I SIT IN A chair just outside the Sales Manager’s office. I think, “This wait is not a good sign. I only need to say goodbye and get my final check. What else could be so important that I have to wait? Oh well.”
“Hey, Tanisha, it’s a busy day.” She doesn’t give me the usual ‘Hiya Big Boy’ smile. It’s, again, not a good sign.
“Well, Billy, you’ll just have to wait your turn. There are other things that the sales manager needs to deal with.” (“Ego boy, you think that every girl that you meet will just automatically fall for you, ain’t gonna happen here.”)
A hot looking little file clerk wiggles up to Tanisha’s desk and delivers some papers. One of the papers needs to be signed. The little file clerk hottie totally ignores me. I guess that when you leave a company, you’re just gone.
I look over the clerks working in the Sales Department. I was one of the sales guys who kept the work coming in. Now, I’m about to be just another guy who used to work for the company and now is on the way to somewhere else. I think about Linda waiting to go with me. Linda that I took from pathetic little Jason. As Linda and I live it up in my new city, little Jason can pine for lovely, blonde Linda. I’m the tall handsome man that a girl like Linda needs. If my leaving with Linda breaks Jason’s heart, well that’s just the way that things have to be. Some of us are winners, some of us are just losers.
The sales manager finally comes out of his office, with a new sales guy. The sales manager and the new guy talk for a bit, as the sales manager escorts the new guy to the corridor and points out the next stop.
The sales manager didn’t even introduce me to the new guy. The new guy has to be my replacement and it seems strange that we weren’t even introduced. I just keep my mouth shut and don’t try to welcome the new guy into the company. I seem to sense that the sales manager doesn’t want me involved with my replacement.
The sales manager then turns and says, “Ah yes, Billy. We do need to get you checked out of the company.” The sales manager turns and walks back, into his office, without so much as a backward glance at me.
I get up and follows the sales manager, into the sales manager’s office, without a word. I’m thinking, “I’m being treated like a damn slave. I guess that’s how it works, when they don’t need you anymore.”
The Sales Manager goes into his office, sits behind his desk and eyes me.
I take a seat in the chair in front of the sales manager’s desk. I’m wondering what comes next. The only thing left to do is for the Sales Manager to give me my final check. I’m waiting.
The sales manager then lectures, “You got us some sales. However, the sales that you got were at the very low end of profitability for the company. You did a very poor job of servicing the customers, after sale. Your follow-on sales rate was the lowest in the company. If you weren’t leaving for another job, I would be calling you in, to fire you.”
