The New Manager

Roddy was the sales manager for the moment. I say for the moment as they tend to come and go quite quickly. This is partly to do with their own desire to get on but much more to do with the fact that they get moved on against their wishes. That’s a euphemism for getting sacked for non-performance of the branch. I don’t know why anyone would want to be a sales manager as there seems to be very few perks and quite a few pitfalls. But they do, and if one falls by the wayside you can rest assured that another one will pop up and take their place practically the next day. Us ordinary sales people just carried on as if nothing had happened.

There were rumours that Roddy was going to be our man before he came. I’m surprised what a small world the car sales business is and practically everyone knows everyone else, or knows someone who knows someone who once worked with them and therefore come pre-loaded with some kind of reputation for a speciality - like something they're good at. It could be that they once sold 40 cars in one day, a feat which would elevate them to the same status as the returning messiah. In reality, it usually means they have their own particular brand of psychological damage which they in turn will inflict upon us lesser mortals. Roddy’s luggage selection, justified or not, was the source of much speculation and gossip. Gossip was currency. After all, we had to do something with ourselves when we weren’t moving cars around, or walking around the building to avoid getting landed with some sort of menial task and therefore, gossiping amongst ourselves was a valid use of time. Another good use of time was walking purposefully wherever you went , thereby giving the impression that you were on important business, and there was no more important business than selling cars.

What was Roddy’s specialty supposed to be? Well, he was slightly unique in that his specialty was supposed to be that he was an arrogant little shit. That’s all; no other superpowers at all. This in fact meant he was well qualified for the job and would probably do well.