A Close Call with Bad Brains
Dear George,
I would be remiss if I did not tell you why, after going to all the trouble to drive down to Anchorage, working in the warehouse, learning the product line and even visiting customers, that I decided to forgo employment with you.
I appreciate that you paid for our motel room. It was a very decent place, nice people, and when I come down there again I just may stay there. I came down solely to meet you, fill out papers and get to work, and it cost about $200 in gas there and back, not to mention meals.
When you hired me on the phone, after I’d faxed you my resumé from up here in the Interior, you seemed pleased that you had found someone who was mature and experienced, something you would need to open up this area to sales of your products. You seemed to be a nice fellow, and eager to get me started opening accounts up here. You seemed supportive and easy-going.
The rate of pay you quoted me was $300/week base pay, plus 10% commission and mileage covered. This was something that was very motivating to me. It was reasonable and gave me the possibility of really making some money for both of us. I very clearly and strongly advised you that I would be working mornings and weekends on this job, as I taught music lessons in the afternoon. You told me that was just fine.
After driving down to the Anchorage area and staying the night, I came to work the following morning. You were busy but I got right to work helping pack orders in the warehouse. I got to know the products this way, and had memorized most of the acronyms, and how many of the items were sold, whether in individual units or boxes/bags. I enjoyed this. It was fun, it was new, and the products were good.
When you arrived back at the office we talked, and you immediately cut my pay rate. Now, you told me, you would pay me $150/week, plus 10% commission and mileage.
Why? Because I was already working part time as a music teacher, and you said you had quoted me the full time rate on the phone before.
I came very close to walking out right then. But I’d driven all that way, spent all that money on gas, and I thought that perhaps I’d make up my expenses on commission. At least I had my mileage covered, because driving around in the -20 to -40 degree weather up here eats up your vehicle and your fuel. After about -15 degrees your car or truck will get only half the gas mileage it usually gets. Down in Anchorage it doesn’t get that cold, and is not an issue. It also costs about $65 a month to plug in your vehicle so it will start in the morning. Not to mention the wear and tear on the vehicle during those months. Plus the cost of snow tires, and changing the tires winter and spring...
When it gets to -60 degrees driving is not advisable, as your tires get so frozen they can break. Not go flat. Break.
So I decided to go along with you, give you a chance, even though you’d cut my base pay in half.
I worked in the office for a while, getting my business cards in order. You came in and said, “Oh, and I forgot to tell you, I can only pay you $55 per week mileage. And you understand the rules about mileage?”
“What rules,” I asked.
“You mileage doesn’t start until you arrive at your first customer stop. You can charge all the mileage you accrue between customers, but once you head home from the last customer, your mileage stops.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “I live 20 miles from the actual town of Fairbanks, which is very common. Fifty-five dollars isn’t going to cover my costs to drive to your customers. Not anywhere close. And my mileage is all covered when I drive into town to teach lessons, my tax fellow told me so. Why wouldn’t all my mileage be covered with you?”
“I don’t know. I might be mixed up. My CPA told me this. Maybe you should give her a call and ask her. I might be wrong. Here,” you said. And you handed me the business card of the CPA. You wrote her 800-number on it. “Give her a call and ask her about mileage. Her name is Di, she’s a great gal.”
I took the card and, trying to remain calm, reviewed my current deal with you. I now was being offered $150/week, $55/week toward gas and mileage and maintenance and all those other costs, (gas being $2.15/gal up here and a 40 mile round trip into town and back costing me $5 in the summer, and $10-$20 in the winter, and that was before I even got to any customers... and I was to go out every day?), and then the 10% commission.
I decided I’d call the CPA and ask. That mileage deal had to be wrong. Make the best of it, Jean, I told myself.
I worked some more and eventually everyone locked up and went home, so I figured it was time to go. I chatted with you before I left, and told you I was ready to get out there and sell. We parted on good terms, and you seemed satisfied.
You should have been. You decoyed me down here and pulled a complete bait-and-switch on my wages!
