Applicant Beware

Hmmm...I could have sworn that they held back a paycheck, but here is my last check, commission only and for only a couple of sales when there were more. I do not want to get too specific here about anything - just in case - and the real idea of blogging this is to share the unemployment experience with others. I think it is interesting because I have not been through this in 24 years.

Last company informed me that they would no longer be able to pay me, or anyone else in sales, that we were going to full commission and that would be cut by 13%. Interesting. It was in my contract to go to full commission, however, there was no talk of lowering commission percentages and no time line mentioned, this is a start-up only 4 months old, and I had not even been there 90 days. The first 3-4 weeks were spent setting up the service. Most people know it takes an average 6 month turn around for full commission pay. This job was not at all presented this way. This makes the job at the paper far superior, assuming our department was still there.

Anyway, when starting a business, I have now seen a lot of ways to succeed and fail. This is helpful to me for my own business and invaluable as a tool for job seekers! I never really considered that the place I apply for work may not be there within the next 6 months or so. Perhaps that makes me naive, but I think it is just the way things are right now. Things have changed dramatically and that leaves a lot of room for opportunity when approached in a realistic way.

If you have a business with employees, you should not tell them about your investors or share the day to day stress with them. Not only is it none of their business, but they will likely lose faith in you if they know about your nightmares. Your nightmares are for you - they have their own. Let them function in the way an employee does, for the company. Do not make them feel that they are the company. That is what I call undo pressure. I feel that I am my own company, because I am, but I am not someone else's company - especially if that knowledge is peppered with insults and reverse motivation tactics while under micromanagement.

Saturdays are completely voluntary. It is up to you if you want to come in and be a team player for absolutely no pay. Of course, if you do not come in, that would count against you in every argument going forward. Not a salaried position. I actually do it until the last few Saturdays. And I work on holiday days that end up not being paid. All that extra effort.

I become 'Milton' in "Office Space" and, they tell me, everyone in my department, works now for commission only. We will not be receiving paychecks unless they are commission. Interesting since I am in the office "full-time" and others are "part-time" and always "outside". My understanding is that it will "work itself out naturally" as in "Office Space". I am encouraged to still work Saturdays and through the night, etc., to be a team player. I do this for 3 days and realize there will be no check at the end of the week besides commission, if that goes through and however they decide to calculate it. Unemployment asks me if I was laid off? I tell them this exactly, "they could no longer afford to pay me and put us on commission only before there is steady commission coming in". Interpretation: "No work". These are not my words. And I realize there is plenty of work, but very little pay. Of course, if I operated my business that way, I could hire tons of commission only salespeople and keep them in the office, encouraging volunteer days and - well, you get the idea.

There are, no doubt, people reading this wondering why I did not just "pull myself up by my bootstraps and sell more!". Well, sales is a funny thing. When you are not sure how the people who supply a service are going to treat you, then you are not sure how they will treat your customers. Not ideal selling conditions. I am not writing this to gripe and bitch and I know my situation will turn around very quickly - it already is. There are certainly going to be replies saying that this is a normal setup. It is not how my contract was laid out or how I understood my position to be compensated. Offers of gas money to make it in to work after being there for 6 weeks, well, not our agreement.

The crazy thing is if I could afford to work under those conditions, I might have continued on. Applicant beware.