A long time ago, my first real post-college job was at a call center for a major bank. An automatic call distribution (ACD) assigned calls to a group of about 20 agents who handled credit card, auto loan, and mortgage information. Once a month, each agent would sit down with the manager and receive a ranking. Every month, the same rather dim-witted agent (let’s call her Agent #1) would finish first, while the agent who finished second was clearly smarter (let’s call her Agent #2) than everyone else in the room. But Agent #2, the smart one, always finished second. This was a mystery to us who cared, particularly as Agent #1 received bonuses and awards for her continued place at the top.
