As some of you may remember, I have a new boss. He replaced Larry the floor manager when he was mysteriously relocated to Columbus,(see "He's Gone!"). Since then I've met the new boss, Jeremy, and have been cautiously optimistic about him.

The management styles are like night and day. He doesn't manage by yelling. He's calm and collected. He tries to get us to act like a team. Which has been quite a shock to the veterans that are used to watching out for themselves and no one else.

This kind of management is hard for everyone to deal with. This is especially true in the cut-throat world of investments. This place was like a boiler-room for so long, and now it's becoming the exact opposite. Some of the older agents are complaining that they don't like him and the way that he does things. I finally spoke up to one of them the other day,

"You've got to be kidding! You want to go back to being screamed at?"
"Well..Yes. I knew where I stood with Larry."
"Yeah, and I remember he would chew your ass all day for the littlest things! He wrote you up and even tried to fire you before. Why would you want to go back to that?"

They had no answer and turned back to their phone hoping they would get a call before I kept asking them uncomfortable questions. They wanted the same, even though it meant going back to irrational and abusive management. The human capacity for wanting things to remain the same, even if the same is worse is amazing.

Thanks for reading,

AC