Illiterate labourers and medical examinations

This is a little story from the start of my career. The message is about recognising opportunities not being judgemental.

I started out working for the British Steel Corporation. I worked for them during my summer vacations from University. Every year I had to have a medical examination. It was the most thorough examination I’ve ever had. It included blood tests and lung function. The works had its own medical centre and they took it all very seriously. The work was potentially dangerous both in the immediate term and the long term effect it could have on you (hence the regular checks on lung function).

I was waiting in line to see the nurse. There were several of us, and we had all been given forms to fill in. I expect you can imagine the kind of thing: lots of tick boxes and questions like: “Have you ever had…?”. We were also all given jars to pee in. The man ahead of me in the queue was obviously a foreigner. He took a long time with this form. Eventually, when nobody else was looking he got my attention and asked me to help him fill in the form. He obviously felt awkward and embarrassed about this. Quickly I took his clipboard and by asking the questions filled in the form for him. No problem, but I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Eventually the time came for my neighbour to take his turn filling his sample jar. While he was in the lavatory I approached one of the male nurses and said to him “I think the fellow sitting next to me is illiterate”. I don’t remember the exact words. I was a little surprised by his matter-of-fact response: “Oh! Thanks for telling me” and he shrugged.

When it was my turn in the examination room, I had the same nurse I had told about the fellow beside me. As I came in he was changing the eyesight chart on the wall. The one he was taking down had “shapes” (triangles, squares and circles) and he was putting up the more usual alphabetic type. As we did our business he explained that British Steel didn’t care whether the fellow I had helped with his form could read or write. He was there for a labouring job. They did care about how good his eyesight was, and they did need to make sure that he could recognise certain words and signs like “Danger!”, “Gas” and “No Entry”. They definitely cared about his health and safety.

I don’t know whether the foreigner who couldn’t read got his job. At that time there were thousands on that group of sites, so it’s no surprise I didn’t see him again. How well he could read only mattered to BSC in as far as it had a bearing on whether he would be safe on the site and whether he might endanger others.

There are plenty of people in all walks of life who are “functionally illiterate” in some aspect of their lives. There is something which they just do not know how to do. They may be able to do other things even better than we can. For those of us who are experts in particular areas, things other people cannot do become opportunities for us (like filling in forms!).  

Hope that gave you an opportunity to smile.