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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
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    1

    Default Unrealistic Sales Quotas During New Employees' Probationary Period

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: NY

    Hello,
    I was hired for a door to door sales job and began on October 28. There is a 90 day probation period in which you must meet a minimum sales quota of 16. That period includes the two weeks I was in classroom training and one week shadowing veteran sales reps. My first question, is that a legitimate probation expectation?
    More importantly, I have been selling in my turf for 3 weeks and beginning my fourth week tomorrow. Most everyone in the sales office and everyone on my team has been given a standard company uniform with the company name displayed (shirts, jacket, and caps) except a handful of people including myself. While there may not be solid data which confirms the impact on sales, it is fairly common knowledge and common sense that when people see the company branding in several places they are more likely to open their doors. I can't sell if people are afraid to open their door. I am forced to wear my own clothes and jacket, which looks very unprofessional. In short, I don't feel I should be held to the same expectations in the 90 day period as those who are equipped with tools that I don't have. Is there any validity to this that I can bring to my Human Resources department?

    Thank you for your assistance.
    Scott
    12/11/16

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
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    3,043

    Default Re: Meeting 90 Day Probation Period Sales Quotas

    Nothing illegal here. Employers are legally free to set sales quotas as high as they wish, up to and including impossible-to-reach levels. And employers are legally free to provide/not provide uniforms to employees, even if the non-provision of said uniforms negatively impacts employees' ability to meet sales quotas.

    If you're looking at a discrimination angle here, please note that unless your own personal sales quotas were set impossibly high and/or you didn't get a uniform as a direct result of something like your race, gender, religion, age and/or disability, then no illegal discrimination has transpired.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Florida
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    301

    Default Re: Meeting 90 Day Probation Period Sales Quotas

    Most companies want salesmen who can sell. Expecting them to meet a quota during a probationary period is one way to see if they've succeeded in that goal. On the other hand, if you don't believe the company has given you the tools that are needed for you to be successful, perhaps they're they wrong company for you. You can fire them just as easily as they can fire you.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    18,340

    Default Re: Unrealistic Sales Quotas During New Employees' Probationary Period

    Quote Quoting Spearlman
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    In short, I don't feel I should be held to the same expectations in the 90 day period as those who are equipped with tools that I don't have. Is there any validity to this that I can bring to my Human Resources department?
    You must be either very young or very naïve about how work works.

    Your boss can give you a quota of 100 sales in 90 days and have you make sales calls wearing nothing but a diaper. You either perform to your employer's standards or you find employment elsewhere.

    Whining to HR is the kiss of death.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Unrealistic Sales Quotas During New Employees' Probationary Period

    While normally I would take a great deal of issue with Jack's last statement, in this PARTICULAR set of circumstances I agree with him. While you can make any argument you like to HR (and, as I told you elsewhere, I don't see your suggestion as particularly unreasonable) the facts remain that (a) I doubt very much if HR is in charge of issuing uniforms or setting sales quotas and (b) complaining to them this early in your tenure with the company does not make you look good.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    16,474

    Default Re: Unrealistic Sales Quotas During New Employees' Probationary Period

    Quote Quoting adjusterjack
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    You must be either very young or very naïve about how work works.

    Your boss can give you a quota of 100 sales in 90 days and have you make sales calls wearing nothing but a diaper. You either perform to your employer's standards or you find employment elsewhere.

    Whining to HR is the kiss of death.
    While I agree 100% in theory, I am not quite sure about the diaper. It might not be legal in that area to be an adult out in public in nothing but a diaper...and your employer cannot require you to do any that is actually illegal.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
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    Default Re: Unrealistic Sales Quotas During New Employees' Probationary Period

    Quote Quoting llworking
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    While I agree 100% in theory, I am not quite sure about the diaper. It might not be legal in that area to be an adult out in public in nothing but a diaper...and your employer cannot require you to do any that is actually illegal.
    The diaper part was a joke.

    Guess I should have put one of these after it.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
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    1,142

    Default Re: Unrealistic Sales Quotas During New Employees' Probationary Period

    This is one of the oldest gigs on the books. They hire young inexperienced people who've got little work history and are having a hard time finding other work. They get them pumped up, get them to go out and sell a few widgets, policies, mattresses, vacuum cleaners, whatevers, and then in a few months, when the person has sold one of the whatevers to every family member and church member and friend and friend of a friend who is going to buy from them to try to help them out, they are fired because of the impossible sales quotas. They didn't want to waste their time on getting you a company uniform because they don't figure you'll be around long enough to need one. It's legal.

    And your only recourse is, when let go, you file for unemployment insurance. They'll try diligently to get you to "just quit" or "resign to save your future references" which makes getting approved a lot harder. And if you haven't worked for covered employers in the past 18 months, if this is perhaps one of your very first jobs, for example, you won't qualify for unemployment monetarily. But when you are terminated for failure to meet production/sales goals, they're counting on that you have not worked long enough here, (or anywhere else) to qualify for unemployment insurance. And I'll bet when you were hired, without realizing you did, you signed a lot of things that said you agreed to terminate your employment voluntarily with the company if your sales production fell below a certain requirement. We used to approve a few claims from operations of this sort, but not many.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    16,474

    Default Re: Unrealistic Sales Quotas During New Employees' Probationary Period

    Quote Quoting adjusterjack
    View Post
    The diaper part was a joke.

    Guess I should have put one of these after it.
    I should have too...because I was speaking lightly.

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