Alisa came out of the GM's office with a look of shock. Her eyes were wide, her mouth a little open and just a confused look on her face.

Reviews have actually started, at least for some of the new employees. But most of us old veterans have still not got one, and the ones that have are pretty tight lipped about it.

Alisa is a new hire that came here from an investment bank, so she already knew alot of the business. She's not been doing well though, she knows what to do, but seems to not be catching up with all of the details that the rest of us do by memory.

Finally, once Larry left the floor she spoke...
"70 trades per day!"
"What did you say?"
"They want me to average 70 trades a day!"
"George did 90 one day, but it was the busiest day anyone had ever seen, and it was a record. But even the best people here only do 50 trades a day, 60 if they are kicking ass, and thats after they have been here several years!"
"Nope, they were serious. They want to see me do 70 trades a day..."

I suspected one of two things here. Either they wanted to get rid of Alisa, and they were trying to start a paper trail (they've never done that with the rest of us), or the GM and some of his new cronies have made new goals for our little call center. Either way, its not good news.

But what kills me is this, how can you say something is "normal" when it hasn't been done before? Surely they knew we would tell her different. Anyone can look up the numbers, they aren't a secret. All you need is 30 mins and an Excel spreadsheet and you can know the real averages, the real distribution. If you are projecting these kind of goals, say it that way, but ideal and actual are two different things last time I checked.

Thanks for reading,

AC