The Catalyst That Started A Resignation

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As most of you are probably aware, I left my job on July 18th, 2023. Call it retirement, a hiatus or whichever word you find that fits. But on July 18th I handed in my resignation effective immediately after 10 years with the company I worked for. There were many reasons I came to this conclusion that this was the right decision for me, and I decided to share some of those reasons here with you. This is an installment. The thing is, this site sometimes serves as both a place to share things amongst friends, but also serves as a place that can be an outlet. Sometimes things weigh heavily on our chests, and you just have to let them out. You need a sense of closure. Among friends here, it can provide a great opportunity to share perspectives and talk things through. My decision to leave did not start with this thing that happened that I will talk about in this installment. It was but one thing among many. But it was certainly a strong catalyst in helping me to make my final decision. Let's just say it was a very revealing moment that opened my eyes to many more things. It set the wheels in motion in a real way for the first time for what would ultimately follow. Had this moment not happened to begin a thought process, July 18th may not have happened in the way that it did. We were lied to. A co-worker and I were the two salesmen in the office, and it was determined we needed some assistance with administrative things and paperwork, and it would be useful to have that person also do some inside sales work. Because the person being hired would not be in "sales" necessarily in the same capacity as us, they would not be paid a commission like we were paid. That person would receive a wage of $20 an hour. We all agreed this person could be paid more because the job she would do would have very different parameters than ours. It is worth noting that my base wage was $12.50, and my co-worker's base wage was $13.50. We were also paid a 15% sales commission and managed our own customers. Within the first week. Within the first week of hiring the individual, that person was suddenly thrust into more of a sales role. Within a few short weeks accounts began to be handed out and there were the beginnings of discussions to assign certain territories to her. We were also told that we may have to evaluate our own territories and make potential future decisions about giving them up for her to work. At the same time, a commission of 10% was added to her compensation package almost immediately and she was assigned a sales number. This action went against everything in the way of how we are paid. It was completely contrary to what we had discussed when we had all gotten together to consider bringing another employee in. It was also contrary to where we had to start when we were hired. The question among my co-worker and I was, "Wait a minute. What's going on here? Something's not right." I kept quiet. I mostly went along with it. I had immediate issues with the idea of her being paid as much as she was being paid, now with commissions on top of the package. I had issues with the prospect of giving up territory or even individual accounts. Remember, this was never part of the deal. This was not what we hired her for. This was why she would be paid more. The fact that it was happening so fast with no experience was also an issue. My co-worker and I did have extensive private conversations about it very early on. But, however rare it is for me to do, I kept mostly quiet about my thoughts or the discussions my co-worker and I were having. At some point we considered that we would have to bring it up, but we wanted to give things time and see how things further developed first. "Let's see what happens and see how this goes forward," we discussed. We didn't want to necessarily jump to any conclusions. Why was her pay package such a hot area of contention? The reason (or justification) for our low hourly rate was because we were paid on commission mostly, and commissions more than made up for the lack of a better wage on the front end. Keep in mind that I had going on 10 years of experience with the company and had grown my sales revenue to roughly $1 million a year with year over year growth of revenue and profits of 22%-25%. I had experience and I had a proven track record of success. The problem. It was a slap in the face. For years we were told, "If you want more money, sell more stuff. That's how you get a raise." Yet, we hired someone who had never done sales. Someone with absolutely no experience in our business. And we immediately paid them almost twice our own wages and then offered a commission on top of that—with the prospect of breaking up some territories in order to give her a boost. Meaning, even more money. For her. There was no talk of increasing our commissions. There was no talk of increasing our hourly base wages. In our minds we thought, "Didn't we just change the way we're paying sales people? How come we didn't get the memo on that?" Moreover, the prospect that she would be paid twice as much and have the prospect of getting more and more accounts and earning a commission on top of that—there was no doubt in my mind that if she showed successful growth, her commission would also eventually match ours. 15%. And then there was just me. I won't get into the details of why my co-worker was fired. I will just say that he was. And following that, there were closed door meetings between the manager and I about what we would do next. It was determined that his accounts would need to be "redistributed" in a way that they could still be maintained. It was my assumption that I would get a handful of those accounts considering my proven track record of sales growth and my experience. It was a consideration at the time that taking on new accounts would boost at least my commissions significantly enough that the gap between my hourly rate and hers would be less of an issue. Besides, who would you trust better to deal with established accounts? Someone with 10 years of experience? Someone with annual growth of 22%-25%? Or someone who had no experience at all, and no proven track record of sales to speak of? It made sense to me, at the time, that I would obtain a good number of those accounts. After all, in my mind, hadn't I earned them? Didn't my proven track record show that I could manage them well? And grow them? That did not happen. The manager kept some of the higher dollar amount accounts for himself, which made sense to me for him to do. However, in another closed door meeting I was informed that it was finally determined that most of the other accounts would go to the now new sales person. I might get one or two, but the bulk of what was left would go her way. Wait a minute. What? "This will help to give her some padding," he told me. It was the first time I spoke up. "Padding?" I said. "She already makes twice as much as me on the hourly. Who needs padding? And she gets a commission too?" My feeling. Whether it was right or wrong, I felt slighted and unappreciated in that moment. How did my experience not account for anything? How did my sales numbers not mean anything? And why was there still no discussion of bumping my hourly pay if, as was apparently the case, the rules were suddenly changed regarding how we were paid? It is a rare feeling for me. But I was literally dumfounded. The words rang in my ears once more that I had heard so many times before. If you want more money, sell more stuff. Suddenly those words had no meaning. It was no longer true. With no experience and no track record, you could actually get more. At the time I did not feel like I was being pushed out. Quite the contrary. But I certainly felt this was a very wrong move on my manager's part. Maybe he had a plan? I doubted it. To be honest, I don't know what he was thinking. Was he thinking? This made sense to him? In my thought process when he walked out of my office that day, I was absolutely perplexed. You just gave another raise to someone who had not yet earned it and left me sitting there to pick up my own pieces—thank you very much. It changed my entire perspective in that moment. It begged the question, "Why am I here?"