Seriously, it's insane to actually witness. For context, I am a recruiter at an agency that is part of a larger staffing network. When I began my job, I actually didn't hate it. My team was fully remote (we went in maybe once or twice a month), unlimited PTO, uncapped commissions, and overall really fun workplace culture. We had suite tickets at all of our major arenas/venues, we were able to go out and expense costly company dinners, and sometimes some really cool networking events. People were getting promoted, and there were bonus incentives available where you definitely had to work hard to achieve the numbers required for the bonus, but it was still realistic. It wasn't a perfect job by any means–the CEO has always been a slimy fuck–but it seemed like the lower/middle management had just enough autonomy to run their Operating Companies (OCs) how they wanted to. It was honestly really lucrative and the potential to make a lot of money was there. It was exciting.
Well, we came under new leadership a few months in and that's when things started to change. We got a new president, aka a new CFO. She (I will call her Betsy DeVos because she is literally vile) has destroyed this company from the inside out and I hardly recognize this place anymore. Just to name a few things… she
1) Declared that no one is getting raises this year (beginning of 2023), even though some employees were already promised one in a signed contract. She was able to override that decision somehow. (Yes, it was somehow legal, I don't know the details). This isn't just a pause for this year, too. This decision is indefinite. Aka, we don't know when (or if) employees will get raises ever again. Yep, you heard that. Doesn't matter if you've been here for 10 years, 3 years, or 1. Your salary will be the same.
2) Changed our commission structure. Any commissioned employee took a huge, huge pay cut. If anyone doesn't know anything about commissioned roles in places like staffing agencies, typically, the more you bill, the more you make on each sale and/or hire. This resets every fiscal year. We used to start off the fiscal year at 9%. Now we start off at 5%. She claims this would create “incentive”, when really all it did was cut everyone's pay in half for the first 3-4 months of the year. The bonus incentives we had before were also changed and the numbers needed to get the bonus are now completely unrealistic and straight up not attainable. No one is getting that bonus. There are even some OCs whose commission was changed to only 2%…that's it. That's the most they can ever take home. People who billed 40k a month were getting 5k commission checks on the old plan, and they will now make $800 on the new plan.
EDIT: added another point: Our Accounts Receivable Dept has been doing a really bad job at staying on top of our clients for paying their invoices. Some invoices have been sitting unpaid for months and it was effecting our company’s credit. So now, they withhold any commission made on an invoice that hasn’t been paid for 90+ days past the due date …. as if that is something we have control over at all. I’m out $2,000 right now.
3) Slashed expensing. No more office happy hours (for the people who went in every week), no company dinners, no suite tickets. Sales people can't even take clients to lunches anymore. One time, we were celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the company, and it was going to be this huge fun day at the office. HR sent out an email asking for everyone's beer and seltzer preferences, we voted on which food trucks we wanted there, voted on which food we wanted catered, etc. We actually got kind of excited for it. 3 days before the party, HR sends out another email….”We are sorry to say that due to the company not meeting projections, this has become a BYOB and BYOF (food) and BYOG (games) celebration as we cannot budget this expense”. LOLOL that was insaneeee.
4) She sent us back to the office!!!!
5) This one is the worst. Thank god this wasn't me, but there are some employees who were given a raise to a base of 65k after being here 3+ years (most of us are hired in at 45k-50k). She took those employees' salaries back down to 50k….and is making them PAY IT BACK!! So if they were making 65k for 4 months, they have to pay back 15k for each month so their salary for those months ended up balancing to 50k….and they ended up paying back 60k….
And they wonder why people keep quitting. More people have quit in the last 4 weeks than I've seen in the 2 years I've worked here.
Betsy scheduled a 1:1 with me (she schedules one randomly with every employee to “give people the chance to speak their minds” even though she doesn't give af and only does it to show face). 15 min on my calendar. First, she asks me what I like to do outside of work (as if she cares). I tell her, then out of courtesy ask “What about you”? She then proceeds to tell me how she has two houses: one in Ohio for the summer and one in Florida for the winter. Both are on lakes/ocean, and she tells me how she likes to go partying on her boats or barhopping on the boardwalk. Depending on which house she is at, of course.
…ok. As you cut my pay and I am struggling to pay my bills. The lack of self awareness and inability to read the room is insane. That BS speaks for itself, I don't need to go into that.
Then, she asks if I have any criticisms for her and if she should do anything differently. I said the high turnover lately is concerning. She says, “yeah, I don't know what it is people want these days. I feel like after COVID the work place vibes got weird and different. I don't know how to please anyone anymore”.
LIKE WHAT!! Omg. I didn't even know what to say to her. There is NO WAY she is that clueless. She knows the changes she made to the company were not in our favor. There is no way she had no idea people were going to respond negatively. I refuse to believe that.
These people are either clueless, or they just act clueless and are 100% fully aware and don't care.
Fuck you, Betsy. (The real and fake one).