You could have a friend send you an e-mail that sounds like a really juicy lead to see whether your boss responds to it.
I’m with you. I’ve met some pretty awesome people in my life but not one of them was any of the people who told me how awesome they were. I either found out from someone else or worked it out myself from their behavior.
I’d stop by the apartment in a month or two and see if you can look at the mailbox for a name. “Jane Doe” or “J. Smith” would be interesting.
You’re not paranoid, the boss is messing with your clients.
I don’t think you are paranoid. I think you just got ripped off. You boss has tapped your email somehow- either through admin privilege or password.
Commission sales can be cut-throat. I never got ripped off as much as i did when in commission sales.
Wait a minute. ‘Jane’ emailed you wanting a ‘hot’ apartment but wasn’t contactable later by email or phone? The same day your boss let the same apartment. Did ‘Jane’ fucking just disappear and overnight your boss turn from a guy born on the wrong side of the tracks to a sleazeball? :rolleyes:
This is a nice idea.
I suspect that you are paranoid. Often, the simplest answer is the right answer. You accidentally deleted the email, and Big Boss got a deposit on his hot apartment.
The alternative is that he told all you sales guys about the hot apartment and then broke into your email to poach your client, all hinging on the client agreeing to not respond to your followup emails. That seems awfully risky when he could have just held the apartment to himself.
The whole thing with Bob is explainable if he simply didn’t want you to be mad at him for taking your client out on Sunday. He gets to be the good guy, giving you solid advice, instead of being the dude who snaked you, then bragged about it.
If you have remote access to your email, then you can easily retrieve and delete those alerts before anyone else sees them. Either the access is via POP3 or the other common protocol (IMAP?) or it’s via a web interface. Either way, it should be possible. In the first case, just set up Outlook, Outlook Express, or virtually any other email program to check your acct every 5 minutes say, forward any new messages and then delete.
If he has admin access, he can get around that, but if he doesn’t know you’re doing it, that won’t be a problem. Plus, you can always go into your trash and selectively move certain messages back into your inbox - although be careful with the timing lest that tips him off. Although if you want to get fancy, once you’ve forwarded the email to yourself, I think you mess with the headers and then send it back to yourself with a new timestamp. Probably don’t want to get quite that convoluted though.
I like jeff’s idea too. I definitely believe in helping people get what they deserve, both good and bad. And as the saying goes, you can’t con an honest man.
I’m going against the grain here to say that the boss likely had nothing to do with this. “Jane” probably either recalled her email or was marked as spam by your work filters before you were able to see it on your desktop (and it does sound like spam, especially with no contact info). If you mistakenly deleted the item on your phone, it wouldn’t always go into your trash bin (my Comcast.net email is like this - if I delete the message on my phone, it’s gone forever).
Another issue to consider is that some people in this thread seem to be thinking that this is something the OP will able to appeal to an authority or some kind. Per the OP the boss is effectively the owner of the business. If she confronts the boss she is likely to be summarily fired. This all centers around how much she wants the position and whether she is willing to tolerate occasional poaching (if it occurred which is by no means certain).
The OP has little if any power in this situation. The main choices are to stay or go if she confirms sales are being picked off.
This is all true, but for me the main point is that her boss lied to her when he really didn’t have to.
Again, all true. I think it is important for Nzinga to know who she is dealing with, so she knows what to expect. Dishonest boss who cherry-picks the good commissions? Good to know - will adjust expectations accordingly.
Yeah, getting fired means nothing. I would just go to another broker in our company, there’s plenty in the area. But I am definitely leaning toward paranoid. I think my boss is a tad slimy, but I don’t think he did this. I think it is more likely that I somehow deleted the email.
And what reference would that be with?
The guy told a little white lie; I think that’s something worth focussing on for the moment. Maybe he panicked and didn’t want you thinking he took them off you on purpose? You weren’t in contact and he didn’t want to lose a client or a good employee.
If you’re wanting to you could ask for the same back, ie he gives you a client. But I wouldn’t go into that aggressively as he might get defensive. Try to bring up the client by saying ‘It would’ve been nice if I’d been available as I get on well with that client… Did she get on with who took her? I don’t remember who it was, do you remember?’ If he says ‘Bob’ say okay and walk away and make a note he’s lying.
If he says ‘Oh yeah, I took her, she was happy blah blah blah’ then you could offer to take his clients if he’s called away from the office. Be nice about it and tactful and he’ll know you’re not a pushover or forgetful.
If she’s working exclusively on commission, how much do references really matter? I mean unless he actually slanders her or something, and that seems unlikely.
I would err on the side of this being a mistake on your part but move cautiously forward. I would also make sure your resume is polished and keep an eye out for other places that might be looking to fill positions. If this all comes to a head 10 days into a month where you haven’t made a sale yet and you lose your job it might take a couple of weeks to find new employment and that could leave you going a full month or more without a paycheck. Assume that your boss has good intentions and move forward as though you are a valued asset with the company, but be prepared to hit the ground running if necessary.
That is some solid fucking advice there.
I totally agree, that’s the best way forward. Assume he is on the level but keep in mind that you might have better options elsewhere. Browse some recruitment websites, make contacts, feel around for options. If it turns out that he made an unusual mistake then you have more contacts, if he really is stealing your clients then you have a way out.
Which one? I would definitely try the fake interest e-mail from a friend idea, if you’re sure the friend can pull it off without messing something up and revealing too much. It needs to be for a desirable property that would bring in a good commission.
I’d definitely forward your mail to another account, just to be sure. But does your boss have the email smarts to go into your account, delete the mail, and cover it up?
If someone other than Jane got the apartment, then he did nothing wrong at all - why wait? The bird in the hand etc.
As for the Sunday thing, if this guy came in on Sunday why wait? I don’t know why he lied about it, but maybe he did feel guilty about cutting out an employee.
It sounds like you are in a very dynamic office, and can’t afford to delay getting back to clients. That sucks, but either of these clients could easily go elsewhere.