"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

blowing up about work?
January 08, 2002 - 6:43 pm

it sucks that my boss, jeff, has the same name as another rep in the office, also jeff. it makes it hard to talk about them. boss jeff wanted to bet me that rep jeff would be late tomorrow. how screwed up is that? my boss wants to bet his employee is going to be late? i didn't take the bet. i agree. rep jeff was the last out of the office tonight, it's like 99% sure thing he will be late tomorrow.

i pissed off most of the office today.

boss jeff wants to start sitting on with us when we do cold calls. we all admit we suck at it and jeff wants to help us get better. it is an important part of our job..and that's something jeff is good at and has alot of experince at. so...today jeff goes, 'who wants to be first?' of course no one volunteered...so i go, 'dave does! he's all excited about this!' dave isn't into this idea at all. dave didn't like me volunteering him at all..and replied i should go first cause i volunteered someone. i said 'sure, i'll go first then'.

i don't get it though, we all have to do it. it's part of our job. i know what i'm doing on the phone, exaggerations of how i handle some calls aside. i just stumbled and feel like a tool to a new person. i know they don't really want to talk to me. i know how i feel when i get a call from salesasshole. i stumble, i lose my train of thought...i generally think i come off inept. once we get out of the 'hi i'm so and so' bullshit and on to business i'm good. i'm a technical kind of salesguy i guess. if i can be said to be any sort of sales person that is.

so anyway, jeff sat with me for like forty minutes. i took more incoming calls than out going, but i played up the calls making them longer than normal. asking more probing questions than normal and generally giving jeff the warm fuzzy he wanted from me that i know what i'm doing. he wanted to call a few bran new people and so i tried to track down a person or two...oh the joys of gatekeeping receptionists and voiceamil.

i got dirty looks from the rest of the office. if you think i get bitchy...they are worse. it's like they have no real concept of how the business world works. if you did X last year then you need to do X+20% next year. we are a public company and shareholders demand the company makes more money than the last year. that means each office must make more money and therefor each rep must. if you did a _huge_ project this year...guess what?? you're budget next year is simply last year sales with growth. that big project was great last year! go find another. they like to say 'it's not fair'. fair? how does fair fit in? it's business. there is no fair. you either grow or shrink.

dave likes to whine his number for this year is out of whack. i want to get up and smack him. he took over an account at the end of the year that earlier (before he had it) had a mega project. so he didn't get any part of the project, it was over by the time he took over. by rights, the account is his and the budget is now his. so this year he should a pretty inflated numbers, even though it was a one time project that took three years to develop. in the interest of being fair...jeff did a good thing for dave. he took that project and instead of giving it all to dave, he divided by four (we have four reps) and we each get a share. oh yeah, i think the 'fair' thing is great. i have to do more for a project i had nothing to do with.

i agreed to it though. it's better than listening to him bellyache. god forbid he pick up the phone on call his current customers about $100,000 bids. i gave him a lead thursday last week...about his customer and he hasn't called. i dunno what you think but a 100K project is a pretty nice thing to bid and win. he complained today his number is too high. i told him to shut up and get over it. i didn't exactly say shut up, but next time he bellyaches, i'm gonna rip him a new one on the floor about that project.

i just noticed i never talk about tom. hes the four rep. he's like george harrison i guess..you know that quite beatle? i like tom. he's funny. he says funny things. he'll call the phone a 'horn' as in hey...'i gotta get this guy on the horn and see what's going on'. who the hell says horn!? he misspeaks in the very funniest and best of ways. i think he used to do a lot of drugs. some stories he says...are just unreal. i feel bad for him. he's the newest guy in the office and has alot of the shit accounts. accounts no one wants...so he got cause he was new. accounts that are bran new and totally clueless. tom's the only one i like to help. i like to easdrop on his calls and pass him things he needs. a cheatsheet or a part number i know he's looking for. i just wish his braincells worked in a tad more of a coherent manner.

you know, it's a dangerous thing to ask me about work. you're likely to get a rambling semi-tirade with some exaggerations tossed in to try and help you understand what i think/feel. i guess not really talking makes one prone to just letting the damn burst with pent up thoughts when asked.

anyway. i should stop posting about work. i wonder if i'd blow up or something. could be interesting