You can't intimidate this woman, she's seen it all...but go ahead, give it a shot

I hated my job.  My boss had held my position prior to a promotion.  He didn't give me all the files when I started, he informed me that he had to bring them up to speed and he'd transfer them when he accomplished that.  That is not  what happened, he transferred them to me when he'd get an irate injured worker on the phone that he'd neglected and he'd pawn them off on me with the excuse that I was new and wasn't on top of my files yet.  My assistant quit within the first ten days I was on the job.  She had grown tired of being blamed for his lack of attention to the files as well.

An internal audit of the files was being done without my knowledge.  I was called in to the President's office just before Thanksgiving and given the royal dress down for the files being in such poor shape.  I had been with the company for six weeks and he thought I should have been more on top of the caseload.  I tried to explain to him that I had not been assigned all of the files yet, they were being doled out to me whenever they were on fire, but he didn't care.  I was the manager and I'd better figure out how to do my job.  He was man of smaller stature.  He was apparently suffering the same disease that most men suffer who are vertically challenged.  I had seen it before and I'd see it several more times in my career.

I didn't need to work.  I had my house and the monthly check from Chappy was enough to keep me from living in poverty.  I had even considered quitting but when I returned from my cruise, I discovered I was temporarily without a position.

My immediate boss, Dave came into my office and closed the door.  "I have a bit of bad news, I'm the new claims manager."

I had just returned from a week in the sun and my brain was not that fried to understand, you could not have two claims managers. "So, what does that make me?"

"I really don't know, Cindy, they like you and they are looking for a spot to put you in.  Don't worry, it'll all work out" and he turned to walk out of my office.

It was one in the afternoon. Did they expect me to just return to working diligently as if nothing happened?  I closed my door and called a new friend in my life, his name was Steve and he was an attorney.  He listened to me while I told him what had been happened and he gave me words of encouragement and some legal advise, just in case I needed it.

I went home that night not knowing what to expect and when I  returned the next day I was summoned to the President's office.  He had shared that Dave was not working out as the General Manager and so he would be taking the claims department back over, but they had an offer for me, if I was interested in it.  "We want you to do sales.  Go on the road and get agents interested in writing business with us.  Most of these agents don't understand they have a contract with us and we need to remind them of who were are."

I knew nothing about sales.  I had no clue what was expected of me.  "We need you to make ten to fifteen sale calls a week and bring us five applications a week for processing."

I had worked in an agency before, this didn't sound too difficult.  The downside was that they were deducting five thousand from my salary and giving me a company car.  I didn't want a car, I had just bought a  new Bravada that wasn't two years old yet.  I didn't need two cars.  I was furious inside. This was not the plan for me, but come Monday morning, I spent a day learning all about sales, Tuesday, I made appointments and Wednesday, I hit the pavement. Clueless about what I was doing.

I did this for a week when the light bulb went off.  I met the new General Manager. He called each of us in his office.  No one knew that he'd been hired.  He was just there one Monday morning.  I entered and closed the door.  The first question from his mouth told me all I needed to know about him, he was working from a base of intimidation.  He met the wrong women.

"Cindy, do you have a mortgage?  Bills that need to be paid every month?"

"I think we all do, don't you?"

"Well then you need your job, so you'll do exactly what I say, won't you?"

"Terry, let me explain some thing to you.  I don't need this job, in fact two weeks ago, I thought about resigning, but I thought I'd give this sales gig a try.  And just so you know, I make more money a month in spousal support than I do in my paycheck, so no, I don't need this job. I work because it keeps my mind occupied."

He wasn't expecting that one! "Well, you are in a good position than to bargain."

"I don't bargain over business ethics that isn't right. If you are going to ask me to do something that is unethical, you might as well fire me now."

"I like your spunk.  Keep your nose cleaned and we'll go places with this company" and he proceeded to tell me what he expected from me.

I wasn't in the office except on Friday's and every Friday was the same. I didn't have any new applications.  No one knew they had a contract with us.  And the company only wanted me to call on agents within a sixty mile radius of Indianapolis, which didn't give me a lot to work with. Some thing was not right and soon it would be exposed to me.