I'm gonna screw work BIG TIME! Advise.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Okay, here’s the plan. This is who works in my department at Best Buy, and how long they’ve been here.

Grant - Supervisor. Good salesman.
Jason - Supervisor. New to department.

Eldad - Awesome salesman. About 8 months.
Bill - Awesome salesman, printer king. About 8 months.
Gary - New, only works three days a week.
Andrew - Quit today.
Brian - Senior. Been here just over a year.
Lobsterman - Lotsa product knowledge, so-so salesman. About 7 months.
Shawn - AWESOME salesman. About 9 months.
Me, Tim - Not to flatter myself, but probably second or third best salesman in the department. Nearly a year.
Matt - Sucks. New.
Neil - Alright. 2 months, maybe three.

This is the plan. They’re forcing us to come to a meeting on Sunday after work.

After the meeting, Shawn, Bill, Eldad, and I (the Dream Team, as we’re called) are going to tell Grant to come to the conferance room.

When he gets in the conferance room, we’re going to tell him that we’ve been talking, and have decided we are sorely underpaid.

We’re going to tell him we expect $10/hr, and he has one week to get it for us, or he can consider this our two week’s notice.

We’re willing to bargain down to $9/hr, but no less.

If even ONE of us doesn’t get our $10/hr, all four quit.

We’ve all solidified the deal amongst ourselves, we all have every intent of going through with it, and we all have other jobs lined up to fall back on.

We don’t think that they can afford to fire us for this, because that would leave them with a small crew of all new guys.

We MAKE this department, and we’re all being paid less than $7.75/hr, except for Shawn, who makes $8.85/hr because he threatened to quit a while ago.

I did the math a while ago, and I average $65/hr earnings for Best Buy on Service Plans alone. That doesn’t factor in the computers, monitors, printers, scanners, or any of the accessories. JUST Service Plans. I figure that Bill, Eldad, and Shawn all fall within $10 - $15 of this, above or below.

I do not think $10/hr is too much to ask.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Would this be considered Unionizing? Could we get arrested and/or in trouble with the law?

–Tim

2

You wont get arrested nor is it illegal from what I know but I am not an attorney either.

That said, you need to realize that you work in a retail position that rarely nets much cash. Also, if you do this you need to have a back up plan because they could fire you regardless of your seniority, gross sales etc…

You work in a huge corporate environment. You are easily replaced and in such environments your managers hands are very well tied when it comes to the amount of money you make.

Large corporations, from my experience, rarely give a rat’s ass about you personally and will take what they can to fill the showroom rather than look upon the employee as an individual.

What you have to do is look at your increased living expenses and not the company’s take on a service contract. If you honestly are seeing an increase in your daily living expenses then it’s time to ask for a raise. Rarely is it good to make demands. This will not only put off your manager it can follow you in subsequent jobs, although against most policies it can make it difficult to have anyone as a reference.

I am a small business owner and frankly if I had an employee and that employee came to me demanding a raise I just might let the person go. If the employee came to me with a sincere reason as to why he/she felt she needed a raise then I would think about it and come back with a response. Of course this would take into consideration my bottom line, what the employee actually does on a daily basis, etc.

Keep in mind I have shopped in Best Buy and rarely have I come across an employee that knocks my socks off. Helpful is a word that crosses my mind.

I was a sales rep, and not to knock your position, in most sales jobs you work for commission. If you are serious about being a sales rep I suggest you look for a company that will pay you in commission with a base pay.

Again, in a large corporate retail situation like Best Buy, they are not paying you to be the best sales rep but to be a helpful person to their customers.

I hope that doesn’t come across as rude or mean but I have been on both ends of the sales scale.

What you need to do is assess what you really want. Do you want a raise for the sake of the fact that the company is making a bunch of money off contracts or do you need it for your lively hood. If you need to increase your income because you believe you deserve more then look at other options. There are a lot of great companies out there that will allow you to make as much as money as you want. Look to other options where you are in charge of your earnings if you enjoy being a sales rep.

Enough of my soapbox. I have to stress I meant no malice or am I trying to be mean. I am just giving you the view I have from what you posted.

3

I support your efforts. Solidarity forever!

PS Get ready to be fired, or more likely be stalled to give the manager time to hire more people. Expect him to ask you to wait 2 weeks. Then when two weeks pass he’ll ask for just one more week, etc… Also expect him to try an break your group. He might offer one or two of you more money and tell them to keep it a secret. After your time limit has passed expect one or two of you group to find a excuse to stay “just a little longer.”

