I feel smug today...

The reason why is that Larry, my direct supervisor got called on the carpet today. Its nice to see him on the hot seat for a while.

In the morning, one of our huge corporate accounts called in just freaking out because some trades were delayed. The veteran trader that set it up never made sure it was handled right, he just entered it, submitted, and forgot it.

The customer called back. She is a very serious lady in her 40's, but has a voice that is high and squeaky. She was livid that her instructions had not been followed. If someone would have stepped up and apologized, she may have let it go. Instead, our veteran agent just made her madder when he made excuses. She demanded to speak to a supervisor.

"Larry, that squeaky chick from AJAX investments is on the phone. I'm not going to talk to her anymore, you can try to calm her down."

Larry picked up the phone, and I could hear her screeching. Larry let his anger get the better of him and he barked back at her.

"Don't talk like that to me or I won't help you! I am not going to have you abuse my people just because things didn't go your way. I will look into this and call you back!"
Click!

We didn't hear from her for the rest of the day on the floor, but something else happened to show the incident was not dead.

The GM plus three people from Sales, Marketing, and H.R. walked through the floor...

"Larry, can you stop by the conference room, please?"

He looked up, turned off his phone and left without a word. After, they left, I decided I had to hear some of this. I waited five minutes, then picked up my dummy paper and headed for the copier. Its right next to the conference room.

Yes! The door was cracked open, the hall was empty and I could hang out for a couple minutes. The GM was speaking, I was only catching every few words.

"Very important customer....Disrespectful....Bad example to staff...."

At first Larry was not talking back, but then he spoke up.

"12 years!....Question my authority....Don't appreciate all that I do!"

I finally left before anyone caught me. But I had heard enough to have a grin on my face the rest of the day. Finally, some karmic justice dealt out for once. Someone who had sowed meanness and coldness was getting the sort of harvest he deserved.

Thanks for reading,

AC