[Cerek]

Originally Posted by Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 1) A customer, who's wife works at Staples head office, sent an email to her that I sent him. It is not my email. It is system generated. I did not know it says "thanks for taking the time to speak with me today..", which did not. 2) She questioned that I took this customer as a contact (of which we need 28 of per day), before I attempted to call him 3 times first. This is also true, however we all have customers that tell us to email only, so we do not call them. The managers and department managers are aware of this. In fact, some keep a list of these customers. 3) It is fact. I talk to several co-workers outside of work and they do the same thing as far as email customers the same collateral. They were also not aware of what it says. 4) I don't think that is true. They budget for some many people at the beginning of the year. I know the department manager does not like me very much, despite making her look good, but I don't think she would go that far. I think I rank 3-4 out of the 11. None of them have been questioned; I asked. I'll look into the manual thing. If I have one, it mat be old, but that's not my fault. Thanks for the advice, so far. Edit: I just noticed 3 of the accounts given to me by a rep that was promoted within our department, only called the customer once before sending them an email, instead of the supposed 3, or in one case, 5 attempts that should be made. My training manual is from '05. They have not given me anything since than. Of course, they could argue that the sheets we get for training updates are the same. Which may be true, but I do not have most of them anymore.

Ok, the fact that another employee was promoted that did the same thing you were "questioined about" gives you a little steadier leg to stand on. Was the person they promoted one of the few with higher numbers than you, or were his numbers lower? If he had less sales numbers, then the dept mgr will have a more difficult time explaining why he was promoted and you were disciplined when it can be shown he did the same thing you did and you were producing more than him.

In my case, the CEO made up an argument about a printer cartridge I was ordering from a non-preferred vendor. The reason for my decision was that - even with the shipping cost from CA to GA - the non-preferred vendor still had the lower price. I added the figures up. Even if I HAD been doing what the CEO accused me of, my "lack of judgement" would have cost the hospital a total of $250.00 per year (max). Meanwhile, our Director of Nursing cost the hospital over $25,000 because she was signed time sheets for a temp nurse without verifying the hours. The DON received a mild reprimand for her negligence, but that was all. I could have hung my CEO on that one if I had wanted to.

{back to you now}
It doesn't matter if your manual is old. What matters is the written policy for disciplining employees for various offenses. You can't really argue that you didn't know the email policy, because you've already admitted that you did know it. But it might still go your way if they violated their written policy of discipline. Just like the employee I told you about earlier. Any fool knows you should not come to work drunk. But the fact that the hospital failed to follow their written procedures overrode her mistake.

So you need to find out exactly what the company's written policy is regarding discipline and number of offenses (I'm assuming this is your first offense or at least the first one in a long time). If it says (for example) there will be a verbal warning, followed by a written warning, followed by suspension of commissions, then you've got them cold. If, on the other hand, it says that the first offense may result in a verbal warning OR more severe discipline at the discretion of the manager, they have you cold. It all depends what the manual says about their discipline policy.

Those are the main points I can think of right now. You've already done a good job by letting them know you ARE going to question their actions and FORCE them to defend the actions they took. A lot of times, just letting them know you're not gonna just roll over and take any abuse is enough to make them back off. Getting back to my own situation for a second, I've thought several times about the meeting when my CEO fired me. In hindsight, I'm almost positive if I had stood up and said "This is bullshit. You and I both know it and I'm taking it to the labor board", there is a chance he would have backed off. What I DID do was go back to his office about 30 minutes later. He had told me I would get two weeks severance pay. I went back and said "IF I had quit on my own, I would have to give 1 month notice (since I was a manager)". So I told the manager I deserved 1 month severance pay instead of 2 weeks. He agreed very quickly, so I know he was worried about me taking the action further.

The best thing you can do is document, document, document. Then document your documentation. If you've got detailed records with dates, times, contacts and communications, the company will have a lot harder time defending their actions or refuting your challenge.