FWIW I hear circit city pays better.

4

I suggest you forgo the strong arm tactics for the moment and ask politely and nicely. You don’t need to strong arm your managers and they will only get defensive if you do. Keep in mind, they’ve also got a pretty low paying job and are responsible to their superiors. They don’t set pay policies in such a large corporate structure. From the corporate point of view they are just a step ahead of the salespeople and just as easily replaced. They worry about their jobs and low pay just as much as you.

Ask nicely. If it does not work out like you hoped then I suggest you opt for that fallback job you’ve got lined up already - particularly if it pays more and offers better potential for growth.

Finally, I don’t mean to sound cruel, but you are a sales person in a retail chain which sells common household electronics. You are hardly a highly skilled commodity on the open market no matter how nice of a person you are or how much your customers like you.

5

Hmmmm… I’d be careful. Like techchick said, big companies like that rarely give a rat’s ass about their employees. Plus, I’d guess that the manager has very little power over what you’re paid beyond giving you the basic miniscule yearly salary review.

You’re also gonna put the guy on the spot, and nobody likes that. Being confronted by four employees is going to make him defensive. I also think that having all four of you together is going to make him think you’re ganging up on him, and he is more than likely to just say “OK then, bye!”

I wouldn’t do it. Salaries are private things, and best kept between you and your boss. I think you’d have a lot better chance dealing with this on a one to one basis.

6

Homer,

I do hope that you have already made formal requests for increased pay. If your employer has no clue that you feel so underpaid, he’s going to get pretty upset when you corner him and start making threats out of the blue. I’d fire you in a heartbeat for that even if I were in a position to increase your pay.

Now, if you’ve made formal requests and exhausted all reasonable arguments then, by all means, screw the bastards. Consider also that another employer that is doing a lot of hiring will look quite favorably upon you and your coworkers if you present yourselves as a prepackaged team.

Good luck!

7

In my experience as a manager -retail and other - I have found that giving a raise to an employee because of a threat to leave is always a bad idea. The employee usually ends up leaving within a short time anyway. It’s rarely about money alone, so money rarely solves the problem. My reaction to that ultimatum is always “Sorry you’re leaving, we’ll miss you”.

My advice would be to figure out how much profit (not sales) you generate for the company per month versus the average for your store. Include all sales, not just service plans and have at least 6 months data available. Ask for a raise comensurate with your performance. For example, if you generate 25% more profit that an average salesperson and the average salary is $7.00 per hour, then you are justified in asking for $8.75. Notice I said “justified in asking for” not “entitled to”. This approach is much more impressive to management than “If I don’t get my way I’ll take my ball and go home”.

Each of you should approach your supervisor individually, for several reasons:

  1. Salary is a personal issue and should be treated as a private matter.
  2. Each of you has your own value to the company based on your individual production. They didn’t hire you as a group package - each of you must stand on your own record.

Let us know what happens.

8

Also, remember, in an economy like this one, sure the people are new, but they got a lot of them to choose from. Especially since this is the start of summer, kids are looking for summer jobs. So if you are let go, the manager could expect tight times for a few weeks, and then things will start to let up. He most likely will follow that course, because it is A) more cost effective in the long run, and B) doesn’t undermine his authority as the manager as much.

9

I sure hope those alternate jobs you and your co-workers have to fall back on are nice.
I’m not sure what Techchick was talking about when she referred to your living expenses, and I’m not sure if the amount of revenue you generate for the company is really even relevant. What IS relevant is how difficult it would be to replace you, or in this particular situation, the four of you.
And to be truthful, while you guys may be stellar at what you do, you are not irreplacable.
Speaking for myself, if I was confronted the way you’re describing (I’d almost call it a mutiny), my reaction as your boss would be to ask for all of your keys and ID’s on the spot. Not necessarily because your demands are unreasonable, but because of the “mutiny” aspect. After getting a demand like yours, how comfortable could he be leaving the store while the “Dream Team” (I think your boss would be thinking “gang of four”) was there?

10

Everyone else has already given you some good advice. The only thing that I would add is that maybe you should study up on The Prisoners Dilemma.

