The Fight Of His Life

George was a middle aged man. He works as a sales executive in a real estate company. He was a bit nervous because he and the department he heads, which is the sales department have not been meeting their quotas. It’s been almost a year since they met their quota.

He was in the middle of his thoughts about work when another middle aged man seated himself besides him. The man’s clothes were old and have seen better days. The face of the old man was also sad. It’s as if an unfortunate event had happened to him.

George can’t help himself but ask the man sitting besides him, “Is there anything wrong, sir? It’s as if you’ve lost something.” The man sitting besides him smiled faintly, “It’s nothing. I’ve just got an important decision to make.”

George can see that the watch of the old man was of the cheap variety. He can’t help but assume that the man sitting besides him was down on his luck when it comes to money. “Is it about money? Cause that’s everybody’s problem,” said George as he smiled.

“You’re right,” said the man sitting besides him, “I need to decide if I will terminate the services of a few of my employees. They’ve been losing me money.” George suddenly felt a chill running down his spine, but he doesn’t know why.

“I have employees that are not doing their job,” said the man sitting besides him, “I’ve given them plenty of time to produce, but a year has passed and they still were not able to make a sale.”

George cleared his throat, “That’s entirely normal. Sales is very unpredictable. One minute you can’t handle the large amount of sales, and the next time you’re virtually begging to your customers to buy from you.”

“It looks like you know a lot about sales,” said the man sitting besides him, “are you involved in sales?” “Yes, I am,” said George as he tried to smile, “in fact, I head a sales department.”

“What do you do if your sales employee does not make a sale for a long time?”, asked the man who was sitting besides him. “It depends,” said George, “if I assess that the reason why they’re not making a sale is beyond their control, I forgive them. If it’s their fault, I fire them outright.”

“Then you must know my dilemma,” said the man sitting besides him, “I’m planning of firing all my old sales personnel and replacing them with new and cheaper ones.” George can’t speak. Somehow, he fears the man sitting besides him.

“Why don’t you have a heart to heart talk with your sales employees? Ask them why they’re not selling,“ said George. “They’ll just give me excuses,” said the man sitting besides him, “it’s but natural that all they want is to keep their jobs.”

“Then ask them what they don’t like about the company,” said George, “me myself, I have problems with the sales policies of my company. My company keeps setting the sales quota higher and higher when we’re already the highest selling company in the industry.”

“Your boss must be mean,” said the man sitting besides him as he laughed, “imagine being the best in your industry but your management is still not yet satisfied.”

“You bet,” said George as he laughed as well, “I’m actually on the lookout for another company to work for.”

The man sitting besides him became serious, “You really think I should to talk to my employees instead of my management?”

“Management can be out of touch with what’s really happening,” said George, “sometimes the owner of the company should talk with his rank and file employees as well.”

The train stopped at the train station near George’s office. George went out of the train and started to walk towards his office. Somehow, he was not surprised when he saw that the man sitting beside him in the train was also walking towards his office.

Both men entered the same building where George worked at. Both men alighted at the same floor. To his surprise, the man also entered the same office where George worked at. George was getting more and more nervous as time passed by.

The manager of the office were George works for immediately greeted the man who came with George. “Good morning, Mr. Oaks,” said the manager, “I didn’t know you were coming this early.”

He looked at George, “George, do you know who came with you? It’s Mr. Oaks, the owner of the company. Now prepare him some coffee.” Mr Oaks sighed as he looked at the manager, “Is this how you treat your employees?”

“But I just asked him to prepare you some coffee, Mr. Oaks,” said the manager who was blushing, “after all, he’s just an employee and you’re the owner of the company who pays for his salary.”

“I’m perfectly capable of preparing my own coffee,” said Mr. Oaks as he looked at the manager, “right now, I want to have a talk with you regarding how you treat my employees.” He looked at George and smiled, “Go on and do your usual wonderful work for my company.”

When George settled at his small office desk, one of his co-employees went towards him, “I can’t believe that you know the owner of the company, George. He’s a recluse.”

George smiled, “You don’t know how it feels like, meeting the owner of the company. It was like the fight of my life.”