Quote:
Originally Posted by dangonay
I think you're the one missing the point. Jmac said what his company expects and I quoted him in reference to my post.
In Jmacs example it seems like the company is taking advantage of the employees. Training is something that should be done on company time and the employee should be getting paid for it. By having an employee purchase a product (with the intent of returning it) so they can use it at home the company is essentially having the employee "train themselves" on their personal time. Not only that, but the risk is also placed on the employee as anything that happens to whatever they bought would be their responsibility.
To me that's a shitty way to run a company by putting an employee in that position.
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Training DOES get done on company time. For those who chose to go, we got paid to go to HP's webOS training seminar in Victoria (where HP fed us well at Boston Pizza, gave away a ton of prizes, and gave us all gift bags. Staples also paid $0.52/km which is like $60 to travel to and from Victoria on top of the 3 hours of pay for actually being at the event, half of which was spent eating and chatting.), the HP Rep came and gave us a "demo day" in the store, as well, where he spent the day demoing it for the employees and customers, and the company provides an online training module that employees get paid to do at work (though it's, unfortunately, not an obligation on most products), but if you want more hands on experience, the company isn't going to pay you for dozens of hours in the store to play with every new device that comes out. We would never actually sell anything if that's the case since we get new products in all the time ...
And the company doesn't expect it, OUR store expects it; and, again, they're not obligated to, but it makes the customers happier, their jobs easier, and their bonuses greater (we get bonuses for winning internal contests, sales to budget, profit to budget, customer satisfaction, LP audits, etc.). Having better product knowledge than the competition/other stores gives us an advantage in 3 of those categories, 4 if there happens to be a contest involving that product).
I'm not going to say Staples is an awesome company or anything, but I wouldn't say it's shitty. It's the only sales job I've had where I can actually tell the customer the truth and I have the freedom to recommend products that actually suit the customer instead of just ramming whatever is most profitable down their throats.