How much would you help your boss/company out if you got fired?

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Hey, In-N-Out Burger starts at $10 per hr. and I can walk there from my house. Their shakes rock and they have some pretty hot teenie bopper ladies working there.

Mike Vicks first job out of prison will be as a $10.00 an hour construction worker.

If a former multi-millionaire superstar quarterback will work for $10.00 an hour....

I admire you Rick. In many ways.

[slodave]

I'm having a hard time imaging Rick in the In-N-Out whites, with a .45 strapped to his hip.

[masraum]

If I got fired or laid off or otherwise my employment was terminated by a company, and they called me for assistance because they didn't have anyone that could figure something out....

$200/hr, 2 hour minimum.

especially if I was fired.

no way in hell, do you WORK for free for someone who doesn't employ you!

[jyl]

They probably won't call you. Don't help if they do. Not even for pay, you want to be getting those former clients for yourself.

[941MXVET]

Originally Posted by jyl

you want to be getting those former clients for yourself.

What I was thinking, when I've left jobs, I usually don't look back at all.

[Tishabet]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I'm hoping to be able to go to a competitor and get out of the non-compete if they can me.

If they fire you, doesn't that get you out of the non-compete automatically?

I agree with the others that once they stop paying your salary you owe them nothing... you're a professional, and professionals get paid for their time. If they call you up, quote them a "raking them over the coals" hourly... in my industry (Technology/financial services) this kind of situation is not unheard of and the quotes are typically in the $200-$300/hour range.

[GrandmaSideways]

Originally Posted by Rufblackbird

Personally, if my employer doesn't even give me the courtesy of me having the chance of filing for unemployment, they can kiss my ass...

bingo.

I have only helped a former employer where I got canned a few times - and it was retail sales, on comission, and it was a friend asking me questions about car audio.
"Where is this in the warehouse?"
and then a few days later
"What wiring kit does he need for XXX amp and XXX subwoofer?"

That wasn't helping out the company it was helping a friend on comission, and he bought me bubble tea in the food court the next time I saw him at the mall. lol

[asphaltgambler]

There is a clear distinction between 'fired' and 'laid-off' Which are you anticipating? Even if the company fires you for poor performance; you can still apply for unemployment if you think that they were wrong. They have to provide solid, documented proof. If not you are entitled to unemployment bene's

To answer the question though I would not do squat. If I was 'fired' and they called me back or asked for help I would quote them a rediculous consulting fee. As stated above.............it's their issue

[morganb]

Totally depends on the circumstances of your departure, one of mine I would help in any way,shape or form, in another case I have made international calls at my cost to help them sort out an issue. Depends how you were treated and compensated at departure.

[Rick Lee]

Again. unemployment is a non-issue. I'll never file because I'll never be unemployed for more than a few hours and any menial job pays more than unemployment in AZ.

I didn't think about this before, but if I don't confess to a future employer that I was fired by my previous one, might they wonder why I worked somewhere for eight years and didn't put anyone from that company as a reference?

Getting fired doesn't make my non-compete go away, but probably makes it much more likely that my former employer wouldn't bother with a suit. It's might be hard to lie to future employers about being laid off when I was fired, especially if they know anyone at my former employer. Word gets around. The folks laid off this week were taken well care of and I have no doubt the company would always say good things about them. Not so about fired folks. I'll probably know Monday or Tues. That's the most frustrating part of this job - I have no way whatsoever to track my revenue from day to day or week to week until I get this file the first week of the following month. It's truly a scratch-off lottery ticket.

[jyl]

For a future employer, you'd want to prepare a history - in VA you produced X revenue and were the #_ salesguy, then took over undeveloped territory in PHX and in 1 year built it to Y revenue, etc. The facts should speak for themselves. As for being "fired", you produced all the growth/rev from PHX that anyone could, see the facts, the company demanded impossibly faster growth in PHX, so you parted ways. As for references, probably would want to name someone there, unless all your direct supervisors left the company, in which case name your biggest supporter who has left.

[Zeke]

Rick, didn't you move to AZ for the job? That's kinda raw that you go to all that trouble and expense to lose the job that brought you there. That same thing seemed to have happened to Red-Beard and may have happened to others.

If it were me, I'd spit in the burgers when the former bosses come in to In-And-Out.

No, you don't owe them dick.

BTW, what makes you think you can get a job at IAO in hours? I'll bet their files are full of resume's.

[Rick Lee]

FWIW, I would only flip burgers as a true last resort. I'd try to work at a gun store and wait tables first.

The company didn't really move me out here. I paid for it all and even took a vacation day to drive out here. Yes, they did want someone to take over their long-neglected western territory and I pushed to be that someone. But it's been a year and the territory's revenue has actually shrunk by $300k. I probably bring in more new business than anyone else on our team, so discounting all the new business I brought in, the territory revenue would have shrunk by far more, had I not been here. But that's not how the company sees it. They see growth or failure, nothing in between. They see a territory that was performing ok when no one was working it and then shrunk by $300k after sending me out here. They don't care how much of my day is spent defending revenue from competitors, they don't care how much more it would have shrunk without me and they don't care how much it will shrink if they can me. I can see where they're coming from, but it's a pretty short-sighted plan they have. And it will cost them far more time and money to get someone else hired, ramped up and producing here than I've cost them.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

FWIW, I would only flip burgers as a true last resort. I'd try to work at a gun store and wait tables first.

