Roger Box

Speakers Corner Hail to the Chief!

ROGER BOX

GC Contributor

Although no employer is perfect, many felt that the last edition of speakers corner was a pity party for the owner, and too much sympathy was given. Although I do believe in many circumstances a job is what you make of it, including the crappy ones, you can still be making plans in the background to improve your situation.

It’s fair to say that working in FX is not the same as being a child laborer in an African lithium mine, however some CEO’s can be tremendously challenging to work for. So in the interests of bringing balance to the universe we asked for your stories, and you certainly delivered.

Based on the modern day therapy of gratitude journaling and being thankful for everything, we would like to say a special thank you to our glorious leaders, may you forever enlighten us with your wonderful future vision...

Dear CEO,

I just wanted to say thanks for everything...

Thank you for misleading me in the interview process. Sure I take some of the blame for this in swallowing your vision of a very well funded startup. I have used the line of ‘getting in on the ground floor’ a million times myself when I was sold an opportunity. Kind of ironic that I fell for it also.

Thank you for letting me know personally that I would have a marketing budget once I ‘proved myself’. I have more experience in this industry than you have, and have not been placed in my position by merit of knowing the owner. If you were just straight with me from the outset, then that’s cool. I wouldn’t have taken the project on.

Thank you for depending on just my network to get your brokerage off the ground. I am risking more than you with my reputation and network being potentially destroyed, along with my clients hard earned money for your bucket shop.

Thank you for not having no balls to stand up to the owner.I understand that you have bills to pay etc. However, you are the leader and must act as such. You were probably misled like me with dreams of becoming the next Goldman Sachs, but you are the leader nonetheless...step up or step off.

Thank you for having little or no regard for legal procedure which I suspect is a bit of a weird concept to you, and your various offices in random Eastern European countries. Working legally is different to just stealing peoples money. Probably best you make a choice which one you would like to do.

Thank you for the commission calculation formula that would even confuse Einstein.Lets just keep it to the simple structure we agreed on, and no need to factor in the current wind speed and deducting revenue based on the favorite national dish of Vanuatu.

Thank you for claiming that our brokerage is STP. Not unless your definition means ‘Straight To Pocket’ then I think we need to talk about how it is defined.

Thank you for not paying me what you make on the B Book. Let’s end this peculiar dance that we are an STP only brokerage. We both know, we all know...even the clients know.

Thank you for your confused understanding of what FX actually is? I am sure your Binary Options brand was run with the utmost integrity, however even the grey world of Forex has some level of legal and ethical standards...and i stress the word some!

Thank you for the continual late payment of salary. You got me by the balls as I need the money, so I can’t just walk out. I got to wait for my money so I can make plans. Do the decent thing and have enough money in the account you are contractually obliged to pay. I would leave, however it looks bad on my CV by moving so quickly.

Thank you for giving me endless marketing tasks, and a special thanks from the sales team for our new ‘Prime’ department. Just because you call it prime, don’t make it so.

Thank you for telling us endless stories about your time in the military. Just so you know, it is a widely known fact that you have never served in it. Get some help!

Thank you for your wonderful offer of building a team around me. After being here for 2 years, I really enjoy working with my invisible sales team!

Thank you for saying ‘we are all one family’.I now understand that this is a code word for you not paying me my commission this month.

Thank you for comparing our sales team performance with the one in your home country...where everyone has changed their name/gender, makes weird promises and claims to the client, and has a lead campaign budget to rival your nation’s military budget.Sadly my three sales staff will not be able to match the same amount of revenue generated as a 300 person call centre.

Thank you for not having any phones fitted in the area allocated for the sales department. We genuinely all did think you were kidding when you asked why are the numbers on new starts down. Maybe we should use smoke signals for the next quarters sales push!

Thank you for getting upset that we cannot streamline (eliminate) our compliance procedures. Sadly we have these things called ‘laws’ that our society has agreed to work by.

Thank you for the huge expense account when travelling. Next time I will pack some sandwiches and bring a sleeping bag.

Thank you for employing me for the Head of Marketing role and giving me no budget, then outsourcing it to your friends who are marketing ‘consultants’ the same week I started. It’s really awesome that you then blow up at me as we are getting no leads in...you absolute legend!

Thank you for what you believe is a deceit cocaine habit. At least do the honourable thing and share it. Think of the bigger picture, we can increase productivity!

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed, it was incredibly funny editing them all... keep up the good fight :-)