I work for a pretty small company, maybe about 25ish people. I'd like to say that most of us get along since we're all around the same age. In a small company, I believe that you should really watch out for each other, there shouldn't be the cut throat competition that you see in larger companies. I'd like to say that most of my coworkers are like that.

But I ran into a bit of shadiness the other day. As you know, I travel a lot for work. As of late, my travel schedule hasn't been TOO busy, so my calendar is pretty flexible. I recieved a call from one of our sales people and she had asked that I keep a certain week free and pencil her in, but that it wasn't set in stone yet with her client. I said sure.

Then I was on a call with some prospective clients and another sales person, and they had asked for the same week. The sales person had asked if I had that week free, and I told her that the other salesperson was working on a deal that week. 'Do they have something signed?' she asked. I said no. So then she told the clients on the phone, 'If you get your papers signed before they do, that there's nothing they can do but reschedule.' It's not like she tried to negotiate another day, or that she'd get back to them after working something out with the other salesperson, she tried to go in and steal that week from the other salesperson.

I should have just said that I was busy that week.

So now the whole thing has blown up, with both of them at odds with each other, one saying that she had that week first, the other saying that without something signed, she shouldn't commit my time. It's so ugly.

I'm glad I'm not in sales.

________________________________________________

Yesterday I went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse with my client. It was about 6pm when we got there, and it didn't look like it was busy at all. We went to the hostess (which was actually 3 women standing around waiting for someone to come in) and asked if they took reservations, in case it was a reservation only place. The woman looked in a book, looked around, and said seriously, 'We may be able to fit you in.' And she wasn't trying to make a joke. I looked around, and the place was almost empty. She then asked, 'Can I have your last name?' And my client spelled out her last name, 'M-O-N-T-E-R-O'. (of course I'm not putting her real last name here). The hostess wrote it down, asked us if we've been there before, and and scribbled something onto a yello post-it. She then handed it to another hostess, who took a look at it, then handed it to another hostess. The last hostess took a look at it, and said outloud, 'Montero? Party of two?' and looked around to find our party. And we were the only ones there....she had been standing there the whole time while this was happeneing. It was so funny I wanted to laugh out loud...were they trying to look busy? It was obvious that the place was empty!

It reminded me of that one scene in 'Meet the Parents' when he's trying to get on the plane and the attendent said he couldn't get on because they were only calling rows 10-20, even though there was no one else waiting for the flight.

Posted by Yano at June 30, 2004 11:58 AM

---

---

---

---

---

---

---