seattledave

again, sorry, but i think most of us would react in the simliar situation.

ok, take your exact job you have now, switch employeers, and take away 25%+ of your income, the respect you had, and make that the best job available to you. You're not going to be happy, and eventually you're not going to give 100%.

You may give 100% at first, like most everyone does when starting a job, we act humble, and just glad to have a job. But after a while, when it's apparent that the same job down the road pays 25%+ more (which is already filled, so don't say you're going to get), how long do you act happy and content?

I totally understand about it being stealing from your company if you're not giving 100%, but I look at it as, if I'm giving 100%, and they pay me as if I'm giving 70%(for my position), who's stealing from whom? We have a very weak job market, and I don't find it fair for employeers to take advantage of that.

Employeers pay for a way of life to their employees, and when the price of things go up, and the employeer doesn't justly increase their wage to offset that, then they are essentially paying them less. Why do businesses pretend that it's not?

Currently, I have to really kiss my employeer's ___, so that I'll get a raise in december to almost offset the increase in gas prices.

Both my current employeers say "I'm not to blame, so I'm not paying more." Wouldn't it be nice to tell the electric company that?

matt_a

I do understand where you're coming from. I just don't agree that it's OK to do sub-par work simply because you feel under paid. I do feel that a company should give at least a "cost of living" raise each year if it's at all financially possible.

seattledave

it's always financially possible, or your company goes bankrupt, which it won't. The goods you produce/sell for your company went up in the last couple years i'm sure, the cost of electricity for your building you work at went up, etc... it's just employeers are able to not look at employeer's paychecks as "bills".

sorry, but i don't look at it as "feeling" underpaid, I look at it as "am" underpaid, but with the job market like it is, i don't have an ability to rectify the situation, except to work just as hard as I have to without getting fired. Less you're at home sick right now, you're doing it too, posting on company time, right?

matt_a

Yep, I am. My job involes a LOT of time on the telephone (which also means a LOT of time on hold). I frequently multitask other projects while waiting, but sometimes I also read/post here. I'm not surfing instead of working...I'm surfing while working.

seattledave

me too. but I could be being more productive for my company doing something else. hence, i am not giving 100%.

krustytheclown

I agree with you Dave. I fell the same way in my job, I can barely afford to live here, thats why Im moving to NC soon.

In High School, I felt the same way. If the classes that I didnt really care about (Chemistry, Algebra, Geometry) I did just enough work to get by. I finished all 3 of those classes with a D. I didn't/don't have plans for college, so what did it matter if I passed with a D or a A?

The classes I did care about (English, History, Vo-Tech classes) I worked hard at, and learned everything I could to excel in those classes. I learned stuff from those classes that I use in life. What the hell did chemistry or algebra teach me? I dont use anything l learned in the classes.

matt_a

Don't get me wrong, Dave...I'm not some super-employee robot who busts his butt non-stop for 8 hours a day. I will take short breaks to goof off once in a while. I'd go nutts if I didn't. My point of all this (way back at the start) was that I don't see someone's pay scale as being a reason for a sales person to have a lousy attitude toward customers.

seattledave

well i guess i was assuming when you argued for working at 100%, you did. "Back in the day" when my employeer paid me atleast what I was worth, and offered a direct "you make more for the company, you will make more accoridingly" route, I did work at 100%. I spent my off time, thinking about making my job more contributing and learning more about my industry. if companies want 100% they give it. Few people are going to be so stupid that they ____ away a job they know pays the highest it reasonably can.

backseatchris

im gonna jump in on this one...just finished reading all of the posts.

At my dealership, they pay lot attendants a measly $8 per hour (which i smuch better than minimum wage here).

There is no period of time which they dealership has to (or will) review your hard working and consider a raise. you literally have to ask for it. Now, lot attending is monkeys work here. All you do is wash cars, park cars, and wash/detail/vaccuum our GM's $170,000 mercedes every day. There is really no incentive to work any harder.

They get treated like crap, hence why there barely work. If they dont get that raise, they are welcome to quit as we would gladly hire a homeless person to wash cars all day. In fact, we might just fire them so we can have someone we are certain wont complain for a while, and when they do, we fire them too.

----

With all of the above said, I work here as a rental agent in the rental department going on 3 years now. I also work as a service writer. I dont get paid any commision, just my hourly rate. We pretty much only rent to service customers, with the occasional outside customer.

We have a medium-large size fleet of 35 vehicles. As of right now, there is no incentive for me to not rent 2 cars a week compared to the 85 we probably do rent. I would love to rent 150 cars a week if i was paid some sort of commision, but im not.

My other agent and i have also thought of ways to improve the business, and taken it to our GM, but all ideas have been shot down as we are not important apparently.

So I go on doing my work at a fairy slow pace, with hours of free time since we cant really branch out. Just my personal experience

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scionofPCFL

The best thing about dealing with customers on a retail level is that it gets you use to dealing with your future bosses Assuming the retail gig is temporary as you work on a degree or skill for later in life. If the retail gig isn't temporary, then I have to question who the real idiot is.

backseatchris

meh, i dont let my customers push me around. If i get some lip, they get it right back, they push, i push harder.

And when they complain my bosses always take the employees side (99.9%) of the time.

