I'm going to quit my job tomorrow (first time for me)

Okay, here’s the deal. About a month ago I was looking for work as my temp assignment was about to run out. I attended an open interview at a place called Major Energy, which is an Energy Supply Company (or ESCO). The position was for a “registration officer”, which consisted of going to door to door in residential neighborhoods and telling people that I am here to save you money on your utility bills. If they bite, then I fill out a registration form and have them sign it. If the registration form gets turned in and the account gets approved, then the account’s supplier gets changed to Major Energy, I get $20 for the commission, and that customer’s bill total will go down (seriously, it will.). HOWEVER, if the customer doesn’t sign up (which 9 out of 10 times they will, since they either think it will RAISE their bill or that I’m just plain trying to scam them, or they don’t understand how it works—and I started a SDMB thread about this last week and nobody HERE understood either), or if they do sign up and something’s wrong with their account so that they CAN’T change over, or if they sign up but cancel within 4 months, then I get $0. Infact, 15% of my check gets reserved just incase somebody does cancel a month or two later. Anyway, that’s IT. I’m getting no salary, and no hourly wage. Just $20 per commission.

After my first week of doing this, and only having 4 registrations stick, I was already ready to walk (honestly, who wants to work 60 hours a week only to make less than $100?), but my boss, realizing that I AM the smartest guy he has working there, gave me a bonus if I’d give them a second chance for 2 more weeks, and said that I was strongly being considered for an office manager position. So I bit. So now it’s been 2 weeks of lousy “sales” and lousy pay (oh yeah, and really big turnover - most people come in and either do really well and stick around, or work 1 or 2 days and say SCREW THIS…and DON’T get the bonus) and it turns out that I AM getting promoted to an office manager, but the catch is that instead of getting an actual salary, I’ll be getting $25 per approved registration, and $5 per approved registration on new people who I help train. Or in other words, the actual office MANAGEMENT work that I do (which honestly is closer to my background, and where I would be most valuable to this company since I’m definitely NOT a salesman) I’ll essentially be doing for FREE. Fuck that, and fuck them (I haven’t actually said that to their face yet).

Anyway, now the hard part. How do I quit and make it stick? I was hired as an IC, and my only actual contract is a non-compete with other energy companies, so I don’t think there’s any obligation for me to even keep coming into work (especially since it takes me about an hour to get there from my home). I’m planning on calling in tomorrow morning and saying something along the line of “okay, I gave you a second chance, and this just isn’t working out for me. I give this company close to 60 hours a week, and I’m getting nothing in return–I’d make more money working at McDonalds! I know my sales are lousy, but I never pretended to be an experienced salesperson, and I can tell that they aren’t going to get any better, and I simply don’t enjoy any aspect of door-to-door. Oh btw, I still have 2 more lousy paychecks coming my way - will they get mailed to me or should I just stop by in 2 weeks to pick them up?”

**oh, and I won’t even get into the grey-scale legality of some aspects of this job, although it’s another valid reason for quitting.

Pretty much no matter what you do, you won’t quit this job in a more spectacularly unprofessional way than they’ve seen before. I’m pretty sure they’ve had people flake out in rather memorable ways. If they haven’t yet, they will. It’s the nature of jobs that hire a lot of IC salespeople.

No drama or explanation is needed. Simply call in and tell them that you won’t be returning.

Good luck finding a new, better, job.

I agree with PunditLisa. Don’t elaborate because then that gives them something to argue with. All they need to know is that you won’t be coming in.

Agreed. Leave and learn to look out for these types of warning signs in future employment. I know that the job search is tough, but working for free doesn’t make sense at any time.

Yeah, I think I’m just going to leave it with a “ok, I’m done” voice mail tomorrow morning. I should have taken it as a warning sign that they were so desperate to keep me even though I wasn’t making (and making them) any money, and I’ve already seen a ton of turnover at this job in the 3 and a half weeks I’ve been there. Some people are just naturals at this, and they are the ones that are seeing the $1000 a week checks, and others such as me (a ISTF certified Aspergian) are better off behind a desk.

I am still concerned about getting my last two paychecks though. It’s a 12 day processing cycle, and they are handed out in person, so I can’t just assume that they’ll mail it to me.

