Part 1: In the Beginning...
I was the guy who always took the longest to figure out that there really wasn't any such thing as a left-handed smoke-shifter or a bacon stretcher. I thought that, as an adult, I'd left all that behind. I was smart, well-educated and, I liked to think, sophisticated. I didn't realize that all of that is consistent with a deep-seated naΓ―vetΓ©.
After I graduated from college, I was fortunate to get a good sales job with a mid-sized personal electronics company. It's a very competitive business--cutthroat really. If you don't get the right product placement in stores, you're wounded. If you bring a product to market just a few weeks too late, you're dead.
My supervisor was James Murphy. You'd damn well better not call him 'James'--and 'Jim' would probably get you fired. Mr. Murphy pushed us really hard. "You did okay," was high praise in his book and he allowed no excuse for losing a sale, even if it wasn't your fault. Don't give him excuses. Just tell him that it won't happen again and then bust your butt to make sure that it doesn't.
Every Friday, when the sales figures for the week were tabulated, Old Man Murphy (as we called him even though he wasn't more than 50) called the low man on the totem pole into his office. I wasn't always the top seller, but I managed to stay away from the bottom so I had never been in one of these meetings. But I knew what happened in them.
Since the first Friday I worked here, about six months ago now, the other guys made it clear what the errant salesman had to do.
This week had been a bitch for me. I had three major deals with big retailers pending and I just couldn't push them to actually make the order. As the week drew to a close, I was pretty sure that my string of luck had just broken. When the numbers were in, I knew I was the guy. My phone rang. I could see the caller-ID. It was Murphy and the bell was tolling for me.
As I listened to his demand that I come into his office right away, the blood drained from my face. When I stood up, everyone in the office knew my number was up.
"Oh, boy, Jason. Now you gotta suck Murphy's dick," about three guys chanted in near unison.
That was the drill. I'd heard it said of someone every Friday for six months now. But it was always someone else. Some of the guys would talk about it after they came out. They'd talk about how big Murphy's cock was or how much he came. We were usually talking in a group but somehow I always felt as if they were talking about this for my benefit. I guessed that it was because I was the new guy and I had never been called into Murphy's office for one of these meetings.
Well, now it was my turn and I was panicked. My face was red and my pulse was pounding. I could feel my ears burning and hear my heart throbbing.
I knocked lightly on Murphy's door and he told me to enter in the gruffest, most unforgiving tone I'd ever heard. I closed the door behind me and sat down in the chair that was off to the side of Murphy's desk.
"I'm very unhappy!" Murphy paused for a long time and just stared at me. I didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything.
"Your sales figures for this week are for shit! I don't like that. And I don't like going home Friday night unhappy." Another long, and very uncomfortable pause.
"So, Jason. You're usually real good with your mouth--college boy and everything. Now, I want you to tell me what you're going to do so I'm not so unhappy and then I expect you to make good on your word."
Okay, I thought. This is it. He expects me to do it now. I didn't know if I could, but I was pretty sure my job depended on it so I was sure going to try.
I got up and took a step toward him.
"Where do you think you're going? I gave you an order and you're damn well going to do it or you can go clean out your desk right now." So, that made it completely clear. I could do this or be looking for a job. I stepped toward him and he barked at me again.
"What do you think you're doing? I told you to tell me what you planned to do to make me happy and that's what I expect you to do."
Well, he sure wasn't going to make this any easier on me. It was bad enough that he wanted me to suck his dick. I'd almost reconciled myself to doing that. But he wanted me to talk about it. I didn't know if I could manage to do that.
"I'm...," I stammered, "I'm...You know...I'm going to...you know...I mean, I'm going to do what you want me to do."
As I talked, I was buying time. When I'd finished, I was in front of his chair and sinking to my knees. That I was going to do what he wanted was unmistakable now. I hoped that he wouldn't make me talk about it. Somehow, that seemed to make it all worse.
I didn't know exactly how to proceed and I looked up at Mr. Murphy. He seemed stunned, maybe even confused, for a minute and then it passed. But he didn't give me any guidance, in words or movements, about how to proceed.
"I...I ...don't know how to do this."