lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
so next sunday evening, the whole sales team is getting together at a pub near the office and having dinner and drinks.
on one hand, that's kinda cool, that we can all get along at least a little bit enough to do those things. On the other hand, ugggh. i really am ok with my 'friendships' at work to stay at work and not have any sort of seepage into my personal life. and sunday is my personal time away from them. oh, I'm going, definitely, but still. just. ugh.
Anybody else who has worked in a sales position: are the agent rankings/commission rankings and such usually a team-wide known factor? We get daily reports(sometimes) of where everybody in the team is in comparison to everybody else. Is this supposed to be a sort of motivational thing for sales teams? Or is this just a weird thing? I mean, it's nice to see that I'm 3rd out of the team, but at the same time, the constant complaining and bitching and moaning about how "X has this many points but is getting this much commission and why is that and we should be better compensated for Y and Z..." it just seems so... foreign to me. the money that I make is the money that I make, and that is no real concern of anybody else's other than myself, my fiance, and my bosses.
We're getting one piece of our portfolio taken from us (which is good because nobody was trained in it at all and we've all been stumbling through), and we're adding on another portfolio on. As far as I'm concerned, that's an equal trade and I'd honestly much rather be dealing with part B than I was with part A. But the amount of complaining and bitching about it all. And then in a team meeting people were all like, "If we're doing this, we need to get paid more." and they went on and on and on practically ambushing the Team Leader with this whole train of conversation, even after he said, "ok, well I'll set up a meeting with the Head of Sales sometime next week so we can talk about this."
And they kept right on badgering. It was just absoluely unreal to me. I know that i'm not a normal person in this position. I'm not relying on my income for food and shelter and things, my income is for my spending money and for our savings account. But still, isn't the fact that you want to be paid more, isn't that something that should be taken up on a personal level? between yourself and your boss?
Or am I looking at this in the complete wrong way?
President of our parent company comes in, says there's not enough work to keep me at 80% billable hours and sends me on my way - I 'should hear back by April 8' that enough new work has come in. Could be next week, could be never ...
And they kept right on badgering. It was just absoluely unreal to me. I know that i'm not a normal person in this position. I'm not relying on my income for food and shelter and things, my income is for my spending money and for our savings account. But still, isn't the fact that you want to be paid more, isn't that something that should be taken up on a personal level? between yourself and your boss?
Or am I looking at this in the complete wrong way?
A group of people complaining can force executives hand in ways that it might not otherwise go in a one on one. One on one gives them a lot of latitude for explaining away a reason why you personally aren't getting more money, and the threat of one person causing trouble or leaving doesn't present much of a concern for them. On the other hand, if all the employees are bitching at once, it's harder to deny for specific reasons, and the implicit threat/leverage is a lot greater. I like to think of it as the union principle. (I am not criticizing unions here)
Also there's an emboldening effect to vocalized complaints. They recently cut our benefits at work, and places in the organization that allowed for more public conversations attracted more people who then felt comfortable expressing themselves.
And they kept right on badgering. It was just absoluely unreal to me. I know that i'm not a normal person in this position. I'm not relying on my income for food and shelter and things, my income is for my spending money and for our savings account. But still, isn't the fact that you want to be paid more, isn't that something that should be taken up on a personal level? between yourself and your boss?
Or am I looking at this in the complete wrong way?
I think it's just a "person who has a job" thing, much less sales. We had leads for some very good contracts at work recently and all most people could do was bitch about how it might be a challenge.
I was like, really? You come to work to have an easy time, and don't think future paychecks are worth working for?
Posting the rankings is pretty common for low to mid level sales positions. And they do think that's it a motivational technique.
"First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado"
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
Posting the sales results also works to direct competition and complaints at the other staff members at your level. Wal-mart, for example, often posts a large scoreboard for the cashiers and front service ladies. (And yes, its virtually all women). Then they can use the top performing workers as a shield against complaint. "Well, Sally sold ten credit card applications today. Why can't you be like Sally?"
