Cartoonist Mark Anderson shares the personal anecdote behind today’s cartoon:
The last job I had before becoming a full-time cartoonist was as a salesperson at a tech company. When I arrived for my first day I was shown a computer, given a pair of headphones, and began my online training. After a few minutes it was pretty clear that I’d mistakenly been given the customer service training instead of sales, so I got up and tracked down my supervisor.
“Um, yeah, I think you gave me the wrong training thing,” I said.
“What did you see?!” she blurted. “Did you see the thing about the… um… the thing where…”
“No, ” I interrupted, “I think I got the customer service one instead of sales.”
She immediately relaxed, exhaled approvingly and said “Oh. OK, no biggie. Just start it over and click ‘Sales’ instead.”
I have no idea exactly what it was that she was so relieved I hadn’t seen, but I still think about it occasionally, and it inspired the above cartoon.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Trakstar.com. In April 2023, Mitratech acquired Trakstar, a leading provider of performance management, talent acquisition, and workforce analytics solutions. The content has since been updated to reflect Mitratech’s broader commitment to supporting the entire employee lifecycle — from recruitment and onboarding to learning and development — as well as the integration of HR compliance best practices across our growing Human Resources portfolio.
