Recently, I held a position as an inside sales representative for a multinational Fortune 500 phone company. My job was to place unsolicited phone calls to people and convince them to switch their local and long-distance calling carrier to my company. As I went through training, I was taught to sell, sell, sell! We were told that once we got a customer on the line, we were to not hang up unless we sold him or her a phone package. There was also a big emphasis on meeting daily sales goals that were set by the company. As soon as I got out of training and on the phone lines, I began to encounter elderly people who had no use for the product. One day, my supervisor noticed that I was not selling the product to everyone that I talked to, and she thought this was the reason I was not meeting my sales goal. She soon asked why I did not push the product more. I told her that the people I was letting off the hook were too old to need anything that the company offered and that they did not even understand half of what I was talking about. She told me that I should just sell them the product and that the customer service representatives would fix it later. I asked my mentor what he did in these situations, and he said he just tells the older people that they are getting a smaller package and then adds on other features without them noticing. The next time I got an elderly person on the phone, I just told her to have a nice day and then I hung up. 1. What are the ethical issues facing the company and me in this case? 2. Does this illustrate personal-, organizational-, or industry-level ethical issues? 3. Should I succumb to the pressure to meet company goals in these situations? 4. Is it an ethical practice for my company to raise goals continually and expect that people in my position will just sell and let customer service fix the problems?