Performance metrics like that are even more fun when they start dropping the passive aggressive firing material. "Well, everyone else sold five applications today, and I see you have one...that's really not what we're looking for."
I found out this morning that my aunt got fired from her teaching job at a Catholic school for "insubordination", because they wouldn't give her extra money to teach a technology class for special education students in addition to her normal class. I guess she knew the conversation was going to be bad so she recorded the whole thing, and they kept trying to get her to say she quit (common) and really yelled at her (not ok).
She and my uncle just bought a new car too. I feel so bad for them.
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
so next sunday evening, the whole sales team is getting together at a pub near the office and having dinner and drinks.
on one hand, that's kinda cool, that we can all get along at least a little bit enough to do those things. On the other hand, ugggh. i really am ok with my 'friendships' at work to stay at work and not have any sort of seepage into my personal life. and sunday is my personal time away from them. oh, I'm going, definitely, but still. just. ugh.
As someone on the social committee. It is important. Making an effort about relationships at work is important.
Staying that, Sunday is a bit weird. I would suggest next time something in a Friday after work. It's immediately after work so you can leave after an hour and still go out with your friends if you want and you don't need to add additional travel time because you'd go home after work anyway.
Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
edited March 2013
The library system changed its dress code. I can wear jeans every day now and not just Friday Saturday! This is extra great since I'm working full time hours until they hire a full time clerk to replace the one that was promoted to another branch. And considering the city is updating its hiring software, I will be making some serious bank for a while.
lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
Firday makes sense for offices that have a 'normal' workweek, but on friday's the office is open until 9pm, sundays until 530. Saturday might be better, but everybody would really like at least one weekend evening i guess. lol.
and I get that it's important, but why can't I just be friendly while i'm at work? I mean, we all get along just fine! and i don't really want to stab anybody there. But i really don't foresee any of them suddenly being in my wedding party, you know?
This might also be as a result of one of my smaller brain problems that tells me that making friends more than handful at a time is a bad idea. I'm just glad to have the job, I guess I should stop bitching about it.
lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
ugh. Fun. what boring sounding stuff. :P
yeah I know. I'm fine with work friends. and friend friends and i get that they're different things. I'm just whining in order to have something to whine about that's not this head cold.
I also suck at making any type of friends and social situations in general. i am the most awkwardest awkward.
Apply to every entry-level or minimum wage job I can think of around me: no response from any of them.
Apply to volunteer at some places just to fill all the free time I have: no responses.
Get recommended to someone who owns a company by a family member who knows them, go on a somewhat informal interview: no response.
I guess i'm just unemployable, so there's no reason to keep trying anymore.
Where are you, what is your level of education, and what experience do you have?
WA, Eastside of Lake Washington. B.A. in Environmental Planning and Policy. Some census work, some library work, some game testing work, all entry level stuff almost anyone could do.
I don't know why i'm planning on going back to school to learn programming... in two years i'll probably just be back in this same position only having spent a lot more money to get there.
I work at what is essentially a tech startup. My department to this point has been just me and occasionally a student of varying usefulness. We got some funding recently though and we're getting two new guys in. They're both older and way more experienced than me.
I'm going to be managing them. I am fucking terrified about it.
I already had a healthy (unhealthy) impostor complex as I kind of fell in to this job. This is very dumb because everyone at work thinks I am goddamn magic, but it's still hard to talk yourself out of it.
Also, I am the worst at planning. Fortunately, to this point my jobs were always either "wait for thing to break (because it will, shortly), go fix thing" or "here is a laughable externally imposed deadline, do your best to meet it" -- no planning especially necessary or really possible for either, which worked out okay for me. Now we'll have enough resources that we can actually plan, and I'm going to have to coordinate several people.
Don't get me wrong, I am also really excited. I get to make my own department from the ground up. The guys we're getting seem really great. It's a big vote of confidence from my bosses, and I am the best person we've got for this. But oh man, am I nervous.