The company didn't really move me out here. I paid for it all and even took a vacation day to drive out here. Yes, they did want someone to take over their long-neglected western territory and I pushed to be that someone. But it's been a year and the territory's revenue has actually shrunk by $300k. I probably bring in more new business than anyone else on our team, so discounting all the new business I brought in, the territory revenue would have shrunk by far more, had I not been here. But that's not how the company sees it. They see growth or failure, nothing in between. They see a territory that was performing ok when no one was working it and then shrunk by $300k after sending me out here. They don't care how much of my day is spent defending revenue from competitors, they don't care how much more it would have shrunk without me and they don't care how much it will shrink if they can me. I can see where they're coming from, but it's a pretty short-sighted plan they have. And it will cost them far more time and money to get someone else hired, ramped up and producing here than I've cost them.

And, that replacement won't do any better than you unless he/she has a lot of accounts that want to jump ship. Since moving accounts along to a new job is legally dicey, that's not likely to happen.

The Milgard Window outside sales guys all have a quota. None of them have made quota in 3 years. It's a matter of how much under, not just not making it. Maybe your managers need to get their head out of their ass.

However, you can and should make your case as you have to me/us. Make the statistics work for you.

You took one whole vacation day to move completely across the nation? You slacker. You're fired.

[Rick Lee]

No, I had to take a Friday off when the movers came and I hit the road as soon as they were done that afternoon. I was in Phoenix Sunday afternoon. The 993 makes for a fun cross-country drive.

Our quotas are called percentage of goal and goal is always 107% of the previous year's revenue. Since I was way below goal for 2008, 107% of that lowered number is my new revenue goal. I was at 80% in Jan. and 92.8% in Feb. I'll probably be even closer to 100% for March, if not over 100%. But the boss said anything under 100% and I'm canned. Kinda ironic then that we're now paid commission starting at 70% of goal, while disciplined at the same time for being under 100%. WTF?. So while my job hangs by a thread, I'm making a lot more money now than I did last year, where commissions were only paid at and above 100% of goal.

We have some other requirements besides revenue and the consensus among the sales folks is that these requirements are totally unreasonable and unattainable. A few of us think the company made it that way on purpose, so they could fire 10-15% of the sales force piecemeal throughout the year instead of having waves of layoff, thereby spooking investors and customers and emboldening the competition.

[azasadny]

Never burn bridges...ever!

[Zeke]

I had a friend that sold wholesale garden equipment to nurseries. His territory was Orange County down along the coast. Needless to say, the demographics made his job a slam dunk. IN the good ol' days, his business grew to the point he was making more on commission than the management. Of course they split his territory to include some bad areas and gave off some of the rich area to another under performing area to equalize earnings and in the hope he could perform some miracle where sales were historically low.

That's what sales managers and company vice presidents do.

This was many years ago, but it taught me enough to stay the hell away from outside commissioned sales.

When you think about how many companies are in sad shape today, you have to wonder how much they brought unto themselves with piss poor thinking and micromanagement.

A little OT, but as I said on another thread, I'd fire 4000 white collars at GM today and go from there. IMHO, the people on the factory floor and outside know a lot more than the cubicles do.


The only thing that is better with more layers is wedding cake.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by azasadny

Never burn bridges...ever!

Very true. At the same time, if I get fired, and they call me back wanting assistance, they need to hire me on a contract basis.

Otherwise, how great would it be if they could just fire everyone and then get them to work for them for free.

[Rick Lee]

I really do like commissioned sales, especially when it's the kind of job where the sales folks are totally insulated from the BS office politics. That's what got me into it about 11 yrs. ago. But let's be realistic here. How many companies plan to increase their PR budgets in this economy, even the ones that manage to stay alive? There's a natural attrition rate of about 25% of clients or revenue each year. So just getting back to last year's revenue means brinigng in a lot of new business to offset that attrition. I understand companies always have to grow and not remain stagnant. But the requirements we have for 2009 are just unrealistic for this economy. Doesn't matter to anyone in mgt. They do not want to hear any kind of arguments or criticism. Basically, they put the plan on stone tablets for the year, come down from the mountain and tell us how it's going to be. We have a new CEO now, so maybe he'll clean house after this plan fails.

Art, I've never burned a bridge in my life and never would. But I'm not going to be a doormat after getting fired either. Come to think of it, my boss probably won't call me for help. He'll make someone else do, whom he knows I was friends with and am less likely to turn down. That's how he rolls.

[dd74]

Originally Posted by azasadny

Never burn bridges...ever!

I've been thinking the same thing. I know Rick's business. I'm involved in an aspect of it. And like any type of media business that exists now, this one is shrinking almost weekly.

I think all these clowns on this thread who are stating "...they can kiss my ass" haven't a clue about what Rick does and who he's involved with.

I agree that if he gets called back, he should demand a nice-sized consulting fee. That's just business, and any firm worth their professionalism will understand.

But to basically state "screw you" will hurt him more than help him, IMO.