Hey Dan. How did the appraisal go?
Oh, it was pretty good thanks.
Carol, she's my line manager,  Carol，
seemed to know me better than I knew myself,
and she really helped me to identify strengths and weaknesses I didn't know I had.
I'd thought we were just going to talk about practical things,
like what my prospects are for promotion,
rather than my psychology.
Do you want a promotion?
I thought you'd chosen to go down a grade when you took this job.
That's right. I used to manage a sales team.
It meant working long hours,
and it could be pretty difficult at times,
though on the whole I enjoyed the challenge.
But it kept me at a distance from customers
and I wanted to go back to that.
So here I am, a sales rep again.
I'd be interested in promotion
if it didn't stop me doing the fun parts of the job.
How have people reacted to your taking a step down?
Most of the people in my last company found it strange,
but in fact a couple of them thought about changing to this company too,
though it didn't come to anything.
These seems to be a rumour going around
that I'll be looking for something better soon,
but actually I'm pretty happy here.