very stressed out today. Boss burst into office in the morning in a really foul mood and demanded that we terminate our current outdoor salesman if he really was underperforming. I meekly showed him the latest sales to date of our newly employed ("one-month-old") salesman and that got my boss into an even foul-er mood.. sigh.. only slightly over $2000, which barely covers his salary.. anyway, I was made to type out a "Final Warning Letter" to the poor guy and cc. it to the boss and the letter said that unless the guy bucks up in like, 3 days (!), his appointment will be terminated...

I don't know. I struggle with the thought that while I agree with the boss that the chap has to start producing results quickly, I keep feeling that perhaps a period of one month was too short to decide if someone was up to the job... he did look like he was already ramping up sales... but perhaps he really was a little too slow for the boss's impatient nature... quite stressed.. not sure if we are just terrible at employing the right people, terrible at managing or what.. Took the opportunity to consult my HR managment lecturer just now and my lecturer did not hesitate in saying that giving a new employee only one month to perform was unfair - given that the guy has also got to get familiar with the organisation's culture, products, systems and other stuff... my biggest worry really is.. if we keep employing and terminating new people, we will just have to keep training them and these people will never have the opportunity to ramp up their sales in the second month, even if they were able to... sigh.... my HR lecturer says that having such an employer, one with no "conscience", must be difficult. Decided not to comment too much on his statement.