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Fine, if the Company wants to consider the board member's company a "House Account". Just don't expect any commissioned sales person to handle the account.
What I've seen is a salaried Corporate staff person is assigned to handle such business.
Whoever approved this "raw deal" obviously never worked for commissions.
Did she understand that it was a company Board member prior to working with him or her? Having spent the majority of my working in direct sales (commissions) that would have been a red flag for me. Too close to home, in fact. I would have cleared it with management before I put too much, if any time into the sale.
The company could...probably SHOULD have compromised on the commission retroactively earned vs. yanking the entire amount out from under your friend. Yea, House Accounts are not unusual but trying to “work” them is not wise. I think she may have left out some pertinent info. No offense but as a govt. employee...you don’t fully understand the secular world as you stated.
Did she understand that it was a company Board member prior to working with him or her? Having spent the majority of my working in direct sales (commissions) that would have been a red flag for me. Too close to home, in fact. I would have cleared it with management before I put too much, if any time into the sale.
The company could...probably SHOULD have compromised on the commission retroactively earned vs. yanking the entire amount out from under your friend. Yea, House Accounts are not unusual but trying to “work” them is not wise. I think she may have left out some pertinent info. No offense but as a govt. employee...you don’t fully understand the secular world as you stated.
That’s what I think as well. Plus the goodwill lost screwing someone out of $5K (which from an overall standpoint is peanuts to the company) isn’t trivial.
The big thing to me is the retroactive adjustment. Not kicked off during the sales cycle.
She can contact the Texas Workforce Commission for information. In general, Texas does not allow employers to make deductions from pay without written authorization from the employee. I don't have details on how this works with commissions and bonuses, but if the employer unilaterally made changes that are retroactive may be in trouble.
Just to clarify, she's not in sales. She works in finance. Commissions are a nice side perk of her job when someone opens up a new account for her to manage. It is very common for directors to have investment accounts, at her current job as well as at previous jobs where she worked (but didn't get commissions.)
I also think it's crappy that they waited until it was time to give her the next commission before informing her of the clawback from the prior cycle. I'll tell her about possibly contacting TWC. She wants to talk to her boss about it this week and I'm sure she'll want to look at that first.
I started poking around on the TWC website and found this:
Concerning commissions and bonuses, the employer should always use clear written agreements setting out the conditions of such payments. As noted in the section above on pay agreements, commissions and bonuses can be changed, but only prospectively, never retroactively, and changes to written agreements must be in writing.
Before she does anything else, she should find her next job. Often, things like this motivate us to get out and find better, and afterwards, we think it's the best thing that could have happened.
After she is all set for the new job, she should hand in her letter of resignation. And she should request an exit interview, as high up as she can get it. At the exit interview, she should tell the high up person, and at opportune times, every other person in the entire company, in a very charming way that she was so happy working there, how wonderful the place is, sunshine and roses, thank you etc. And that's IT, because she never knows when she might want to go back there.
It sucks, but it's true. If she says a word about the clawback, or Texas law, she'll never work there again. And people in the industry talk, and they might be able to mess with the future of her career.
I strongly suspect that they wouldn't have dared to pull this on a man. If she stays, they will defecate on her at any and every opportunity. The only choice she has is to get out of there, fast. If she's good at what she does, she will fine a better opportunity, quickly and easily.
I started poking around on the TWC website and found this:
Concerning commissions and bonuses, the employer should always use clear written agreements setting out the conditions of such payments. As noted in the section above on pay agreements, commissions and bonuses can be changed, but only prospectively, never retroactively, and changes to written agreements must be in writing.
I definitely think she should call TWC.
Terrible advice and stupid thing to do. It would only do harm to the career than getting a few dollars. It's poor mindset thinking. Focus on the stuff that generates more money.
Terrible advice and stupid thing to do. It would only do harm to the career than getting a few dollars. It's poor mindset thinking. Focus on the stuff that generates more money.
Calling TWC will let her know what the options are. TWC doesn't require you to go after your employer just because you asked about something.
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