EPISODE 46

Now Pierre was really befuddled.  He looked at his notebook briefly and then stared at Bosco.

“I don’t think this is fair,” he said quietly.

“Why not?”

“Well, you’re treating me like shit.”

“Not really, Pierre.  I’m just trying to figure out what will get you to do what I need you to do.  I mean, working with Michael is pretty easy, in spite of the fact that he’s an arrogant prick.  I know exactly what motivates him: money.  All I have to do is to give him new ways to earn more of it and he meets any goal I set for him.  It’s that simple. I haven’t got any idea of what makes you come in the door every day.  I’ve offered you more money if you kick your production up, but that didn’t work.  I gave you more training.  Same thing.  I haven’t got a clue what to do with you.”

Bosco stood up and began to walk around his office in an aimless pattern.  He was really upset now.  He was giving serious consideration to letting Pierre go.  I snuck a quick glance at Pierre and his confused expression confirmed that he truly had no idea how deep in this he was. 

“It’s not fair, man.”

“I know you feel that way, Pierre.  But that doesn’t change the fact that if you’re not making me any money, then there’s no real reason why I should give you any more to stay here.”

And there it was.  Bosco had come as close to actually telling someone to leave as he ever had in his life.  Still, he hadn’t told Pierre that he was fired. 

“It’s not fair.”

“Wait a sec,” I interrupted.  “I think Bosco may have it.  Bosco, you just said you hadn’t figured out what motivates Pierre.  So, Pierre, what is it you want?”

“What do you mean?” Pierre asked, looking even more puzzled, if that was even possible.

“What do you want?” I repeated.  “When you took this job, what were you hoping to get out of it?”

Bosco smiled.  I was using the script that Pierre had been using to qualify the leads he had been calling.  So, I was literally trying to qualify Pierre out of the box.  If he didn’t know why he was even coming to work, then there was no reason for him to even want to stick around.  But on the other side, if he could express what he hoped this crappy little job was going to do for him, maybe we could figure out how to give it to him.

“Well, I guess I just wanted to do what you guys do.  You know, make marketing plans for the clients.  Set ad budgets.  Do market research.  That’s the stuff I’m interested in.  Seriously, making these calls to get bald guys to come in and have their scalps evaluated isn’t what I went to school for.  I want to use the stuff I learned in my job.”

“So, you want Michael’s job?” Bosco asked.

“Yeah.  I could do it.”

“You think you could do what I do?” Bosco said with a smile.

“I think I could learn it.  Sure.  Why not?”

Bosco turned to me and asked, “Can Pierre have your job?”

“Absolutely,” I replied.  “Just as soon as I’m through with it.”

Bosco laughed out loud.  “Oh god, Michael!  You are a piece of work!  Sorry about that Pierre.  It looks like Michael’s not giving it up to you.  You’re going to have to keep making those calls for a while.”

Pierre looked really upset now and he repeated his oft-said refrain about the relative inequity of the situation.

“Of course it’s fair!” Bosco admonished him.  “You may know a lot, but you don’t have the skills yet.  If you stick around here though, you’ll get it.  Do you think Michael liked making those calls any more than you do?  Actually, I take that back.  Michael did like making the calls, once he figured out how to do it and it started to make him some money.  But you’re very strange to me.  The money doesn’t mean as much to you as it does to Michael.  So we’re right back where we started.  I still don’t know what motivates you.  All I know is that you don’t like what you’ve got.”

There was a silence after that.  It was clear that we were at an impasse and I really wondered what Bosco was going to do.  As usual, he did precisely the right thing.  If nothing else, he was a master at gauging when it was time to take a step back.  He stood up and motioned for me to do the same.

“Michael and I are going to lunch, Pierre.  Keep making your calls.  We’ll talk more about this later today.  I promise.”

The next episode of SlipNot will be published on July 21st.

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