There Was Something My Old Boss Just Couldn't Wrap His Head Around
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (111593)
United States
October 15, 2025 6:09am CST
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.
7 people like this
6 responses
@BarBaraPrz (50965)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
15 Oct
Well, duh... if the sales team is not selling, what needs to be packed up and sent out?
5 people like this
@porwest (111593)
• United States
16 Oct
Bingo. And at one point, during an extended period when we had no warehouse guy, which was at the same time the idea was being rolled around we didn't need one, sales did eventually begin to stall. It was just a dumb idea based on a critical lack of good judgement, which was unfortunately a common theme throughout my time there.
At one point I jokingly (half-jokingly) put a sign on my office door that read, "If I am not in the warehouse, I am actually working."
My underlying point was, if I am in the office I am doing my job. If I am in the warehouse, I can't.
3 people like this
@LindaOHio (208910)
• United States
18 Oct
@porwest Yup. I've worked for free before; but it was something that I really enjoyed; and I was in my teens.
1 person likes this
@porwest (111593)
• United States
21 Oct
@LindaOHio Not me. Ever. I have never offered my time without pay. Never.
1 person likes this
@porwest (111593)
• United States
16 Oct
Well, kinda sorta. I made really good money. But that was because of my commissions. As there was a focus-shift at one point, that we'd take on warehouse duties ourselves, I felt that if we were changing the nature of the job and being pulled away from our real bread and butter (sales), we should have been paid more on the hourly base rate...
ESPECIALLY considering we were saving money by not hiring a warehouse worker. I wanted some of that cost savings added to my baseline compensation and thought it was only fair to do so. Had we gotten a different commitment in that regard, it might have changed my attitude and view toward the situation.
I still think it ultimately would not have worked. Warehouse work is physical labor. By the time you were exhausted from doing that, how much energy would one have left to pound out sales? We got to a point where we were just maintaining current customers but not growing or working as hard gaining new customers. That slowed down my ability to grow my commissions and just added to the tension around the situation.
2 people like this
@porwest (111593)
• United States
16 Oct
There was a funny moment that was related to me, that when the boss finished cleaning out the stuff left in my desk, I didn't take with me when I finally resigned, that he found no less than 6 letters of resignation all signed and with different dates on them.
I made really good money there and mostly enjoyed what I did. I was good at what I did and returned year over year average growth in revenue and profits of around 25%. But that was mostly due to my own fruitions. The way the office worked was we each worked somewhat independently. I ran my accounts according to my own direction according to what territories I was assigned, and of course, "owned" the accounts I had.
BUT as far as overall leadership, it was terribly lacking, and thus, it added to the tension. The boss also lacked any real vision, which was an ongoing problem for me. One week he'd be all gung-ho on one idea or another, and the next a different one, with no follow-through or any real commitment to anything. It was like he'd go home, have a dream, come in excited to implement something, only to have it be a forgotten thing before the next "big idea" came along that would falter and disintegrate just like all the others.
The only thing that kept me there was the money. In the end he made some very bad decisions that just were beginning to become the icing on the cake for me, and then there was the final incident with our warehouse guy and a conversation I had with the president of the company, that left me no choice but to make a final resignation that would actually be handed in.
3 people like this
@Marilynda1225 (87529)
• United States
15 Oct
I'm sure he could wrap his head around the whole common sense thing but the money was going in his pocket and he had you doing the work of someone else who would have had to get paid.
3 people like this
@porwest (111593)
• United States
18 Oct
That was part of it. He'd save $20 an hour on a warehouse guy and not have to pay more on the base for us...but of course, the opportunity cost was what he wasn't seeing, and that opportunity cost was the loss of sales revenue.
And in the end, the opportunity cost would be far greater than the cost savings.
@porwest (111593)
• United States
17 Oct
@Fleura Bingo. And here's the other thing. I used to run numbers all the time. Partly because I was a numbers guy, and partly because I was curious, but I was also wanting to know what my personal contribution was, and how it compared to others in the office.
The three people under the manager on the sales team all had growth numbers in the positive by double digits. The manager, who owned 60% of the accounts, was consistently down anywhere between 5% and 7%. By the way, in case that wasn't clear, his numbers were -5% or -7%. So, throughout the time he had these others working for him, THEY (WE) were the ones actually adding to the growth of the branch while he was technically dragging it down.
The president of the company did not look at our numbers individually. Only at the branch number. He had no idea who was actually driving the business forward and performing, and my guess is, the manager took the credit for the growth he had nothing to do with.
Which is yet another "lucky opportunity."
The only reason the branch had double digit growth overall was because I was doing 25%, the new guy was doing 45%, and the guy who had been there the longest was doing 10%. It was enough to close the gap on the manager's losses.
It was in fact, this knowledge, that led me to encourage the boss to have a basis for bonuses, so that we would have an incentive to help him grow his side of the business even if the commissions from those sales would go to him and not to us.
Eventually it would become harder and harder to carry his weight, and so we needed something in place to help ALL the accounts grow, not just the ones we managed individually.
1 person likes this
