I am a 1099 independent contractor (most likely technically an employee by letter of the law but the company I work for would sooner declare bankruptcy than compensate us fairly) in outside sales for a merchant service provider, that is to say, a credit card processing company. I will not disclose the name of the company which I work for because I’m worried I could get in serious trouble with my boss if I do.
They bring on tons of people at a time (my group in training was over 70 people) and most of the people who were welcomed in with me have since left the company.
Being a 1099 position, it is 100% commission with no base pay. I knew that going in and I have no one to blame but myself for falling for their gimmick and taking the job.
Here’s where it becomes a cult. Every morning we have “conference calls” (if you could call it that) and it’s mostly making us watch (usually twice) a motivational video from YouTube where some dude is screaming “if you’re not successful it’s YOUR fault” over and over or something to that affect. Then whomever is running the call (it’s a different person each day) will get on the call and repeat the same rhetoric. If we’re not successful, if we’re not making a ton of money, it’s our own fault for not “grinding” hard enough.
The whole company is sickeningly overly positive and while the encouragement is helpful sometimes, I feel like it’s become more brainwashing than anything else. It feels almost like I’m working for an MLM, but it’s not an MLM by definition because there is no requirement to recruit other people to make money.
I’m owed probably $4000 in commission at this point and what have I been paid so far? Nothing.
I’m just done. I don’t know how to move forward or where to go from here.