It really does pain me to quit a job when I know how bad the unemployment rate is right now, but I’ve felt like by staying with this one, I’m blocking myself from even being able to find a job that is worthy of having me. Guess the next thing to do is join the Job Hunters thread on here…

Frankly, the whole thing sounds like a scam to begin with, no matter what they told you – both for people who fall for their deal, and for you running door to door offering what sure smells like a scam to said people. I wouldn’t count on getting any more checks from them.

Good luck in finding a job that pays you actual money.

I think I’ve heard public service announcements on the radio warning people to not deal with people who show up at their door offering to lower their energy bills. It might have been on Detroit radio or Windsor…anyhow, I think you are wise to leave this position, and you are doing it fairly professionally. Do make sure you get the matter of the paychecks straight before you go, though.

Well, it does get printed right on the gas bill (in the IMPORTANT MESSAGES section that nobody ever reads) that customers have a right to change their supplier to a third party ESCO, and will have some taxes eliminated, and other costs potentially reduced by doing so, and (at least in NY) are required by law to do this. Setting a supply cost to a fixed rate of 89 cents per CCF therm, rather than the variable rate that National Grid is charging of $1.07 to $1.40 is an almost too good to be true deal. I just know that I personally would NOT sign anything or give up any information to some stranger who rings my doorbell, and I am truly amazed that some of my co-workers have a much better success rate than I did, because frankly, their first impression appearance SUCKS compared to mine. I’m kind of curious what exactly these radio PSA’s say, because I know that US Energy, Gateway and IDT are three ESCO companies operating in NY who actually have contracts which #1 have monthly fees just for registering and #2 either save you insignificant amount of money or actually charge a couple pennies MORE than what the utility company is charging, and that IDT actually has a class action lawsuit being filed against them by a town which they signed up about half of. So yeah, it’s a sticky business which already has a bad reputation. Frankly, I feel lucky that I made it this far without having any dog attacks, guns in my face or police encounters (although I was twice threatened by customers that the police would be on their way, and neither times did I see any police), that worrying about 1 or 2 $125 checks seems insignificant in comparison.

Never again. I’m actually gonna take the cowards way out by doing the “press 2 to send a reply message” off of a saved voicemail so that I don’t even have to deal with a phone argument.

That was one of my reasons for not quitting the last project I worked in. The other one was that whenever I’m not in a project, either I go to Mom’s or she “drops by to visit” (and I can’t divorce her without divorcing my brothers as well, it’s a package deal).

I did say it’s “the last project I worked in,” right? My reasons for quitting was that the last bout of madness on my immediate superior’s part was triggering daily perhaps-MS attacks: no amount of money is worth my health. I don’t think the job you describe is particularly healthy for you, either… good luck on the search!

Congratulations at getting out of that job. I hate to call something a job in which it doesn’t meet my criteria that it pays at least minimum wage for hours worked. I don’t think you need to explain beyond that you quit, send my wages here. I’m sure the manager is used to this with the turnover he has, and everyday he just hopes somebody will stay one more day.

It definitely isn’t healthy for me. Door to door (my door, not the customers) it was a 12 hour day, and the level of disorganization at this company disgusted me, especially since I was the one lower-level employee who actually WAS trying to clean things up, which made me feel extra insulted when I found out that the promotion for my work was not even going to compensate me for the actual difference I was making there. I’ve also been feeling various levels of sickness ever since started this job, and the stress is probably gonna take a couple years off my life.

Anyway, I just left this voicemail on my boss’s phone:

Hi Ray, it’s Richard. Just wanted to inform you that I am officially resigning as a registration officer, and I’m ready to move on. I gave this job a second chance, and it just isn’t for me - I’m not making any money here, and there’s no way I’m gonna be able to pull in 30 registrations a week. It has been great working for you though, and I think with some better organization this can be a great company for the right type of salesman. If you still want me to help out with implementing some of the suggestions and ideas I brought up last week, or if there is any other kind of work I can do at the office, please let me know and hopefully we can work something out, but I feel like I’m just wasting my potential out in the field trying to work for commission. I guess I’ll stop by a week from Friday to pick up my last 2 checks, but don’t expect me to come in unless there’s any other business I need to do. Thanks, take care.

**note that I’m not stepping foot into that office to do any more management-type work until I do have a written agreement that I would be paid for doing THAT. If I’m really as valuable and insightful as they say I am, then maybe they’ll bite and I’ll at least get one last piece before finding a new job.

