A Conversation in Sarch’s office. In 2016. (Part 1)

March 23, 2016

He arrived at my office, promptly at 10:00. The Brooks Brothers suit was perfectly pressed, the cuff links shined, the shoes were polished. In his hand was his latest resume and he was anxious to go over it with me.

“I used to be a Branch Manager for a Major Brokerage Firm.”

“What was that like?” I asked.

“It used to be amazing. I was a leader, a mentor, a sales manager, an idea guy. I hired, I recruited, I had my own little business that generated over $50 million in business in our best year. I earned over $1 million for six years in a row.”

“What happened?”

“Well, it changed, first in subtle ways, then it was like a runaway train ready to crash, and now…”

“What do you mean?”

“Compliance standards got tougher. Some of that was needed, but I was held responsible for every bit of correspondence that went out my door as well as for every word that everyone said. It was an impossible standard. Then, they whittled away at what I could get done by myself. I used to be able to hire assistants, staff people, anyone for the branch. I was my own profit center, so if I felt that a Broker needed help and it was worth it, I could hire someone. Then I couldn’t have a pizza party without approval from the higher ups. All they wanted me to do was recruit, but I had to pretend that I had any real control over what went on day to day.”

“Boy, that must have been frustrating.”

“You can’t imagine. Then, I had to manage multiple branches, in different locations, with less authority and for less and less money. All in the name of cost cutting. I survived most of the cuts. Finally, they realized that all they needed was a skilled operations team, and they did away with the whole job. Even the recruiting was just done by a centralized team. It was a good ride, but I never should have given up my book.”