What causes you the most stress?

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Ok,
I spoke with my manager and they have given me a written warning. They are also not going to pay my commission for this period; which would be paid out next month.

I'm obviously angry. HR never called to get my side of it. I will call them tomorrow morning to see if that is in any way a requirement.

I definitely feel I'm being singled out.

I brought some of my own concerns to his attention and I think I scared the heck out of him. After the meeting, which was near the end of the day, he sent an email to the team saying he would not be in tomorrow. I think he's gonna spend the day trying to cover his ass.
I already have most of the stuff printed though, so there's not much he can do.

The written warning means that I'm out of the chance to win the trip again this year. I did tell him that if it does stick, he will get the minimum amount of production out of me. There's no incentive to work extra.

I will also call HR in Toronto and get in touch with Labour Relations, or a labour lawyer.

My co-workers called me tonight and they're all pretty upset. They all feel it's to look for a new job. 'Course in this economy..

I honest hate having to put my new manager in a bad light, but I'm really trying to show that there a lot of people "fudging the numbers".

[Bungleau]

Man... sorry to hear that, Variol. Keep your evidence in your control, and be sure to document *everything*. Including the conversation from today... in fact, you might consider recording things from this point onward, just to be sure there are no misunderstandings about what is said on either side.

He can't argue about that, can he?

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I'm speaking to the HR person who made this decision today. Hopefully very shortly. No matter what she says, I will call Toronto to have this investigated.

I also have a friend who is a lawyer for the government. I'll see if he knows anything about this, or if he has a friend, or reference of someone who does.

I actually feel much better now, knowing where I stand.

I really hope I can take this to the point of implementing my department manager. She has been on her high horse too long. Depending on what happens, I will speak to her managers in Framingham as well. I will see them in April on the trip as well.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I tried to get some info online and went to this link:
http://labourrelations.org/LabourLaw...LawCanada.html

I clicked on the "ask a lawyer" link and posted my query. I looks like this is a US thing, which concerns, me we'll see what happens.

[Cerek]

I've been following your posts, Variol. I'm sorry to hear about something like this happening to anyone because I've been on the receiving end myself more than once.

After re-reading all your posts, I have some questions.

1) What prompted the department manager to question your activities in the first place?
2) Exactly what activities did she question and why? (if you feel comfortable sharing that, if not, I understand)
3) You say other employees were doing "basically the same thing". Do you know that for a fact? Sometimes our own perception can be clouded somewhat. (I'm not questioning that they were. I'm just trying to look at this from all angles).
4) You've told us in the past that you consistently exceed your sales goals and earn bonus commissions for your work. You said there were only 11 employees that met the company sales goals. Do you know where your sales figures rank among these 11? Do you know if the department manager questioned any of their activities?

To be perfectly honost, it sounds to me like you may be costing the company too much money with you consistent performance. You routinely earn very good commissions and bonuses and you also qualified for a free vacation for 2 in Cancun. That ain't cheap. My guess is that the company is trying to cut their expenses and taking away the bonuses earned by employees is a quick way to do that. Experience has taught me that any sudden reprimand from an employer usually has very little to do with your job performance and has a lot to do with the company wanting to cut their costs at your expense.

Dealing with HR, there are some things to keep in mind. First thing is to get a copy of the Policy and Procedure manual (if you don't already have one). Make sure the company followed the listed procedures to the letter. If they didn't, you have a legitimate counter attack. The hospital I got fired from once fired a CNA because she came to work drunk from partying the night before. The CNA admitted she was still a little drunk when she got to work, but figured she would sober up as the day went on. When she was fired, she went to the Labor Board. At her hearing, her lawyer asked the CEO if the hospital had given a drug and/or sobriety test to the employee. He said "No. She admitted she was drunk on the job. We didn't see any reason to test her." Unfortunately, the Policy & Procedure manual specifically stated any employee thought to be impaired at work would HAVE to submit to a drug test immediately. Since the hospital never actually tested her, they had no proof she was actually drunk. The Labor Board agreed and she got her job back.

