I work at essentially a pure sales company. We produce nothing and are essentially middlemen. Everything is done over the phone and e-mail. Decently large, a couple hundred people work in the home office where I work.
Each salesman is to build their own book of business and run it largely as they see fit. If you hit your commission minimums you are left alone, to an almost problematic degree.
The first time I was in office was an informal tour when someone I know suggested I consider working here. I walk in, am shown the sales floor and get sense of the vibe. I notice that there are multiple people blowing fat vape clouds on the sales floor. I decide it looks like they are making money then apply.
When I start a month or so later, I smoke cigarettes so I go outside. People are a little more subtle about office vaping but it goes on. About a year ago I switch to vaping and since I sit near someone else who does I did it in office.
While I’m not blowing huge clouds, I am by no means overly sneaky. At one point they send out an email company wide saying stop it. Since management only talks to me once a year for a review (outside a casual greeting as they walk by) I’m like well let’s see how long it takes for someone to actually tell me to stop.
It took over six months but finally 2 of the managers finally come around. Say hey stop vaping in the office, I have my vape on my desk and say essentially “sure won’t happen again, I was wondering if anyone was ever going to say anything thing”. They say well “employee x” was written up twice for it and if it happens again he is fired. They had a list of everyone who vaped and had to talk to them. I say hey you’re the boss man and throw out the disposable I was using (just to put on a good show).
The employee they were talking about is likely an employee who they looking to terminate. He was a salesman who stopped hitting minimums. then took a salesman support role like i work, but insisted he work from home half time when assigned to a new sales guy as the previous one let him. He was just sent to a department where he won’t get commission. Likely 5-15k a year decrease idk the numbers they were doing.
If you made it this far this is the lesson. They wanted to write him up, and had to talk to everyone else to cover their ass when he complained. The first email they sent was probably him getting written up the first time. When they want you gone, only then do the rules matter. This is the type of thing employers do to avoid unemployment claims. Especially when your job is hard to measure or you are hitting your metrics.