On the way back to Fairbanks I started meeting customers right away. I got to Delta and you had mentioned a client in Delta that needed to be visited. So I called you to find out who and where they were. You told me, and then you said, “I need to tell you that I’ve been crunching numbers, and I can’t afford to pay you commission until you have sold $1500 worth of product per week. After that I can pay you commission. I just can’t afford to pay for the shipping up there otherwise, or pay you your base pay.”
Hmmm, I said to myself. You ship to all the other reps, who are all getting the $300/week, 10% commission and mileage costs. Yet for some reason you cut my pay before I even get started, and you do it three times. Hmmmm. You now offered $150/wk, $55/wk “mileage,” and virtually no commission. I knew what most orders came to from packing stuff in the warehouse. Most orders were between $90 and $300. It would be a minor miracle to sell $1500 per week on a consistent basis in my area. I know my area, George. I’m no fool.
Without any hope of commission, and knowing that the base pay rate would barely cover my vehicle costs, I drove back to Fairbanks fuming.
Ripped off. Walked on. Did you think I would be a free salesperson for you in an area very difficult to work in? Did you think I would pay out of MY pocket to sell YOUR stuff out of the goodness of my heart?
This sure isn’t a way to motivate anyone, that’s for sure.
I arrived home Monday night. Now I was in a real quandary. I enjoy meeting people. Selling is not selling to me, it’s just visiting with folks. Selling just happens. It’s easy. I’m a great sales rep because I take care of people. I enjoy it, and I enjoyed the products you have. I’d seen customers on Monday and Sunday, before you suddenly changed my terms again.
I couldn’t do the job on the terms you had set up. I agonized. I thought on this all day Tuesday and finally came up with a bottom line in the middle of the night Tuesday. I felt that you were just seeing how far you could push me, and what I needed to do was let you know what my bottom line was and then put it out there. If you could pay me reasonable expenses and base rate pay, fine. If you really wanted a sales rep up there to open this area, you’d have to compensate me. If not, sayonara.
I went to sleep at 3am relieved to have figured out what I needed to do.
At 8am Wednesday the phone rang. I was sound asleep. I picked up the receiver and immediately you started SCREAMING at me. You were upset because I had called the CPA. Hunh? You told me to do that! Then you started calling me names. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t talked to you since Monday, when I’d placidly accepted the latest of my pay rate cuts. I tried to interrupt you to get you to act more civil, but you yelled at me again. You went on and on, and I just listened. You didn’t make any sense at all for quite some time.
Eventually you calmed down and I tried to talk to you, explaining that the mileage issue was not “nitpicking,” as you called it. But you wouldn’t listen. I tried to talk to you rationally about the way you had changed my employment agreement (which you had never put in writing) and the most you would do was drop the commission quota to $1000/week. And you said you would “consider” paying more mileage. I went into self-protect mode, and spoke to you civilly and calmly, mainly so that I could get off the phone.
First I cried for a while from all the abuse you had laid on me when I wasn’t even awake. Then I found myself yelling “NO NO NO!” I knew I could not work for you.
It wasn’t just the bait-and-switch on my wages, it was the fact that you felt you had the right to call me up and abuse me. NO ONE has that right. That was the core of it. Not only did you abuse my employment with you, but you stepped right out and actually abused me. NOPE. WRONG. I don’t play that game.
An hour later, when I was calm and collected, I called you back, and you were on the phone, I told your secretary I quit. I told her how you had called me up and screamed at me. She said you hadn’t been in the office when you’d done that, you’d apparently called me from home. She was sorry to see me go, but she understood.
All in all, you wasted my time, my money, and my attention. I’ll tell you what, though, I’m grateful that I found out what kind of a person you are now, instead of down the line after I was more involved and counting on my pay.
And I know one other thing. If I had been a man you would never have DARED treat me like this.
Maybe you could learn from this. But I doubt it.
Sincerely,
Someone who is not going to sue, but could.
