Crazy Comp Plan
1982 was a lot like 2012—there weren’t a lot of good jobs available for fresh college grads. One interview I managed to dredge up was with a small sales startup in Cleveland pitching minicomputers at local businesses. My memory is that the systems were running dBASE II on CP/M. They’d worked out a complex sort of compensation plan, and Dad said that I should keep a printout, because someday I’d realize how funny this was. Well, its been 30 years, and here it is:
I have no idea whether or not this little place made a go of it (nobody of this name has a web presence in Ohio). I’m guessing that they didn’t end up with too many guys getting that extra 1% by selling $1.2 million worth of small business computer. At two grand a pop, that would take some hustling in 1982.
The nice thing about the computer business is that it’s still full of eccentrics.
UPDATE: Elizabeth did some online sleuthing and verified that nobody managed to get 4 weeks of vacation.