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> Society may very well pressure individuals to keep up with the Joneses, but individuals do not have to yield to that pressure. Let's retain some individual ag

> Society may very well pressure individuals to keep up with the Joneses, but individuals do not have to yield to that pressure. Let's retain some individual agency. Nobody has to put themselves in a lot of debt to appear a certain way to their peers. Agreed, but those outward pressures can be pretty harsh. I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. I was driving a 2019 Kia Forte at the time. Some industries just tie your personal life and expenses to your work life way too much.

chii 3y ago
> I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum 2yr-old Lexus NX to which you should be replying "sure, let me send you the receipt so you can expense it". If it is for work, the employee cannot expect to pay for a required piece of equipment.
- mistrial9 3y ago
  this is sales - they can and do everything not allowed, constantly
gottorf 3y ago
> I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. Yeah, I grant you that is the case in certain occupations. It's funny, because in other lines of work (like accountancy, for example), you're actually discouraged from meeting clients in a flashy car.
freedomben 3y ago
May I ask where you live/worked? And what type of real estate? I was a real estate in Idaho in the mid 00s and the only people I knew who had the super nice cars were the long-time brokers and the real estate school instructors. People that rarely if ever met with clients. That said, I worked low end stuff. I could see high end stuff very much requiring outward signs of "success" otherwise the clients might think you suck at your job. I left the field because the incentives and commission structure was so out of whack with what it should be. Selling a house and doing 95%+ of the work got you half of half the commission. 6% total, 1.5% to buyer broker, 1.5% to buyer agent, 1.5% to seller broker, 1.5% to seller agent. The agents (not the brokers) did 95% of the actual work, but the law required a licensed broker to "oversee" the transaction. People only got paid when a house sold, so there was heavy incentive on both sides of the transaction to get the right person into the right house, and as the great Lionel Hutz (Phil Hartman) tells Marge Simpson, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The right house is the house that's for sale. And the right person is anyone." I could go on for a long time, but suffice to say it seems absurd to me that the fee to a seller is directly proportional to the value of the house, completely disconnected from the amount of labor involved in the transaction.
- notaustinpowers 3y ago
  This was just outside of Atlanta in the residential real estate sector. Avg. home prices were $300k around this time. I could see it as a sign of outward success, but I had been an agent for less than a year and had 2 sales (was a part-time agent/full-time transaction coordinator).
- jrs235 3y ago
  Similar to tipping culture. Why does someone make an order of magnitute more in tips at one place over another? Is the work THAT MUCH DIFFERENT based on the price point?

chii 3y ago

> I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum 2yr-old Lexus NX to which you should be replying "sure, let me send you the receipt so you can expense it". If it is for work, the employee cannot expect to pay for a required piece of equipment.

mistrial9 3y ago
this is sales - they can and do everything not allowed, constantly

gottorf 3y ago

> I left real estate because I was told by my boss I needed to upgrade my car to, at a minimum, 2yr-old Lexus NX or I'd be relegated to internal work rather than meeting with clients. Yeah, I grant you that is the case in certain occupations. It's funny, because in other lines of work (like accountancy, for example), you're actually discouraged from meeting clients in a flashy car.

freedomben 3y ago

May I ask where you live/worked? And what type of real estate? I was a real estate in Idaho in the mid 00s and the only people I knew who had the super nice cars were the long-time brokers and the real estate school instructors. People that rarely if ever met with clients. That said, I worked low end stuff. I could see high end stuff very much requiring outward signs of "success" otherwise the clients might think you suck at your job. I left the field because the incentives and commission structure was so out of whack with what it should be. Selling a house and doing 95%+ of the work got you half of half the commission. 6% total, 1.5% to buyer broker, 1.5% to buyer agent, 1.5% to seller broker, 1.5% to seller agent. The agents (not the brokers) did 95% of the actual work, but the law required a licensed broker to "oversee" the transaction. People only got paid when a house sold, so there was heavy incentive on both sides of the transaction to get the right person into the right house, and as the great Lionel Hutz (Phil Hartman) tells Marge Simpson, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. The right house is the house that's for sale. And the right person is anyone." I could go on for a long time, but suffice to say it seems absurd to me that the fee to a seller is directly proportional to the value of the house, completely disconnected from the amount of labor involved in the transaction.

notaustinpowers 3y ago
This was just outside of Atlanta in the residential real estate sector. Avg. home prices were $300k around this time. I could see it as a sign of outward success, but I had been an agent for less than a year and had 2 sales (was a part-time agent/full-time transaction coordinator).
jrs235 3y ago
Similar to tipping culture. Why does someone make an order of magnitute more in tips at one place over another? Is the work THAT MUCH DIFFERENT based on the price point?