A junior Pharmaceutical Sales Rep has found themselves in hot water after admitting that they didn’t understand a key piece of business terminology. Sam Watkins, 21, was making notes in a team meeting, when his manager emphasized the importance of “getting their ducks in a row”.
“I’m not sure what came over me, but instead of just writing it down, I piped up and asked what that meant,” explains Sam. “I immediately wished the ground would swallow me up.”
His colleague Phil witnessed the awkward moment: “You really do hate to see that from a new hire. Just Google it later! Managers spend their whole time saying strange business things, you’ve just got to get used to it.”
Meanwhile Sam’s manager was slightly put out by the question. “I mean, what do these kids learn in university these days? Next he’ll be telling me he doesn’t know what synergy is!”
As a result of his misstep, Sam is currently undergoing a remedial crash course in business jargon. “At first I was skeptical,” he reports, “but now that we’ve dealt with the low-hanging fruit, we’ll soon be back in the black.”
Hardly Business Review 