11

I’m gonna go the other way here. This could be a great learning experience. Let’s face it; anyone truly successful didn’t placate to others and play ‘nice-nice’. They see what they want and go after it full force with no comprimises. Tact is nothing more the skill of hiding your true intentions. I was in a similar situation and chose to fight for what I felt I was worth. I got shit canned (and trust me you will too). But I learned some very important things:

  1. Its never as scary as you think.
  2. It taught me how to handle very acute pressure while maintaining my wits.
  3. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS YOUR PERMANENT RECORD. People who say “Don’t burn bridges” should be burned at the stake. There are so many oppurtunities out there. Why would you ever consider going back to a place you hated and/or wasn’t appreciated.
  4. This type of a situation does take skill and tact. Practice makes perfect.
  5. No matter what they say they don’t care about you. Don’t care about them. If your manager gets defensive (or even better starts to crack) so what. He’ll learn from the experiance as well.

So I say Go for it!!

12

That’s not really true. The economy being what it is, it’s easy to get a job, but hard to find employees. Homer, when you say you have a job lined up, I assumes it pays at least as well as your current job, meaning that it’s not a big deal to quit?
If that’s the case then I’d say by all means go ahead and do it. At worse you end up in a new job, at best you get a nice raise.
About the legality, it should be fine. If you want to, call yourself a small union.

13

A few points to consider:

  1. NOBODY is irreplaceable!
  2. There are thousands of salespeople who would step into your shoes in a second.

My advice is to scout around other electronics stores…see what their top guys are making.Ask for a raise,if you are turned down…move on.

14

Okay, a few things to clear up. Kansas City, I believe, has the lowest, or one of the lowest, unemployment rates in the country. We’ve been understaffed for about six months. We can’t hardly pay people enough to come work for us.

Profits are the only thing this company cares about. Without the four of us, I can guarantee that profits will drop by at least 50% and not return to their average levels for at least four months, probably more.

We all have jobs lined up, in case.

Our boss gets defensive and confrontational no matter how tactfully or easily you put anything.

While I have not formally requested a pay raise, I’ve commented on it before, and met with a smokescreen about my low pay.

I don’t think I said so, but I get $7.54/hr, so do two of the others. Shawn gets $8.85 because he previously threatened to leave for a job that paid $9/hr. The only reason he stayed was because he likes us (and the guys in Tech).

Our roster used to include:

Mark
Tricia
Nick
Mitch

but they were all moved to different departments.

Hell, BB is so hard up for workers right now that we have ONE person working in car audio, and I believe only three in home audio. Ten or so people should be in each department.

Labdude: Circuit City does pay better. So does BrandsMart.

BTW, I realize we’re not exactly highly skilled as far as workers go, but they refer to us as the BND (big nuts department) because we’re so damn good at what we do.

I know they can replace us. Eventually.

Profits are #1 to these guys. They will not allow anything that will cause profits to suffer.

Oh, and all of us are pretty happy with our jobs, it’s the wages that bite us. That’s why we’re doing this, we feel it’s the only way they will pay us what we’re worth. I know of one co-worker who was hired on with 1 year experience in sales at $9.50. So I don’t think we’re asking too much at all.

I spend over half my paycheck on gas.

–Tim

15

I say go for it. I work at Publix, a chain grocery store in the Southeast (mission statement: To be the premier food retailer in the world). I hate it. I wish I could could do what you guys are doing, but sadly, there are just too many cashiers and too many people who are hooked in by the hefty retirement plans and other such benefits offered by Publix. One thing I can tell you is that you manager most certainly does have a say in what you make. The myth that a corporate overlord controls your wages is total bullshit. At my job we are evaluated twice a year and given a raise if applicable. If one of your co-workers has been given a raise because he threatened to leave, that should be your green light to try the same. You have nothing to lose here. Stick it to the system. It won’t matter one way or another to your boss, he can give you a raise if he wants, and if he can’t, he knows someone who can. There are plenty of jobs out there if you get canned. This is your chance to put “the man” in his place, go for it.

16

Homer,

I don’t know your industry, but what you’re looking for ($10/hr) for what you deliver sounds pretty reasonable to me. If you’ve got a backup job lined up, ask for, no -demand, a raise. If you don’t get it, go to the other job. (I assume the other job is paying what you want, right?)

But whatever you do, drop this mini-union idea immediately. It will only hurt you. Your boss will rightfully consider this a bigger threat than quitting and will likely fire you all. I know if I was in his shoes there would be no question; you’d all be gone.

And if he doesn’t fire you right now, just know that he’ll be watching and waiting until he has a better bench. Once a few of the junior guys get better, you’ll be on his hit list.

Good Luck!