I have a friend who’s in her 60s, lives in Ontario, who recently was hired to sell funiture in a shop in her local mall. Her husband recently retired and is going through chemo for liver cancer, so money was getting a bit tight so this looked like a great opportunity. She was told she’d start at $8 an hour, and after a month would early a 15% commission on sales, plus after three months would get a raise in her hourly pay.
Right after her training month ended, she went on a trip to her niece’s wedding. So it was today, her second day back at work, that she learned:
(1) Her promised raise in three months? She “may” get it in 18 months.
(2) That 15% commission? It’s payable only after she meets a quota. (Note: The only mention of a quota she can recall from anything she was told, or was given to read, during her four hours of interviews, was a mention of a “very obtainable goal.” She admits she didn’t notice that, but it doesn’t exactly scream quota to someone who’s never done commission sales before.)
And, last but not least,
(3) That heretofore unmentioned quota? It varies depending on the number of hours she works by week, so basically she will never know what her quota is until they tell her – because of course there’s nothing in writing about it! So she’s faced with an unknown, constantly moving target!
She’s going to quit, obviously; she’s feeling very used, and understandably so. But can Canadian employers really treat their employees this way? I live in Louisiana, capital of the-employer-is-always-right school of employment, so I’m just guessing at anything in that regard. Maybe it’s not illegal, maybe it’s only being unethical, but it still stinks.
Can a Canadian company really hire someone and not tell them what their commission structure is based on, or that there’s a quota, or that the quota is going to be a constantly moving target? Or change their tune about the raise they’ve promised her when they hire her? And who can she go to complain about these deceptive practices on the part of this company?