The point is to make sure you HAVE done everything that is required in the P&P manual and to look for evidence your company did not. You also need to follow Bung's advice and document everything, no matter how trivial it might seem at the time.The more you can document your proven performance and the companies lack of complaints about your work ethic, the stronger your case will be.

In the end, however, if you did have some activities the company "frowned upon", it doesn't matter that other employees were doing basically the same thing. It's like a police officer pulling over one car out of a string of speeders. You can say "but everyone else was speeding too" and the cop is gonna say "Were YOU exceeding the speed limit? Here's your ticket."

I do agree with your sentiment that if you lose the vacation you are within your rights to tell your manager he will only get minimum production from you.

[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.

[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.

[VulcanRider]

Originally Posted by Cerek I do agree with your sentiment that if you lose the vacation you are within your rights to tell your manager he will only get minimum production from you.

I agree with most of Cerek's advice, except for that last line. I would NEVER tell a supervisor I'm going to give the company less than 100% effort. (I might do it, but I'd never say it.) Anything you say may be used against you someday. Maybe at next year's review your boss could say "you did ok, but we feel you could've given a better effort, especially after what you said last year", and reduce your raise/bonus/whatever based on that.

Also, if your policy manual is that old, I'd try and get a new copy. If the company's made policy changes without notifying you about them, you can't be held accountable for not following them. At my work, whenever there's a change to the manual, they print the updated section, give everyone a copy, and require us to sign a form that we received & read it. No form means no proof that we were aware of the update.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

The he is a she Cerek and I really don't know if she made the trip. I seriously doubt it since 6 of the 11 were on my team, and some of the other 5 are managers.

Despite everything, it's still a great job overall.

..and the upside (if they don't change the written warning) is that now, all the pressure is off to be top again. In fact, I will have try to work at having a "bad", year, so it lowers my goals for 2010.
I really don't think they thought this through..

..and it's really more than all of this. I really take pride in my work and many of my customer are beholden to me. They have implemented changes and made corrections from my recommendations.

..and I did tell my manager I would give him 100%, but no more.

One customer sent an email to my manager in '07. It ended up being placed in our training manual the following year. (just a little horn tooting) I'm actually tempted to tell that customer about this. She'd go nuts!

[Bungleau]

I agree with VR... don't tell your manager you're giving less than 100%.

And it sounds funny, but sales people who make a lot of money don't actually cost the company all that much. The reason they're making a lot of money is because they're bringing in a lot of sales. True... if you skip paying them, you make more *temporary* margin on that sale, but if they leave, you lose *all* the margin on that sale by not making the sale. I know that sounds kind of strange to non-salespeople, but it's the truth.

You can assume that the sale would have come anyway, but in reality, good salespeople (like those who consistently make their numbers and win trips to Cancun ) build relationships with their customers, and those relationships are what actually make the sale happen. If Variol left Staples and called his customers from his new Office Depot job, a fair number would be likely to follow him, just because they've got a relationship with him.

Check to see if they've got the policy manual on-line, Variol. They might... I know our company does. Check it for two things: to make sure that you've dotted the i's and crossed the t's, and that they've done so as well.

Also, if you haven't already, start making a list of how customers like to be contacted - via phone, via email, and so on. If you've got evidence that shows you're simply following the customers' requests (and making the sales), then it's really hard to fault you.

Oh, and that "28 contacts a day"? That's there for the *average* salesperson... the one who doesn't necessarily know what they're doing. That's just playing a numbers game... make X calls a day, and Y customers will place orders. Ask your VP of sales (not your boss... the person at the top of the food chain) what's more important... making 28 calls a day, or selling X dollars of product a day. I *GUARANTEE* you I know what's more important, and so do you.

Take a look at your sales numbers to calculate your daily sales. It can be very... enlightening.

And Cerek... wow!