Walking Disaster

…If you’re a twenty something woman in the workplace. Sorry I should’ve specified. I’ve had just about every type of job under the sun, but this is the first one where I felt secure enough to stand on my own two feet and request that I get paid my due. Here’s how.

Identify the Problem

In my case, the problem was a good one to have. I was doing well in my position, even though I had only been with the company for about 5 months, so much so that I was given other people’s work to do. My sales territory consists of eight states in the Midwest, already a huge step up from previous jobs, but at the start of the year, with two salesmen getting fired, and another quitting in protest, that left three new territories unmanaged, one of which included Washington DC, aka the major government accounts. Since beginning to write this post I have even taken on a fourth territory as well.

This wouldn’t normally be a problem, I’m a self-identified work-horse and thrive in stressful or overworked situations — probably not my most healthy trait, but there are worse ones to have. The problem was finding out that I would not be receiving commission for the sales I make in territories that I’m just covering. I didn’t mind at first, because I was told it was standard practice, and because I wouldn’t be managing the extra territories for long. But after now four months of thankless extra work, stagnation in my territory, and after getting a fifty thousand dollar sale, of which I saw zero commission, I was pretty fucking fed up.

Get a Second Opinion (and a Third and a Fourth)

The first person I talked to about this was actually unsolicited on my part. It started when I was venting to a product specialist about my large order that I will see nothing of, and he started saying how I should get some sort of compensation for covering extra accounts. And it clicked, why am I not? I went to another saleswoman, who also covered extra territories when they opened up, to get her opinion, but this is the same one who told me I was “too much” so I shouldn’t have bothered. According to her the trick is just to not give a shit about accounts that weren’t yours, and to treat your territories like your bread and butter, doing the bare minimum for the others. That was a slight setback, because to me, that was just buying into corporate bullshit, so I talked to one last saleswoman and got her opinion as the tie breaker. We sat down and talked about how, as it stood, we had no financial incentive to make sure those cities/areas were profitable, but that we were uncomfortable just leaving them in the dust. It should also be noted that some of my new territories included accounts like the National Institute of Health or major cancer centers. Why would I intentionally fuck over companies doing research there?

I decided to do something I rarely ever do when I need advice…I called my dad. As a business owner and CEO, I needed an opinion on how he would feel if an employee came to him with something like this. He was able to assure me that I was valid in my complaint, and went a step further to helping me decide who to go after and how, aka steps three and four.

Choose Your Target

I had two options here: the two former owners who are now executives. One of them was based in the same office as me but he was mainly concerned with marketing and products. The other was not in the same office as me, but was technically my manager and in charge of the sales department. Unfortunately, that guy had the persistent habit of pissing me off. For my monthly review, he made sure to tell me that it was a review for my territory, not my performance — a statement that would’ve made a lot more sense if I wasn’t doing the work of five people. So when I was weighing my options between those two so-called “options”, I made the executive decision to talk to their boss instead.

This wasn’t me being insane, or entitled, or a Karen. Our new CEO is one of the chillest motherfuckers ever. When we got a new commission structure, he set up one on one meetings with anyone who had additional questions, he always has solid advice even in passing, and one time he went out and bought a Washington Capitals shirt just because my coworker’s favorite hockey team had just lost to them, and he wanted to troll. This was someone who had an open door policy, and while he had just come in as CEO about a month or two after I started, he set us up with an actual commission structure, fair vacation and sick leave policies, and an unbiased head of HR within that time, so I felt like he was the right person for the job.

Decide Your Approach

There are two days a week where most of the office is allowed to work from home, so I started to come in on those days in the hopes of having him come in too. I had decided to go for the overly casual, office pop-in approach. The day happened to line up perfectly, it was just after I had also made another major sale so I figured it was the perfect time for a humble brag just before I asked for more money. I wore a power blouse and heels to make myself feel a bit more confident, and I wore a fidget necklace so I would be able to hide how not confident I was (they’re on Etsy, 10/10 would fully recommend). I stopped by his office to ask him if he had a minute, and he mentioned he would stop by my desk in a few minutes. I had just enough time to text my friend and make her send me a pep talk via text.

Take a Deep Breath and Do It

He stopped by, and my super casual confident approach flew out the window immediately. I started sweating in my power blouse (not a new thing), and stuttering through my sentences (definitely a new thing, I’m articulate as shit). Lo and behold, I knew I made the right choice when he caught on immediately and cut off my verbal car crash. He stopped me in my tracks, and told me to relax, take a deep breath, and reassured me that we’re not volunteers and we shouldn’t be treated as such. I mentioned my grievances, my recent successes and major wins, and then I asked if he thought it was fair that I was one-sixth of his workforce getting paid as if I was one-thirtieth. He immediately agreed! He mentioned the first step would be a bonus or a stipend for each extra territory I covered, then mentioned the rest of the issues would be addressed with leadership changes he was planning. Next, instead of just leaving it at that, he sat with me and listened to what I thought of the rest of the job and company, we discussed my territories, and he gave me kudos and the credit I was looking for when it came to my other big sales. I didn’t actually assume anything would come of it, but sure enough, I had my bonus on my next paycheck.

It was a whole new level of relief to know that someone actually listened to me, and it was a complete self esteem boost to know that this came about because of me. I didn’t even ask for more money, I just said that I deserved more, and the fact that not only someone else, but the CEO of the company, agreed with me was a major surge in confidence. I was floating on air for a week. The worst that could’ve happened was that he said no, but he didn’t. He said “yes, here’s a check,” aka the best four words someone can say.

Final, unofficial step: try not to think about the fact that your bonus was comparatively pretty low compared to the commission you would’ve gotten, and remember that you’re not a money grubbing bitch for trying to up your stipend amount…that’s a problem for the new manager.