I've got an interview on Wednesday for a very nice job. It would be a pretty significant improvement over the one I have now, and the little phone interview they gave me earlier this week went really well.
I'm kinda nervous! Gonna go out and buy a nice interview outfit today, I think. I need more work clothes anyhow, the ones I currently have are a good 3-4 years old and are too big for me
I've got an interview on Wednesday for a very nice job. It would be a pretty significant improvement over the one I have now, and the little phone interview they gave me earlier this week went really well.
I'm kinda nervous! Gonna go out and buy a nice interview outfit today, I think. I need more work clothes anyhow, the ones I currently have are a good 3-4 years old and are too big for me
You're probably referring to electric motors, but if you could somehow work a V8 into there, that'd be great.
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Or just like 4 brushless motors bolted into an epicyclic gearbox to make all of the torque and then some extra as well.
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Sara LynnI can handle myself.Registered Userregular
Ugh who is going to want to hire my fired ass. Whole Food's online application didn't give me much room to lie and say that job never happened. This is the worst.
Why did they interview you on a little phone? Could you hear ok?
You misunderstand, they demanded that I find and pilfer the phone of a person with the last name of "Little" before they would grant me the phone interview
Their requirement to bring them five severed big toes for the wednesday interview is a little odd, but I'm sure they have their reasons
+2
MetalbourneInside a cluster b personalityRegistered Userregular
Ugh who is going to want to hire my fired ass. Whole Food's online application didn't give me much room to lie and say that job never happened. This is the worst.
Getting fired isn't so horrible. Just put the job on your application and under the reason why you left, put something sort of non-committal, like "downsizing" or "left to explore other opportunities"
The kind of people who hide jobs are the ones who stole from the company or broke the law and got caught.
+2
Sara LynnI can handle myself.Registered Userregular
edited March 2013
Whole Foods absolutely isn't going to call me back based on my application. I need to learn to be more vague, I always want to add too many details.
Really I just want to move back in with my mom and forfeit this whole being adult thing that I'm really bad at.
I also already fucked up because it didn't say anywhere in the booklet and nobody verbalized to me that I had to put my job contacts online every week on the website, so I probably already got denied because I never submitted anything for the first week. I can still do that now but I also know that I only have 2 out of the 3 job contacts for last week, because I'm fucking useless. I obviously can't do this shit.
Sara Lynn on
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Zen VulgarityWhat a lovely day for teaSecret British ThreadRegistered Userregular
Anyone know anything about dirty foreigners going up to Canada?
Apply to every entry-level or minimum wage job I can think of around me: no response from any of them.
Apply to volunteer at some places just to fill all the free time I have: no responses.
Get recommended to someone who owns a company by a family member who knows them, go on a somewhat informal interview: no response.
I guess i'm just unemployable, so there's no reason to keep trying anymore.
Where are you, what is your level of education, and what experience do you have?
WA, Eastside of Lake Washington. B.A. in Environmental Planning and Policy. Some census work, some library work, some game testing work, all entry level stuff almost anyone could do.
I don't know why i'm planning on going back to school to learn programming... in two years i'll probably just be back in this same position only having spent a lot more money to get there.
What kind of work did you do for the census @Aistan? I worked for them as the guy that went around building maps (2009) and doing surveys (2010), and I know that letting the people interviewing me know that I did a job where I was working independently, and expected to handle confidential information really helped me land the jobs I have had since then. If you did any of that stuff I would bring it up in any interviews you get.
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NogsCrap, crap, mega crap.Crap, crap, mega crap.Registered Userregular
gonna be putting in a fence and some concrete this summer. prolly gonna cost me $4-5k total at the end of it.
gonna try and do some moonlighting on the side i guess to help pay for it.
but man, i hate elance and guru.com. everyone wants to pay like $50 for something that should be $500.