They usually respond to a complaint with "Well sir, it sounded like you were being a real asshat to my highly underpaid employee. Your a businessman, wheres your business etiquette?"

Man does a cutomer get ____ed lol. But i get a great laugh out of it. At least my bosses realize that theyd rather have happy workers that stupid customers. We are all friends here

seattledave

at my second job, where i work retail, i love when people ask for the manager. They don't realise, i've been trying to explain my company's illogical reasonings in the nicest manner they're going to get. If you're good at customer service, you're supposed to be the liason between a customer who wants more than they should get, and a business that wants to give them the least for their money.

Many times, have I offered a customer a "great deal", that i really shouldn't be offering, and when they're not content with that, they'll go to my manager and they'll come back with less of an offer than what I tried to offer them. Sometimes I then throw them that stupid smile and a quick raise of my shoulders.

From me in customer service, they'll get "I'm sorry"
From the managers they get, "That's the way it is, and if you don't like it, leave."

TheRealBen

I'll have to interject with a little knowledge I have of my former job.

I used to work for Radio Shack. Now, every year or so they re-structure their pay scale, which is supposed to be a good thing...however, they do it in such a way where they take away commissioned items and reduce commission levels all together.

Their excuse for this is to sell more to make what you were making last year.

What they also have been doing recently is reducing payroll hours for each store, meaning each sales associate gets less hours...and have reduced and elimated many commissions again. Why have they done this? They will tell you the company doesn't have the money and it is cost-saving.

Here's the kicker, Radio Shack has recently hired Julian Day and in under a half year of employment with the company they have given him $19,000,000 and more than double that if the stock hits $30 per share.

Why are the associates not going to work hard? They get paid minimum wage and have had massive commission reductions and cuts each year for at least the last three.

Examples: Sirius and Comcast were $10 commission to the associate...both removed.

Dish Network was highly profitable for associates as well...they removed that commission.

Since the new year they have reduced commission on Sprint and Cingular by more than half.

You're saying they should still give 100% when it's apparant to EVERY associate that they got raped so they could pay some executive $19,000,000 based off of personal hype?

scionofPCFL

That's short term thinking at it's finest. The stock will do well and he'll get his bonus. However, the reprecussions of that will be that in a couple of years when all of the good associates are gone and replaced with very poor ones, sales will plummet, the stock will plummet, and then Julian Day will get an 8 figure buy out + stocks + healthcare + access to the company jet.

Personally, I'm going to show my boy exactly how to do what Julian Did, it's a great way to retire before your hair falls out.

RedneckwithanxB

ok... as a fellow retail worker (at Disney, and if it couldnt get any worse I sell the tickets too)... i see a few things daily that ____ me off...

1. DO NOT QUESTION ME... if you dont like the answer that I give you... deal with it...
2. THERE ARE NO DISCOUNTS ON DISNEY TICKETS... No, not if your staying in the hotel, no not if your going for X number of days, no not if you just want to go in the morning.
3. YOU CAN NOT USE YOUR HUSBANDS/WIFES/MOMS/DADS CREDIT CARD... and have photo ID ready
4. DONT EXPECT ME TO OPEN THE STORE EARLY OR STAY OPEN LATER FOR YOU... just because you think you need a mickey at 10:15 pm isnt my fault... and dont give me some kinda sob story that your kid lost theirs... i couldnt care less
5. PRICES ARE NON NEGOTIABLE... dont try to haggle with me...

oni424

You think retail is full of morons, try working at social services like I do. I get calls all day, "why you turn off my wellfare."

scionofPCFL

That's the beauty of commision sales: You make exactly what you're worth.

mfbenson

I've done my share of retail work. I've done my share of government work. People are FAR more rude and stupid when dealing with government workers than retail workers.

You have it easy.

At the risk of alienating most everyone in this thread, I'll reveal that I now work in an executive position in retail. That said, I have a lot of respect for the people on the front lines. I don't always agree with their opinions, but I have a lot of respect for how hard their job is, and how minimal their compensation is. But as for bellyaching about stupid customers, I would ask retail workers to keep a few things in mind:

1. Those stupid people are providing your paycheck. Stupid or not, a sale is a sale, and no sales means no paycheck, sooner or later.
2. Try educating them. Teach them how the product works, show them the features. You can't make them less stupid, but you can make them less ignorant.
3. Generally, the biggest frustrations I see in retail aren't the customers - its the lack of advancement and the repetitious nature of the work. All I can say is apply yourself, learn as much as you can, and try to do everything a little bit better than your coworkers. Sooner or later you will be noticed, either by your own bosses or by your bosses' competitors. There are paths for advancement, but it can require out of the box thinking.

And no, I don't have any say in the wage scales at my company. I'm a financial analyst, which is like being an accountant without all the glamour. But I'm compensated pretty well.

TheRealBen

Not if they consistantly cut your commission sales like at Radio Shack.

2005: 10% Commission
2006: 5% Commission
2007: 2.75% Commission

With the model at Radio Shack(where they consider your wages performanced based) they have stock holders completely fooled into believing the company is profitable for the right reasons(greats salesmen, product, and customer service). When the reality is that they have been consistantly raising prices and cutting hours and pay for employees.

mfbenson

Radio Shack is dysfunctional, and not a good example. But its competitors are cherry picking the best employees away from it all time.