"Gratitude," Two-hour Meetings, and Problems with High-Pressure Sales Model in Rakuten
"What you guys are lacking is Gratitude," the sales manager lectured on, almost religiously, at the somber new grads keeping their eyes on the floor.
"The company pays you and feeds you even though you have not made any sales...your revenue-generating elder colleagues are eating sandwiches at their desks while you guys are lounging around the cafeteria for like an hour every day!" The manager continued at a mild, calm pace, sinking the new grads further into a bit of mild depression ...
Just another daily evening meeting here at Sales Development, the guys responsible for getting more shops to join the massive online shopping mall here at Rakuten.
Never mind the fact that a promised one-hour lunch break is coded in company regulations...and also never mind the fact that the Dept is openly violating the company regulations by refusing to pay overtime and weekends (even though most Sales Development personnel work longer and harder than the vast majority of employees in the company), it is need to make the employees feel SHAME, utter humiliation that one has not contributed that perhaps most clearly define what it means to be a at-the-bottom sales personnel at Rakuten.
And here I am, in the middle of this shame-feeling two hour meeting a week after shifting into the Dept from CEO Office. While everyone else fought to keep their sincere tears from flowing out, I was sitting there flabbergasted (perhaps even more at work than off work)...) than words such as this can actually be considered righteous and justifiable in a country (and a company, well at least in theory) believe in democracy, egalitarianism, and human rights...
Oh yeah, btw, I forgot to mention that the two-hour meeting I am referring to here did not even start as anything about the bad sales record of the new graduates. It was about correcting the mistakes made for a daily routine job of passing out daily reports to all members of the Dept in the morning. The guy who screwed up this morning had to bow repeatedly in front of the entire new grad class, promising, in tears, that the mistakes will not be repeated again.
His mistake? he forgot to remove a Post-it note on one of the daily reports he handed out. I mean, I am all for accuracy and preciseness when doing every basic task, but having the managers stare at you from the back of the room, looking as if they will stone you the next moment, could surely be an emotional scar (and one of many reasons for some serious mental backlash). Then, somehow this intense apology gave way to managers lecturing on the need to feel "gratitude" (and shame).
Then, the next morning, I participated in that daily routine of handing out daily reports for the first time. All the copies were present (no need for photocopying), all the maps are included (no need to find who and where to distribute each copy), and all the directions are written on the Post-it notes...and for some reason the managers assign a dozen new grads each day to take care of a task that can easily be finished by one person in less than 40 minutes.
Really, the underlying issue is not about the difficulty of the task, the gratitude, the shame, or the new grads not trying hard enough to get sales. Its all about motivation and interest. The ultimate downside of a company placing employees in random depts (especially a depressing place like sales) without considering the employee's desires is to take away their excitement and interest for the particular line of work to which they are assigned. And that is especially true if the line of work is something no one actually respects (like sales, lets be honest here).
Surprisingly, after talking to many people both inside and outside the company, I do occasionally meet some who would LOVE to do sales...I ask, why are they not hired and/or placed here in Sales Development to replace these new grads who have been making a 100 calls a day (literally) without any results for almost a year? And to point at the heart of the issue, does the company even have a right to decide the specialism and career of each employee, often against his/her will, simply as a result of a short-sighted thought of the HR manager? It is something the company need to seriously think about as it seeks to become more globally competitive....
"The company pays you and feeds you even though you have not made any sales...your revenue-generating elder colleagues are eating sandwiches at their desks while you guys are lounging around the cafeteria for like an hour every day!" The manager continued at a mild, calm pace, sinking the new grads further into a bit of mild depression ...
Just another daily evening meeting here at Sales Development, the guys responsible for getting more shops to join the massive online shopping mall here at Rakuten.
Never mind the fact that a promised one-hour lunch break is coded in company regulations...and also never mind the fact that the Dept is openly violating the company regulations by refusing to pay overtime and weekends (even though most Sales Development personnel work longer and harder than the vast majority of employees in the company), it is need to make the employees feel SHAME, utter humiliation that one has not contributed that perhaps most clearly define what it means to be a at-the-bottom sales personnel at Rakuten.
And here I am, in the middle of this shame-feeling two hour meeting a week after shifting into the Dept from CEO Office. While everyone else fought to keep their sincere tears from flowing out, I was sitting there flabbergasted (perhaps even more at work than off work)...) than words such as this can actually be considered righteous and justifiable in a country (and a company, well at least in theory) believe in democracy, egalitarianism, and human rights...
Oh yeah, btw, I forgot to mention that the two-hour meeting I am referring to here did not even start as anything about the bad sales record of the new graduates. It was about correcting the mistakes made for a daily routine job of passing out daily reports to all members of the Dept in the morning. The guy who screwed up this morning had to bow repeatedly in front of the entire new grad class, promising, in tears, that the mistakes will not be repeated again.
His mistake? he forgot to remove a Post-it note on one of the daily reports he handed out. I mean, I am all for accuracy and preciseness when doing every basic task, but having the managers stare at you from the back of the room, looking as if they will stone you the next moment, could surely be an emotional scar (and one of many reasons for some serious mental backlash). Then, somehow this intense apology gave way to managers lecturing on the need to feel "gratitude" (and shame).
Then, the next morning, I participated in that daily routine of handing out daily reports for the first time. All the copies were present (no need for photocopying), all the maps are included (no need to find who and where to distribute each copy), and all the directions are written on the Post-it notes...and for some reason the managers assign a dozen new grads each day to take care of a task that can easily be finished by one person in less than 40 minutes.
Really, the underlying issue is not about the difficulty of the task, the gratitude, the shame, or the new grads not trying hard enough to get sales. Its all about motivation and interest. The ultimate downside of a company placing employees in random depts (especially a depressing place like sales) without considering the employee's desires is to take away their excitement and interest for the particular line of work to which they are assigned. And that is especially true if the line of work is something no one actually respects (like sales, lets be honest here).
Surprisingly, after talking to many people both inside and outside the company, I do occasionally meet some who would LOVE to do sales...I ask, why are they not hired and/or placed here in Sales Development to replace these new grads who have been making a 100 calls a day (literally) without any results for almost a year? And to point at the heart of the issue, does the company even have a right to decide the specialism and career of each employee, often against his/her will, simply as a result of a short-sighted thought of the HR manager? It is something the company need to seriously think about as it seeks to become more globally competitive....
sadly, this is the way many companies operate.
ReplyDeleteindeed...
ReplyDeletetough SALES Dpt routine has begun..Take care of your mental health
ReplyDelete