I work as a sales engineer, we are required to do 900 visits/year between our customers or to get close by it.
They always say that if they’re quality visits, it doesn’t matter if you do less. This is a lie.
I’ve closed this year in 834 visits, but at the same time I’ve been sick for 14 days last year. Having a toddler is like having a virus bomb at home, and both the times I’ve been sick it got worse and derived in bronchitis. So naturally I would rather heal well because it’s not the first time I have relapsed and the doctor would not clear me.
In my country, we have unlimited paid sick time. Either being by the company’s insurance or the state.
So the other day, we had a meeting, and my boss kept reprimanding me for not meeting the objective, completely ignoring the fact.
I chose to approach him in private, when his boss left the room.
He basically said that I have all the right to call in sick but we have a yearly objective we have to meet. When he’s sick, he doesn’t call in, he just lays in bed for a couple of days, then he works from home.
Which I’ve done in the past, and then the complaint was about that I was having too many telematic visits.
Also I choose to call in because if else you’re left with your ass exposed. At least this way HR keeps a track and I can use it to justify myself.
All of this crap happens at the same time I’ve increased my sales by a 28% from last year.
If I had worked those days, I wouldn’t have even to burn myself out. Usually we do 4-5 visits a day. By just doing 4, I would have closed the year at 910.