Wanting to quit my job…..
Originally published at ~+>Blue's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
I don’t understand what has happened @ my job. Doing what i do used to be fun, there was always something to look forward to, new things were always happening. Now its rather mundae, boring, and i almost dreade having to deal with the company.
When i first started this job, there were BIG commission checks, it was easy to make the goals, they were clearly defined, and were on a Month-to-Month basis.
In Example:
- In August of 2006 we had just changed over to being a Universial Center. That means we setup New Service, Disconnect and Transfer Exisiting serivice, and handle Customer Service for exisiting accounts. Our Goals were $3900 in Revenue, & 45 Units (Long Distance, DSL, DirectTV, & Cingular @ the time.) Each month there numbers would start over and a new goal was set. There were no chargebacks (meaning if somone didn’t keep a service still kept your sales credit). For some key products in terms of numbers were: $24 for CompleteChoice, $22 for Unlimted Long Distance, $10 for 5c LD, $18 for International LD plans, DirecTV was $35 an acativation. I had 975 Calls that month the 22 days we worked
Now, The beginning of this year our sales and commission metrics were changed. We went from a Month-to-Month standards to a Year to Date standard. The introduction of Revenue per call(RPC), The Units mesurement was changed to just DSL, DirecTV, & Wireless (Long Distance was removed), and how much many items sales value counted decreased.
In Example:
- In January of 2007 our goals were $3950 for the month, a RPC of $4.50, and all the new sales credits for products went into effect. $18 for CompleteChoice, $5 for 5c LD, $7 for International LD Plans, $27 per DirecTV activation. Most products drop $1~9 from where they were previously.
- In Febuary of 2007 our goal for the month was $4100, RPC of $5.00. March numbers became $5100, April: $5000, May: $5500, June: $6000, & July: $6600.
In August of 2007, 1 year later, We do the same job, and have the same number of people calling, yet our Revenue goals are $7600 in NET Sales year to date, including chargebacks. We are also responsible if a customer removes a service after 90 days we are hit with the negitive value of the order ( I.E. some takes of Long Distance and DSL after 6 months i get hit for a $50 chargeback)
Now a few things to keep in mind: in life, we all hit hard time, sometimes people have to cut back so its unrealistic to assume people will keep services indefinatley. Also peoples’ needs changes they may not use the landline services as much as they used to; The advent of cellphone really changed how many of us communicate. Also while i do my job deiligently i don’t always feel that we charge is reasonable many times. I also realize its these prices that keep me in a job with decent pay so i try and justify it in my head. I feel disadvataged as i now have to do twice the work to keep above water or rick drowning do to activities outside of my control.
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Recently the company introduced new bundles to help compete. Good news you would think, not in our world, the new Bundles give even less Revenue for products sold. Where as Unlmited LD was $22 a sale, with the new packages its $17 or worse $12 a sale. The Company is also discontinuing old BellSouth LD Plans and going to national AT&T LD plans, the Monthly rates are higher and the revenue per sale is less. Our old $1 LD plan gave $5 in revenue now the new $2 AT&T One Rate 10c plan gives $3 in revenue. Some of the new DSL promotions such as $10 DSL Lite are web only offers (thats means we cannot place an order for the price, nor issue and order to give it to a customer upon demand) yet our DSL objectives have gone up. I’m being undersold by the company though another sales channel
The Company has also changed how monthly numbers are adjusted in the event of absence. Previous to March of 2007, when you took a day off or vacation your numbers for the month were adjusted to refelct the time you were at work and able to contribute. Starting with March 2007 our Year to Date numbers reflect 10 days of Vacation and 70hrs of FMLA time calculated in. That means if you go out on vacation or FMLA(Medical Leave) you are subject to maintain YTD numbers and MTD sales objectives unless you have taken a vacation/medical time greater than 10Days/70Hrs.
In Example:
- I went on Vacation 8 days from the last week in March and the first week of April. Now once i came back from vacation my MTD numbers were not adjusted to refelect the first week i was not there. Therefore i only met 45% of the Monthly Sales Objective because i wasn’t there 7 out of the 20 days we worked.
In essenace its as if we are penalized for taking time off. Were as in March i was 103% YTD in sales by the end of April i was 87%. I made 98% monthly numbers in May, 101% in June, and 97% in July; yet i am still 94% YTD. Keeping all this together the monthly sales goals have been steadly increasing since May & i am handling the same number of customer 850 ~ 1000 a month. I feel like i am being setup to fail.
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Today i was written up for not meeting sales objectives last month. I am 94% YTD and only made 97% in July (I took 2 days of vacation that wasn’t backed out). For those who may not remember there are five steps to discipline @ my job : Informal Discussion, Formal Counseling, Written Warning, Suspension/Letter in Leiu of Suspension, and Termination. I am now on a Written Warning.
Now a few other lil things that I may not have mentioned. Prior to this new sales tracking system once you were put on a counseling the company began taking steps kinda like a 12-step program and set goals for someone to meet, if the goals were met further discipline was halted. I have been in a Counseling for 2 months and the company has done nothing.
While i realize it is part of my job to sell things, if there is something i may not be doing right or something i could change i sure wouldn’t mind help in identifying the problem if one exisits and coming up with a solution or exploring a diffrent way of approching the bridge. As my managers are also known as a Coach, i havn’t had much help from either my acting coach nor my previous coach who has come back off benefits within the past 2 weeks.
There were three people who called in and quit today, and one person was terminated yesterday. I along with many others have been written up and placed on steps for numerous different reasons. I ultimatily feel like one day i am going to go in and not have a job anymore. I have already started looking for other jobs, I have been working alot of overtime @ work trying to catch up on bills and get some money together, if something happens i can only depend on myself.