I’ve been fed the same line of crap this boss is giving you many of times. It’s just an excuse for these pricks to keep you on another 2-4 weeks while they find another employee. I’ve never once been promoted in these manners and like you just end up quitting.

This is what happened when I was at the Hilton. When I first started working I had an interview with the manager and she seemed very optimistic of placing me in a position of higher responsibility that was salary-based. She asked me to “get the feel of things” on the floor first (a greeter for timeshares-the jerk who stands in the lobby and tells you to go on a tour for free shit in return).

I did this for a month and had the job down as well as signing people up for tours, arranging their transport, as well as arranging the times and locations for them to pick up their compensation for going on the tours (this was in Vegas so show tickets, cash, etc), as well as other tasks, all which were not my responsibility at the time but I wanted to learn every aspect of the business.

The reason for leaving was because she took in another person who was new and placed him in the position I was expecting and promised to fill… and the dude was a total dingbat.

Don’t always trust your management’s word. They’ll tell you anything to keep you around that extra day. They don’t think about the situation from your perspective.

I wouldn’t even waste any more time doing office work for them. They sound like a rather shady operation just going by the way they treat their sales workers. You really would be better off working at a fast food restaurant. If you put that much time and effort into a job at McDonald’s, you’d have a steady income to show for it and could at least hope to end up in management before too long. Good luck on finding better things soon.

Andddd things come to a happy ending, at least for the moment. Haven’t had any response from Major Energy yet, but I did email one of the IT temp agencies which I’ve done work for in the past, and they’re in the middle of a long term project which needs additional technicians, so I’m back in. $17/hr to do real work.

I love this.

Question…do you really even need to ‘quit’?

They don’t pay you a salary - You are an IC…just don’t go in. You don’t need them as a reference.

This is not a real job - you are essentially a ‘supplier’ to them…your own ‘company’ so to speak… why do you need to quit?

As for the non-compete…? Would this even hold up? They are not paying you a salary…they are not paying you while they train you (if even they did train)…how can they say they need a non-compete?

{The above are not meant to be ‘snarky’…they are questions I would like to hear thoughts/facts about}

As someone who has never quit a job before today, I wasn’t really sure how it works. I do know that when I took a sick day off in my second week (and my cold was caused by running around in the rain in 35° weather the night before for 6 hours), I got 3 phone calls from 3 different people asking where I was. If I just stopped coming in, I would have to tell them the same thing I said today anyway, otherwise my phone would be ringing like crazy until they got the hint.

We did do a lot of training - the day started at 11am and we would use that time until about 2pm or so to do training each day, and then the rest of the afternoon/evening would be spent driving to various parts of New York and working until about 8:30pm (yes, they actually expected me to keep ringing doorbells after 8pm, which has about a 0% success rate unless you get someone right as they’re just getting home from work). It’s funny that you say that I’m my own company, cuz they kept stressing the same thing in training - that we were working for ourselves, not for them…what we make is based on how hard we choose to work.

I suppose the reason for the non-compete is because I now do know exactly what Major Energy’s policies are, what their contracts with National Grid, O&R, Central Hudson. Con-Ed and Niagra&Mohawk are, and what their tactics for acquiring new customers are. I COULD take this information to another ESCO and say “ok, Major Energy is offering a fixed rate of 89 cents per CCF in Orange & Rockland counties. Infact, here are the people I signed up myself there. Lets go over there and offer them 85 cents a year!” Did anyone see last week’s Office episode? Michael had just given his 2 weeks notice, but was escorted out of the office when it was discovered that he was planning on starting his own paper company, and was trying to steal a copy of the client list. I’m not sure how this legally holds up, but I did sign a contract stating that I would not work for any other ESCO or utility company within the next 5 years…and who cares, cuz I really don’t see myself ever doing this line of work again anyway?

okay, now I’m curious:
What was in the contract? Suppose you violate the agreement tomorrow, and go to work for a competitor–what does the contract allow them to do to you ?

Don’t know, don’t care. I actually didn’t even keep a copy of that contract. I don’t think it even said a consequence, just “I agree not to work for any gas/electric utility or energy company for the next 5 years.” How do they even track that, especially if I don’t even put Major Energy on my resume or references list?