We are used to stories of high pressure selling but a report in yesterday’s Daily Mail highlighted the dangers of the work hard play hard philosophy: when Rank Xerox sent it’s 33 most successful salesmen (sic) on a trip to France the company can hardly have imagined that the days’ entertainment would include a tired and emotional salesman removing the safety exit cover from the aeroplane door; fully-clothed bathing sessions in the North Sea (is Xerox that fundamentalist?) and an impromptu punch-up between two excited sales execs at Deauville – egged, it is said, on by the regional marketing manager; since the industrial tribunal hearing for unfair dismissal of one unfortunate is continuing we can only assume that no-one suggested they have a drink at the end of the day to resolve their differences in rather more time-honoured fashion.