Who else loves it when it's the busiest time of year, and your boss decides that it's the perfect time to go on vacation for a week and a half
Also, Sara Lynn, just keep looking. In my old man experience, finding a job is all about confidence that you will find one, as stupid as that sounds. You can make it happen! Don't worry about getting fired from something in the past. Just spin it, and unless you got in trouble for doing something illegal, nobody is going to give a crap.
Posts
on one hand, that's kinda cool, that we can all get along at least a little bit enough to do those things. On the other hand, ugggh. i really am ok with my 'friendships' at work to stay at work and not have any sort of seepage into my personal life. and sunday is my personal time away from them. oh, I'm going, definitely, but still. just. ugh.
Anybody else who has worked in a sales position: are the agent rankings/commission rankings and such usually a team-wide known factor? We get daily reports(sometimes) of where everybody in the team is in comparison to everybody else. Is this supposed to be a sort of motivational thing for sales teams? Or is this just a weird thing? I mean, it's nice to see that I'm 3rd out of the team, but at the same time, the constant complaining and bitching and moaning about how "X has this many points but is getting this much commission and why is that and we should be better compensated for Y and Z..." it just seems so... foreign to me. the money that I make is the money that I make, and that is no real concern of anybody else's other than myself, my fiance, and my bosses.
We're getting one piece of our portfolio taken from us (which is good because nobody was trained in it at all and we've all been stumbling through), and we're adding on another portfolio on. As far as I'm concerned, that's an equal trade and I'd honestly much rather be dealing with part B than I was with part A. But the amount of complaining and bitching about it all. And then in a team meeting people were all like, "If we're doing this, we need to get paid more." and they went on and on and on practically ambushing the Team Leader with this whole train of conversation, even after he said, "ok, well I'll set up a meeting with the Head of Sales sometime next week so we can talk about this."
And they kept right on badgering. It was just absoluely unreal to me. I know that i'm not a normal person in this position. I'm not relying on my income for food and shelter and things, my income is for my spending money and for our savings account. But still, isn't the fact that you want to be paid more, isn't that something that should be taken up on a personal level? between yourself and your boss?
Or am I looking at this in the complete wrong way?
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
President of our parent company comes in, says there's not enough work to keep me at 80% billable hours and sends me on my way - I 'should hear back by April 8' that enough new work has come in. Could be next week, could be never ...
So I'm back on the job hunt.
kingworkscreative.com
kingworkscreative.blogspot.com
Also there's an emboldening effect to vocalized complaints. They recently cut our benefits at work, and places in the organization that allowed for more public conversations attracted more people who then felt comfortable expressing themselves.
I think it's just a "person who has a job" thing, much less sales. We had leads for some very good contracts at work recently and all most people could do was bitch about how it might be a challenge.
I was like, really? You come to work to have an easy time, and don't think future paychecks are worth working for?
Posting the rankings is pretty common for low to mid level sales positions. And they do think that's it a motivational technique.
"First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado"
Performance metrics like that are even more fun when they start dropping the passive aggressive firing material. "Well, everyone else sold five applications today, and I see you have one...that's really not what we're looking for."
a lot of people don't like it because that is generally something a company does in order to justify firing people
PARKER, YOU'RE FIRED! <-- My comic book podcast! Satan look here!
What an odd day
At a horse racetrack no less
She and my uncle just bought a new car too. I feel so bad for them.
As someone on the social committee. It is important. Making an effort about relationships at work is important.
Staying that, Sunday is a bit weird. I would suggest next time something in a Friday after work. It's immediately after work so you can leave after an hour and still go out with your friends if you want and you don't need to add additional travel time because you'd go home after work anyway.
Satans..... hints.....
and I get that it's important, but why can't I just be friendly while i'm at work? I mean, we all get along just fine! and i don't really want to stab anybody there. But i really don't foresee any of them suddenly being in my wedding party, you know?
This might also be as a result of one of my smaller brain problems that tells me that making friends more than handful at a time is a bad idea. I'm just glad to have the job, I guess I should stop bitching about it.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
Like I think you see this as pressure of, you must become friends, there is a difference between work friends and friend friends.
