“How many BTU’s you rocking?” my co-worker ribbed on my boss’s deck. For a mid-2007 loan officer success was partly measured in British Thermal Units (the performance measure for gas grilling). The grill, the plasma, and the car were all tangible marks of winning a game that (it seemed) everyone was playing. One year before the Great Recession what motivated nearly every person in my business unit was not a secret: commissions. I only lasted a year in the position, partly because I too often “thought for the customer,” as my boss would say. My company was fined $85 million for its lending practices four years later.
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