

Ask HN: My boss gave me 3 choices, all bad. Which should I choose? - livingyes

tl;dr my boss gave me the option to a) quit, b) resign with &quot;dignity&quot; or, c) continue working but on commission only.  Which should I choose?<p>I work for a 10 person web&#x2F;mobile software company and I&#x27;ve been working for them for the past 4 years.<p>Last year my girlfriend got into nursing school in a different state.  My boss let me move with her and continue working as a remote employer.  I was of course, grateful!<p>Coinciding with me taking a new remote role, I was also working on a new sales strategy for the company focused on doing outbound lead gen work. The short of it is that it never really worked out well. I brought in leads, but nothing closed.  A number of reasons made this unsuccessful namely 1) trying a new sales strategy while also trying remote work and 2) no time from leadership<p>Last week my boss told me things weren&#x27;t working out.  I could resign and &quot;save face&quot; with the team. I could be &quot;let go&quot; and claim unemployment. Or, I could continue working for the company, but on a commission only basis (so presumably a higher commission, but no salary.. ergo I take on the risk but with the opportunity for higher rewards).<p>I&#x27;m torn as to what to do. I still have a great relationship with the boss and my teammates so &quot;saving face&quot; has some appeal.  But i&#x27;ll also be out of work in two weeks and am considering unemployment. I&quot;m concerned as to how being on unemployment will affect my job search process. I&#x27;m also not sure that working commission only will be in my best interest, given the rate of success that has been evident over the past months.<p>So, my questions to HN are:
1) which of the 3 choices should I take?
2) If I take unemployment, will that affect my job search process negatively?
3) i&#x27;ve been there for 4 years, should I be expecting a severance package of some sort?
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trcollinson
With all respect, and I do mean that, if the roles were reversed, what options
would you give you? You have a company that was working, and a member of the
team changed the rules of the game. The company took the risk for a year, and
that risk did not result in a reward, so the company has now given you some
very fair options. Obviously, something needs to change and the company is
putting the ball in your court to decide how to make that work. That is an
opportunity right there! He could have easily done the thing many companies do
and just fired you with no warning.

That being said, I will take a stab at answering your questions. First, do you
think your sales strategy will be changing, ie, become more successful? If
not, then you should not take commission. Of course, if your sales strategy
won't become more successful, why would they keep you? But I digress. Where
you live, is it hard to find new work in your particular area of expertise? If
not, then I would say resign, and find new work. If it is, then I would
suggest you need to really think through your career path. In other words,
resign if you think you can't make commission sales work. Take commission and
become truly successful if you think your sales can improve.

Second, I have hired many employees over the years. I have never asked if they
were on unemployment. I don't care one way or the other. The economy in my
area has been rough for a long time, I don't take of unemployment as being a
negative. Your milage my vary.

Third, if it's not in your original contract, don't expect it. If you are in a
sales position and have brought in less revenue than you make in salary over
the last year, don't expect it. If you work for a small company that is
working hard but isn't ultra successful, don't expect it. So, don't expect it.

I hope my best advise is to not be afraid of finding new work. Get out there,
hit the pavement, make yourself look great and get the job that makes you feel
good. You're in sales. This is your greatest sales job. Go sell yourself. And
good luck!

~~~
livingyes
First, thank you!

>if the roles were reversed, what options would you give you?

That's an excellent point and something that I -- amidst the pangs of
dejection -- failed to think about.

> do you think your sales strategy will be changing, ie, become more
> successful?

I think it's hard for both me and my boss to predict this. We've had leads
trickle in, some qualified that didn't convert, but many that did not. I've
launched 3-4 campaigns all with different approaches for outbound email/cold
calling marketing to different avails. The latest campaign i'm more confident
about, but not so much so that I feel excited about taking a commission only
approach. 100% of our business to date has been on referrals and partnerships,
and the strategy i'm trying to implement is brand new to our organization, so
it takes time and failure...

Thank you again for the feedback.

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teovall
Between the two choices of resign or be let go, being let go is a much better
choice.

Say you quit because you have good expectations of finding a new job. What if
you're wrong and try for months and months and find nothing? Now you've run
through your savings (you do have savings, right?), don't have a job, and you
can't fall back on unemployment. What do you do then? You have to start
pawning your belongings, borrowing money, and looking at fast food or gas
station jobs just to get some income so you can eat and stay off the streets.

Now say you had been let go. You try looking for a job for a couple months on
your own, see that your chances are worse than you thought, and apply for
unemployment. Now, you're burning through your savings at a much slower rate.
Perhaps unemployment will be enough that you won't even need to burn savings
at all. You're still unemployed, but you're in a much better financial
situation and can keep your focus on finding a job, not stressing over where
your next meal will come from.

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wikwocket
One factor to consider is: what is your profession, and what does the market
for that profession look like where you now live.

For example if you are a developer who just moved to the Austin or Chicago
area, I would say, leave the company and look for new work. You could opt to
resign since you can probably easily find good work in 2-4 weeks. No one is
going to question a 1-2 month gap in a dev's employment, it's such a hot
market.

But if you are a salesperson, and just moved to a very rural area/where you
have no network, the advice might be different. Might be better to choose to
be fired so you have unemployment as a fallback. Or, if you are super
confident in your sales skills and can tolerate some income uncertainty, you
could negotiate for a large commission and stay where you are now.

All things being equal, your current gig is on life support, and you may not
be able to revive it. But it depends a lot on the particulars.

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logn
Ask your boss to summarize his choices for you in email. Print that email out
and send it to your personal email. That would be important documentation for
you to provide to an unemployment reviewer. Based on his three choices, you
have a valid unemployment claim. Resigning to save face is still a firing. And
quiting because your pay is reduced is still a reason to collect unemployment
in many states.

Also consider that many companies provide severance in the event of a firing.
Saving face by resigning might cost you thousands of dollars.

I'm not a lawyer.

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loumf
Your main issue is whether your current boss will be a good reference or not.
Secure that.

Then, all things being equal, take the unemployment. When looking for a job,
wanting to leave a remote position for something local is reasonable. Make
sure your boss will give a good recommendation that is consistent with
whatever way you want to describe your old situation.

If the fact is that in one year, you held a sales position and made $0 worth
of sales, then it doesn't matter if you quit or were fired -- you need to
explain that.

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JSeymourATL
You know that the current model isn't working, your boss simply articulated
it's time to move on. See if there's a win-win, ask if the company can give
you a severance package (say 2 weeks for each year accrued) if you leave
voluntarily. Everyone can save face and you'll have a financial cushion. As
for your job search-- it's a $17T economy, tons of opportunity out there for
Lead Gen, if you look for it.

