"We're going to have leadership the way my old man taught me! You - put a handkerchief on your head! You - swat at imaginary elves! You - rock on the porch all night!"
— Joel, Mystery Science Theater 3000
Hired! is a short Instructional Film produced by The Jam Handy Organization for Chevrolet sales managers just before the US entered World War II (it features 1941 model year cars). The basic plot concerns a sales manager named Mr. Warren, who despairs over the fact that his salesmen (particularly his newest, Jimmy) are lagging on their sales targets. After a somewhat strange talk with his father, Mr. Warren decides to work more closely with his salesmen, thus solving his problem.
This short is viewable
at the Internet Archive. For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes featuring this short film see here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).
This short provides examples of:
- An Aesop: One might think it's the chalkboard advice at the end, but the real Aesop is "Salesmen need guidance from experienced managers."
- Creator Cameo: Jam Handy himself plays the father.
- Determinator: Jimmy has a crisis of self-doubt at one point, but pulls himself up and decides to continue regardless of past failure. Unfortunately, he's working harder instead of working smarter. It's just included to defy Warren's assumption that salesmen aren't working hard as they used to in Warren's time.Senior Mr. Warren: Maybe they're working harder than you think.
- Heel Realization: Warren realizes that his hands-off management is the problem, not Jimmy.
- Lame Comeback: "I don't know, but I do know it's better." A clear indication that Jimmy doesn't have the proper sales training.
- Nepotism: Subverted. Warren thinks that the reason his former boss, Harry Carpenter, mentored him so closely was because Harry was a close friend of his father, only for his father to tell him that had nothing to do with it; Harry Carpenter worked as hard to mentor all of his salesmen as he did with Warren.
- Nostalgia Filter: Warren thinks salesmen were more invested in sales in his time as a saleman himself. His dad scoffs at this, saying that the only reason his son sold more was that he had better guidance than Warren himself is giving.
- Travelling Salesman Montage: Quite inevitable considering the material. There are three in the film.
- Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Mr. Warren rebuking one his salesmen on his technique - after he'd actually made the sale.
- It's proper to fine tune a salesman's technique - or anyone learning a new craft. Being successful when using wrong technique is not good reinforcement. The problem is that Mr. Warren never even acknowledges that the sale was made (proper technique or not, that he made the sale means that something he did was working).
