Monday was an incredible day.

I say that because I finally got what I have been asking for: a performance review.

No raise, no surprise there-same for everyone.

No, but the new supervisor is actually determined how to look at our stats in such a way that he can make quantitative judgements about how we are doing-not just new trades, but overall how many calls and how we are performing.

What's always been rough for me is that I handle a specialized type of research for some corporate customers that seems to take all of my time. These customers are never satisfied and always want something for nothing, there's only three of us that handle this and I am the senior.

This customer has always taken so much of my time that I can't pull down the same numbers as my counterparts. It really annoys me. I can't stop this part of my job, but it makes me look unproductive to management.

Larry, my former boss refused to help me. He told me to do my best, then he would either yell at me that I was wasting too much time on the research or tell me I was doing a good job. When I asked for goals and real guidance he was useless.

Jeremy, my new supervisor is different. During my performance review on Monday morning he had real ideas. He rearranged how I do things and gave me real guidance and actual goals. I've got a plan now how to keep my time from being dominated by unprofitable customer requests.

Now we just have to see if he lives up to the plan or if this is another management phase that is quickly forgotten. I remain cautiously optimistic...

Thanks for reading,

AC