The popularity of Dilbert and The Office is in many ways an indictment on how dysfunctional the office environment can really be. We laugh because it’s funny and we laugh because it’s true. Helene Vermaak, founder of The Human Edge, has been consulting in corporate training and organisational performance for over ten years now. Her company, which she founded with former Wits Business School lecturer Jay Owens, is the sole licensee for VitalSmarts, a corporate training and behaviour specialist. On this Monday morning, Vermaak and Owens have interviewed two candidates for sales positions, something the two have had to do themselves up until now.

“VitalSmarts has strict requirements for its licensees,” says Vermaak. “And one of them is to grow sales capacity. We’ve had plenty of our facilitators say they can do sales as well but it’s a different animal. You need to be passionate about sales.”