Long time lurker first time poster. Please excuse the length, just need to develop the situation.
**************** for the main point.
I work at a retail travel agency that deals primarily with high-net-worth people. Prior to COVID, the office had 6 people in sales full time, now there are two. While they reduced the number of sales people, the number of “managers” was not and now there are three managers over two salespeople. Needless to say, there is little work for either of them, but they have been too complacent for too long to actually pitch in when needed.
Anyway, now that travel is coming back quicker than ever, work has been picking up fast, and has Since coming back from a very brief trip at the end of January, I have finalized over 200 sales totaling over half a million dollars. While I do get paid on commissions, margins in this industry are tiny, and the office takes the vast majority of what I bring in, leaving me with just enough to stick around (and, thank God, make rent and pay for the basics).
At the same time, management willingly gives out my phone number to clients, and I am expected to take calls at all hours and handle clients on evenings, weekends and from vacation. Under this setup, it is very difficult to say no because it is a highly time-sensitive industry and the pressure to get things done comes direct from the clients who often call and text repetitively. Not responding leads directly to discipline from said management.
As a result, I have been working 15 hours or more per day, which carries over into my time of with significant anxiety. I believe this to be completely unsustainable as there is no backup (remember, only 2 agents working,) any I cannot singlehandedly bring in the money to pay three managers' salaries. At a certain point one has to be able to eat dinner in peace and not have to open their laptop in bed when they're halfway asleep.
I brought this up to management last week and was told to put together a list of specific concerns to be discussed in a meeting today. Rather than address my concern, I was told they my problem was not so much with my workload as with my mindset and that by simply fixing my mindset I would find my problems solved. I followed up by asking how that solves the volume, and quoted specific metrics. In turn, I was told that if my workload is too much, they will start removing clients starting with the most profitable ones. As such, I have just lost 5 of my largest accounts due to management being petty over me being right.
Not sure where to go from here, but don't want to leave a job without a replacement.
I live in Florida so my understanding is that I'd get little from any labor boards.
Thoughts?