5 ms·

Ask HN: My boss gave me 3 choices, all bad. Which should I choose?

• trcollinson 12y ago
  With all respect, and I do mean that, if the roles were reversed, what options would you give you? You have a company that was working, and a member of the team changed the rules of the game. The company took the risk for a year, and that risk did not result in a reward, so the company has now given you some very fair options. Obviously, something needs to change and the company is putting the ball in your court to decide how to make that work. That is an opportunity right there! He could have easily done the thing many companies do and just fired you with no warning. That being said, I will take a stab at answering your questions. First, do you think your sales strategy will be changing, ie, become more successful? If not, then you should not take commission. Of course, if your sales strategy won't become more successful, why would they keep you? But I digress. Where you live, is it hard to find new work in your particular area of expertise? If not, then I would say resign, and find new work. If it is, then I would suggest you need to really think through your career path. In other words, resign if you think you can't make commission sales work. Take commission and become truly successful if you think your sales can improve. Second, I have hired many employees over the years. I have never asked if they were on unemployment. I don't care one way or the other. The economy in my area has been rough for a long time, I don't take of unemployment as being a negative. Your milage my vary. Third, if it's not in your original contract, don't expect it. If you are in a sales position and have brought in less revenue than you make in salary over the last year, don't expect it. If you work for a small company that is working hard but isn't ultra successful, don't expect it. So, don't expect it. I hope my best advise is to not be afraid of finding new work. Get out there, hit the pavement, make yourself look great and get the job that makes you feel good. You're in sales. This is your greatest sales job. Go sell yourself. And good luck!
  • livingyes 12y ago
    First, thank you! >if the roles were reversed, what options would you give you? That's an excellent point and something that I -- amidst the pangs of dejection -- failed to think about. > do you think your sales strategy will be changing, ie, become more successful? I think it's hard for both me and my boss to predict this. We've had leads trickle in, some qualified that didn't convert, but many that did not. I've launched 3-4 campaigns all with different approaches for outbound email/cold calling marketing to different avails. The latest campaign i'm more confident about, but not so much so that I feel excited about taking a commission only approach. 100% of our business to date has been on referrals and partnerships, and the strategy i'm trying to implement is brand new to our organization, so it takes time and failure... Thank you again for the feedback.
  • bcRIPster 12y ago
    This is really well spoken advice. The only thing I would add is this. On the subject of unemployment. Keep in mind that this isn't normally a go down to an office and collect a check tomorrow kind of deal. It's a long process in most places I've seen. The real question is what are your employment opportunities in your area. If you think you can get another job quick and can afford the lack of income while you hut, then it's probably not worth the time spent sitting at an unemployment office for hours on end (time you could be spending finding a job). On the other hand if job options are sparse and you are concerned that leaving this job will leave you out of work for an extended period, then go the unemployment route so that you at least have some kind of buffer to help you with your finances. Good luck.
• teovall 12y ago
  Between the two choices of resign or be let go, being let go is a much better choice. Say you quit because you have good expectations of finding a new job. What if you're wrong and try for months and months and find nothing? Now you've run through your savings (you do have savings, right?), don't have a job, and you can't fall back on unemployment. What do you do then? You have to start pawning your belongings, borrowing money, and looking at fast food or gas station jobs just to get some income so you can eat and stay off the streets. Now say you had been let go. You try looking for a job for a couple months on your own, see that your chances are worse than you thought, and apply for unemployment. Now, you're burning through your savings at a much slower rate. Perhaps unemployment will be enough that you won't even need to burn savings at all. You're still unemployed, but you're in a much better financial situation and can keep your focus on finding a job, not stressing over where your next meal will come from.
• deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
• loumf 12y ago
  Your main issue is whether your current boss will be a good reference or not. Secure that. Then, all things being equal, take the unemployment. When looking for a job, wanting to leave a remote position for something local is reasonable. Make sure your boss will give a good recommendation that is consistent with whatever way you want to describe your old situation. If the fact is that in one year, you held a sales position and made $0 worth of sales, then it doesn't matter if you quit or were fired -- you need to explain that.
• JSeymourATL 12y ago
  You know that the current model isn't working, your boss simply articulated it's time to move on. See if there's a win-win, ask if the company can give you a severance package (say 2 weeks for each year accrued) if you leave voluntarily. Everyone can save face and you'll have a financial cushion. As for your job search-- it's a $17T economy, tons of opportunity out there for Lead Gen, if you look for it.
• logn 12y ago
  Ask your boss to summarize his choices for you in email. Print that email out and send it to your personal email. That would be important documentation for you to provide to an unemployment reviewer. Based on his three choices, you have a valid unemployment claim. Resigning to save face is still a firing. And quiting because your pay is reduced is still a reason to collect unemployment in many states. Also consider that many companies provide severance in the event of a firing. Saving face by resigning might cost you thousands of dollars. I'm not a lawyer.
• wikwocket 12y ago
  One factor to consider is: what is your profession, and what does the market for that profession look like where you now live. For example if you are a developer who just moved to the Austin or Chicago area, I would say, leave the company and look for new work. You could opt to resign since you can probably easily find good work in 2-4 weeks. No one is going to question a 1-2 month gap in a dev's employment, it's such a hot market. But if you are a salesperson, and just moved to a very rural area/where you have no network, the advice might be different. Might be better to choose to be fired so you have unemployment as a fallback. Or, if you are super confident in your sales skills and can tolerate some income uncertainty, you could negotiate for a large commission and stay where you are now. All things being equal, your current gig is on life support, and you may not be able to revive it. But it depends a lot on the particulars.