(And by the sounds of it Sunday makes sense at your work. Drop by for an hour and try and have fun, if you are careful you might have some)
Satans..... hints.....
yeah I know. I'm fine with work friends. and friend friends and i get that they're different things. I'm just whining in order to have something to whine about that's not this head cold.
I also suck at making any type of friends and social situations in general. i am the most awkwardest awkward.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
(also good work on your bigman progression)
bored
and
should be working
can't focus on motor specifications
Wait. So what the hell are you using the iPads for?
Well it's not a bad job, for the kind of job it is.
But it is working in a call center.
And pays for shit
So, you know, I'd rather be a low paid cad drafter than a highly paid call center employee.
There isn't! But I'm doing better than that. I'm getting my résumé out to every company that looks like it might have a drafting department.
The hard part is going to be trying to not act like a crack whore starved for her next hit in front of her dealer when I finally do get an interview.
WA, Eastside of Lake Washington. B.A. in Environmental Planning and Policy. Some census work, some library work, some game testing work, all entry level stuff almost anyone could do.
I don't know why i'm planning on going back to school to learn programming... in two years i'll probably just be back in this same position only having spent a lot more money to get there.
I'm going to be managing them. I am fucking terrified about it.
I already had a healthy (unhealthy) impostor complex as I kind of fell in to this job. This is very dumb because everyone at work thinks I am goddamn magic, but it's still hard to talk yourself out of it.
Also, I am the worst at planning. Fortunately, to this point my jobs were always either "wait for thing to break (because it will, shortly), go fix thing" or "here is a laughable externally imposed deadline, do your best to meet it" -- no planning especially necessary or really possible for either, which worked out okay for me. Now we'll have enough resources that we can actually plan, and I'm going to have to coordinate several people.
Don't get me wrong, I am also really excited. I get to make my own department from the ground up. The guys we're getting seem really great. It's a big vote of confidence from my bosses, and I am the best person we've got for this. But oh man, am I nervous.
I'm kinda nervous! Gonna go out and buy a nice interview outfit today, I think. I need more work clothes anyhow, the ones I currently have are a good 3-4 years old and are too big for me
Good luck!
You're probably referring to electric motors, but if you could somehow work a V8 into there, that'd be great.
You misunderstand, they demanded that I find and pilfer the phone of a person with the last name of "Little" before they would grant me the phone interview
Their requirement to bring them five severed big toes for the wednesday interview is a little odd, but I'm sure they have their reasons
Getting fired isn't so horrible. Just put the job on your application and under the reason why you left, put something sort of non-committal, like "downsizing" or "left to explore other opportunities"
The kind of people who hide jobs are the ones who stole from the company or broke the law and got caught.
Really I just want to move back in with my mom and forfeit this whole being adult thing that I'm really bad at.
I also already fucked up because it didn't say anywhere in the booklet and nobody verbalized to me that I had to put my job contacts online every week on the website, so I probably already got denied because I never submitted anything for the first week. I can still do that now but I also know that I only have 2 out of the 3 job contacts for last week, because I'm fucking useless. I obviously can't do this shit.
Like if you need a passport or not?
I do!
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
What kind of work did you do for the census @Aistan? I worked for them as the guy that went around building maps (2009) and doing surveys (2010), and I know that letting the people interviewing me know that I did a job where I was working independently, and expected to handle confidential information really helped me land the jobs I have had since then. If you did any of that stuff I would bring it up in any interviews you get.
gonna try and do some moonlighting on the side i guess to help pay for it.
but man, i hate elance and guru.com. everyone wants to pay like $50 for something that should be $500.
PARKER, YOU'RE FIRED! <-- My comic book podcast! Satan look here!
pipe can we chat tonight
Also, Sara Lynn, just keep looking. In my old man experience, finding a job is all about confidence that you will find one, as stupid as that sounds. You can make it happen! Don't worry about getting fired from something in the past. Just spin it, and unless you got in trouble for doing something illegal, nobody is going to give a crap.