Choosing Your Business Ethics

I’m watching Glengarry Glen Ross.

(Spoiler alert.)

First Alec Baldwin runs around ranting about closing and generally being pretty mean. I guess it was an inspiring speech, but I think, if faced with a boss like that, I might be compelled to beat him to death with well, anything handy.

Then, account executive Jack Lemmon, that smooth operator, calls a lead, makes them feel special (you’re serious, so I’ll spread my appointments around, you’ve won a prize, you’ve been selected!) and then piles on the pressure - “you only have tonight or tomorrow to sign.”

Unfortunately, no dice. After several unsuccessful attempts at cold-calling, Jack goes off on office manager and lead distributor Kevin Spacey, demanding better leads.

But the Glengarry Leads (the most promising potential clients) are only for closers.

Now Al Pacino is trying to back out of the 3 day out clause for a real estate purchase. The sleaze of this movie is reminding me of my title processing days, when I got to experience stressed-out, commission-crazed loan officers. To be fair, this was in the middle of the real estate boom, turnover rate was high, and many people were flocking to the industry to cash out big. I also worked with an excellent office manager, whose ethics were stellar throughout, despite constant pressure to close.

I am definitely not a closer. Because of this, I’m not in sales or customer service. Additionally, I now try to only work for companies with a useful product that I can believe in, so I can talk to people about it without feeling like I’m trying to sell them on it.

I’ve been lucky in that, after trying out several fields, I’ve landed at this job, and I realize not everyone has as much of a choice when it comes to their job. But if you do have any choice at all, try to work someplace where they won’t make you sell (or barter) your soul.

Although one might think world domination is for the unscrupulous & negotiation is a great skill, outright sleaze, lies and bad ethics should be avoided. That kind of thing will always come back and bite you.

Just ask Shelley “The Machine” Levene.