for the piece? Dickerson is 85 years old, and has been working for Safeway since September 12, 1955. “Dickerson is the oldest of Safeway's roughly 200,000 full time employees across the country and has been working for the company for more than half a century,” the Post writes. Not has she worked with generations of employees, but she has seen generations of customers walk through her checkout lanes.
The Post writes: “Dickerson wakes up each morning at 2:30 to get ready for work. She has breakfast, then drives from her home in Bowie to the store in Silver Spring. From the start of her shift at 5 a.m. until it ends at 1:30 p.m., Dickerson is on her feet. She doesn't stop to eat and hates taking lunch breaks. The lull puts her to sleep, she said. She needs to keep moving.
“On a recent afternoon, she stood watch over checkout lane No. 1, the express line. Her hands flew over the register -- bananas, code 4011 -- and she bagged groceries in seconds. She drummed her fingers when another employee was slow to bring bus passes to one of her customers, slowing down the line … Dickerson worked so quickly that soon there was no one left to ring up. So she started teasing her co-workers with her famous razor-sharp tongue. Knight said the one thing that hasn't changed about Dickerson over the years is her wit. Whenever he broaches touchy subjects like slowing down or buying a hearing aid, she quickly dismisses him.”
Retirement, Dickerson tells the Post, isn’t on the schedule. She’s too busy even to think about it.
- KC's View:
