There Was Something My Old Boss Just Couldn't Wrap His Head Around

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If you have been following me long enough, you remember the numerous discussions I wrote about our warehouse problems at the company I worked for. My boss and I went many rounds over that one issue in particular. He just couldn't get it. I think what he thought was that I just didn't want to do anything in the warehouse—which, I will admit, is half true. It wasn't my job. I was in sales. But here's the thing, and it's a pretty important detail to keep in mind. We were paid a nominal base wage BECAUSE we were paid mostly on commission. In other words, if you wanted to make any real money, you had to sell things. Your hourly wage was not intended to be enough. So, when we had long gaps between warehouse workers, and we (the sales team) had to go out and pack boxes, that took us away from our desks, away from our phones, and cut into critical time needed to deal with our customers, develop growth strategies, cold call and do follow ups. It also took away from our time researching things customers were looking for and working with our vendors. Our time became almost entirely dedicated to the warehouse, and away from our main bread and butter. Selling and developing customers. Thus, my argument was always, "If the warehouse has to become a priority, and the basis of my pay is based on selling, if you take away my ability to sell, you need to tack on something to my base wage to make up the difference." It became an even bigger area of contention when there was some discussion, at one point, that he (the boss) thought, "Maybe we don't need a warehouse worker at all. We can do it ourselves." My question was, at who's expense? Mine. Because now that part of the job would become permanent potentially, and within that discussion there was no talk about changing our pay structure despite saving $20 an hour on a warehouse guy and considering how much time would be taken away from our (the sales team's) primary source of income. Commissions. The motto around our business was always, "If you want more money, go sell more stuff." How does one do that if you shift the focus on the sales team from selling to packing boxes? My boss just couldn't wrap his head around this very basic, commonsense thing. Thus, it created quite a bit of tension.