I swear I'm gonna kill my boss

[Aerosol]

Let me explain the situation. I am a Verizon FiOS salesman. They recommend (and by recommend I mean expect) that you work monday through friday from 3pm to 9:30pm, and on Saturday from 10am to around 4pm. My job consists of me going from door to door, trying to sell Verizon FiOS bundles. There is no base pay with this job. It's all commission. And I'm quite new at this, so I lose more sales than I make.

If I get an interested customer, I have two methods of putting their order through. The first is to use either my phone or the customer's phone (if they let me) and use the call center, which generally takes a while to complete (up to an hour, at times). The other method is to use a provided laptop to put the order through on the proprietary website.

Now, my car is a hoopdie. I don't trust it to go very far, so I try to get areas that are closer to home. I could tell you the things wrong with this car, but that probably deserves a topic unto itself. Furthermore, I don't have a lot of money, so even if my car were perfectly reliable, I don't have money to be wasting driving far out to places where I may or may not make a sale. Lastly, my phone is a prepaid phone, and I don't have minutes to be wasting on possibly using the call center and having the customer change their mind because it's taking so long, especially since I need the phone for other purposes as well. Thus, I try to use the laptop when I can.

Now this is what happened. On Tuesday, I ran out of minutes. I informed the underboss of such, and told him that I wouldn't have a phone to call him with until at least Thursday, as my house phone was off too. I also told him that I had appointments on Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 9:30pm. These appointments were actually training days for a second job I'm picking up to work in the mornings until I work in the evenings, though this wasn't his concern so I didn't tell him.

It's now Saturday and I was only just able to put minutes on my cell phone today, so I texted him and asked him if he wanted to meet me out in the field. This way, he could help me make a sale and I could use the laptop that he had. He calls me and asks me why I didn't speak to him or the boss above him for a few days. Keep in mind I had told him I wouldn't have a phone to call him with till I put minutes back on my phone. He also asks me if I made a sale in those few days. I tell him no and, when he asks why, I reminded him that I couldn't work too long because of the appointments I had. He replies "Well sometimes appointments aren't really appointments."

Obviously, I'm just a little confused. He told me I should have rescheduled and devoted more time to selling when I asked what he meant, to which I replied that the appointments were unavoidable. My hands were tied. I mean really, why would I reschedule training for a job where I KNOW I'm getting paid every week, to work a job where I DON'T know I'm getting paid every week? That really makes no sense.

He then goes on to say that there isn't an available laptop, and may not be one for a while. Now, my prepaid plan is 10 cents a minute, $1 every day that I use it. Using the call center can take up to an hour, and I only put $15 of minutes on my phone at a time because that's all I can afford. So, during the course of a 6-day work week, you can see how this doesn't really pay off. Nevertheless, he told me to just use the call center for a while, whether customer's let me use their home phone or not. Oh and before I forget, he wasn't interested in meeting me out in the field either.

Then he goes on to say that the boss above him feels like I'm blowing off work because I haven't been calling in. I reminded him yet again why I hadn't been calling, and he goes on to say that I should've found a payphone somewhere. But if I had money to use a payphone, surely I'd have money to put minutes on my phone? He also says that if I looked hard enough, I could've found a phone to call them with and let them know how I was doing on a day to day basis. I'm supposed to drive around, looking for places of business that might let me use their phone to call my boss to tell him I didn't make a sale? I'm supposed to bug my neighbors that I don't ever talk to use their phone to call my boss to tell him I didn't make a sale? I already told the underboss I wouldn't have a phone, and I'm not rude enough to harass people to use theirs.

In all, I think the underboss is a fucking idiot, and is either misrepresenting information to his boss, or not telling him what I told him at all. Either that, or his boss is a fucking idiot too and the both of them are expecting me to go to insane lengths to make money, including expecting me to drive an hour and half in my car that probably wouldn't survive the trip (that we depend on for more than just this job) to an event that I don't get paid for outside of the sales I might make there. Or are they right? Am I not doing enough?

[Rael0505]

You're not doing nearly enough and you should feel ashamed.

Really though this boss is a HUGE prick. Don't put up with their bullshit, just quit and find work elsewhere. Considering you don't make any base pay, this job hardly sounds worth it anyway.

[shadowgoten]

I dunno how many jobs you've held in your life already, but you'll soon realize what kind of jobs you can and can't handle yourself.

It turns out salesman isn't my strong suit, I used to have to call companies and try to get them interested in buying copiers, I found it to be the hardest thing I've ever tried to do for a job (luckily I got guaranteed commission and coasted at least 8 months of that job).

Obviously you aren't properly equipped for the job in the first place, and there's no problem with that if the job actually equipped you for it, which this one sounds like a negative.

I know the job market is utter shit right now, but for your patience and sanity I wholly recommend searching for something better, there always is something better, you just have to search hard enough. No one should have to work a job they hate so much.

[Ristar]

looks like you can't see the wood for the trees atm. it's not you, it's them. fuck them. work at subway or burger king till you can find another job... at least it's a steady income till you can move on.

[LarkSS]

I think the underboss is a fucking idiot, and is either misrepresenting information to his boss, or not telling him what I told him at all.

I think it's both personally.

I also agree with everything said above me.

[Cyber Rat]

Obviously you aren't properly equipped for the job in the first place, and there's no problem with that if the job actually equipped you for it, which this one sounds like a negative.

I know the job market is utter shit right now, but for your patience and sanity I wholly recommend searching for something better, there always is something better, you just have to search hard enough. No one should have to work a job they hate so much.

This and what Ristar said. Most jobs aren't worth going insane over. Then again, I'm still in college and financed by my parents, so my opinion on this might not be as objective.

[Slingerland]

When you quit, make sure it's as glorious as possible. I was putting up with the worst independent film shoot ever all month because I was good friends with the crew. The director/producers were cocks and never scheduled or planned anything. They also didn't feed us on half of the days. All of this for 1/4th of my normal day rate.

Yesterday, they promised that they would change, but we still ended up doing "guerilla filmmaking" for a romantic comedy. I gave them my best Christian Bale impression and walked off set.

[flame6753]

^Lmao.

But yeah Aerosol, you should never have to put up with stuff like that, especially since you say you were calmly explaining things, and he's just blowing a casket for no reason.

[Scarletdark]

I wouldn't put up with his crap, but that's just me.

[Ristar]

also steal shit before you quit a la doug stanhope.

[Cyber Rat]

Considering they don't give him any shit, I doubt there's any shit to steal, other than the shit he puts up with, but he should just leave that shit, yo.