Had our high school 45th reunion over the weekend.....and I kind of snapped at work t

[Floridatennisplayer]

No, our commissions are not given arbitrarily by someone. They are all done precisely by FDA controlled prescription data. You can not touch that. There are no assignments. I have a specific territory, with specific accounts. We are a highly regulated industry. Everything is in black and white in this industry.

 

[DrRoy]

Great story. Enjoyed reading it.

It is not just sales. I have been in sales and in general management.

Pressure is even greater in the latter. Every quarter there is pressure to meet sales goals, revenue goals, profit goals, expense goals, customer sat goals, headcount reduction...you name it. Then come YoY, QoQ revenue, sales, and profit growth.

It is why I bailed at 58 and never looked back.

Very early on I realized that I never wanted to be in management. I worked sales for some years along the way, but got out of it when I could. didn't need that pressure.

 

[youbet]

There’s a reason why successful sales folks are highly compensated.

 

[38Chevy454]

There’s a reason why successful sales folks are highly compensated.

I always laugh when a manager is upset over a sales guy "making too much money". Well, dumbass manager if you think about it the increased sales are supposed to be a good thing


I was never in sales or any type commission job. As an engineer I just received a salary. Good for knowing a budgetary amount being consistent, but also bad given that you knew there was no big positive change potential.

 

[FI_RElater]

"Who are we going to give bonuses to this year?"
"Not the guy leaving in 10 months, that's for sure!"

"Here's a really lousy assignment, who do we give it to?"
"Give it to the guy leaving in 10 months!"

And so on.

OTOH, maybe the VP will just leave you alone, and your last 10 months will be peaceful and enjoyable. Could go either way.

from the sound of the original post, I can’t see the latter... that’s why I wouldn’t have given him the ammo of “only 10 months”. Better to be able to just retire on the spot, probably after thanking the prospect for his prior commitments (pretty sure then he’ll not be a good prospect for the boss afterwards )

as for me, my direct didn’t cause problems...I was the point for a big project, wasn’t really others that could tackle it. I’d set up the next one before I’d left, with documentation and how to proceed, .... after I and another engineer left, at almost two years it hadn’t gotten done... (some are more “replaceable” than others )

 

[OldShooter]

"Who are we going to give bonuses to this year?"
"Not the guy leaving in 10 months, that's for sure!"

"Here's a really lousy assignment, who do we give it to?"
"Give it to the guy leaving in 10 months!"

And so on. ...

Not with a sales guy. It is too easy for a sales guy to undetectably poison the well. Same-o with almost any employee who represents the company in relationships with outside people, like Purchasing, Regulatory Affairs, etc.

A general rule I learned in graduate school (maybe the only useful thing I learned in biz courses) is from Machiavelli: "Don't pi$$ people off a little bit." Either treat them like kings or take their heads off. People that are pi$$ed off a little bit have many ways and many opportunities to punish you for it.

 

[OldShooter]

... And it looks like the situations isn’t getting any better.

There is a reason they call the labor market a labor market.

Profits have little or nothing to do with what I pay for labor. Even if profits are negative, I have to pay what it takes to hire and retain the talent I need. If you had graphs that showed labor costs rising and profits in the toilet, would you then argue that "getting better" required pay cuts?