1. They Encourage Unproductive Competition and Short-term Outcomes:
Competition in the workplace creates unhealthy and unproductive rivalries between coworkers that often result in workers resenting each other. Adam Hollander, the founder of FantasySalesTeam, wrote about his unfortunate sales competition experience on his blog. He recalled a time in which the CEO of the company he was working for announced a new program. The first employee to meet the $275,000 sales goal would receive a $20,000 bonus. Although excited at first, the sales representatives at the bottom of the performance ladder gave up within a few days. After six weeks, half of the employees had dropped out of the competition and went back to performing at the status quo. Three months later, only three salesmen, all leaders in the field whom won numerous competitions in the past, were still in the running (Hollander). The CEO, focused only on short-term outcomes, caused unproductive and unnecessary coworker rivalry, which in the end did little to increase profits.
Competition also creates stress that proves to be counterproductive to worker 's sales efforts. Because most people do not perform well under pressure, salespeople are actually more productive when their work environment is …show more content…
In fact, many commission salespeople are not even paid hourly for overtime. Because commission-only workers do not always sell enough to generate sufficient incomes, there have been many lawsuits to fight for salespeople’s right to a living wage. For instance in 2013, Nordstrom Inc. agreed to a $7.65 million settlement on behalf of commissioned sales workers. They accused the retailer of violating state minimum wage laws. A former Nordstrom employee, Gino Maraventano, filed the lawsuit in 2010. He alleged that Nordstrom did not pay commissioned sales workers minimum wage for time spent before and after the stores ' official opening and closing times
Competition in the workplace creates unhealthy and unproductive rivalries between coworkers that often result in workers resenting each other. Adam Hollander, the founder of FantasySalesTeam, wrote about his unfortunate sales competition experience on his blog. He recalled a time in which the CEO of the company he was working for announced a new program. The first employee to meet the $275,000 sales goal would receive a $20,000 bonus. Although excited at first, the sales representatives at the bottom of the performance ladder gave up within a few days. After six weeks, half of the employees had dropped out of the competition and went back to performing at the status quo. Three months later, only three salesmen, all leaders in the field whom won numerous competitions in the past, were still in the running (Hollander). The CEO, focused only on short-term outcomes, caused unproductive and unnecessary coworker rivalry, which in the end did little to increase profits.
Competition also creates stress that proves to be counterproductive to worker 's sales efforts. Because most people do not perform well under pressure, salespeople are actually more productive when their work environment is …show more content…
In fact, many commission salespeople are not even paid hourly for overtime. Because commission-only workers do not always sell enough to generate sufficient incomes, there have been many lawsuits to fight for salespeople’s right to a living wage. For instance in 2013, Nordstrom Inc. agreed to a $7.65 million settlement on behalf of commissioned sales workers. They accused the retailer of violating state minimum wage laws. A former Nordstrom employee, Gino Maraventano, filed the lawsuit in 2010. He alleged that Nordstrom did not pay commissioned sales workers minimum wage for time spent before and after the stores ' official opening and closing times