As Susan prepared for her board presentation, the junior saleswoman at Cantor Williams reflected on the irony of her position. Despite the fact that her company specialized in selling downsizing packages to the Fortune 500, she had been saddled on this sales call with a partner who seemed at his most efficient when checking email or making lunch arrangements. Why had Connor been assigned to shadow her, and what possible benefit did the company gain from over-staffing?

Susan had complained about the situation to her manager, but he had simply told her "this is how it works." From their very first day with the firm sales associates were paired together in a process designed to promote solidarity, but which in fact pitted the groups against each other in a winner-take-all competition to climb the corporate ladder and make partner. Susan grimaced at the thought of Connor riding her coattails to the top, yet had to admit the extra pressure was effective at pushing her to the limits of her own ability to perform under pressure.
 said on
August 29, 2011
Poor gal, sounds like she needs some serious help and a better co-worker to be paired up with.

Love the outtake at the end. It good to hear you guys having fun with the lessons that we enjoy using.

 said on
August 31, 2011
I noticed in the popup and vocabulary list that 诱人 is listed as xiùrén? Shouldn't it be youren(4,2)?
 said on
August 31, 2011
@drummerboy,

Exactly! Fixed. Thanks :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
December 1, 2011
Great lesson, I am not particularly interested in business terms but it's good to know anyways (to understand movies, news articles, etc).

I especially liked the approach this time, the classic format but without any English, hope you can do more of these lessons.
 said on
July 11, 2012
Excellent, thanks