Recently, one of the marketing greats, Seth Godin wrote a blog post called “Everyone gets paid on commission” in which he suggests that you should get paid for what your produce. In addition, with web 3.0’s ability to track damn near about everything all of us are working on commission. And for those that don’t produce…find the door.
Normally, I stand behind most of what Mr. Godin says and I admire the hell out of him. I love reading his fast hitting and concice writing. No kidding, I really dig this guy. However, not on his point; everyone gets paid on commission. Although it may be a step or two away from pretzle logic…most of us in the working world are treated as if we work on commission only. For those of us who have had to work commission only jobs they are brutal and can be very detrimental to a persons well being.
If it’s knocking on doors or pounding the phones, everyone deserves a fair days pay for a fair days work. Sure we can break into symantics on what type of work should reveive what type of compensation…but at the end of the day is it not our time which is the most valubale “thing” we have?
So, why should it be that we are all working on commission? Is our personal time and sacrafice of this time not worth a solid reliable paycheck? I believe it is thinking like this which has allowed millions of people to feel as if they have no real life of their own. It is get up, do the morning routine, go to work and come home for an hour or two and do it all again.
When people sacrafice so much already for a paycheck…is there really a need to bring it down yet another level Mr. G? No, it is not. Work hard, get paid hard…whatever you want to call it. We are all human and should be treated as such. Human. Commission really brings compensation down to a very uncomfortable level.
A person can work his\her fingers to the bone at a commission job and that does not make their work any less vaulable or productive than that of the individual standing nearby. Nope, maybe their conversion rate was off…I think we should all reconsider compensation packages and start with A.I.G. and work our way top down first.