Expectations Outside of your Role

*This app won't let me scroll to add a closing remark at the bottom so I'm staying here:  This post is to get the Bravado network's thoughts on how to balance the extra expectations that come with sales roles at progressive companies.*

Context:
I'm almost one year at a new company (large software company) and although this is my 3rd corporate sales job, I'm blown away by the expectations they have of me outside of my actual sales role.

I'm talking about employee obligations from a compliance and/or culture perspective.

I've never seen so many required compliance trainings and development trainings that are on demand tagged with a due date on your HR profile. For example, I have 40 hours with of training to complete by end of Feb without ability to work over time.

We are also encouraged to get involved in internal community groups, volunteer with our partner charity orgs, do stretch projects outside of our role - and these "contributions" are considered in our performance review discussions with management alongside our sales metrics. 
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11
funcoupons
WR Officer
8
👑
Yeah, some organizations are like this...they want people drinking the Kool-Aid super hard. It's a total pain the ass for anyone with a quota. 

My advice is to do the bare minimum (training) and keep producing. Even if they don't like that you didn't join the company book club or attend at least 8/10 happy hours, they can't punish you if you're a top producer. If you want to move to a leadership role eventually you'll have to suck it up and participate in some of this shit to please the higher ups. 

Personally, I'd rather be locked in a room with 100 LinkedIn influencers before having to pretend to be into lame company shit for years so I wouldn't care about moving up, but you do you.
CoorsKing
WR Officer
3
Retired King of the Coors Knights
That sounds similar to
my company. And it doesn’t end, we have new mandatory training every quarter. It’s annoying as hell and they spam our manager with emails if we miss a deadline
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
🦊
Brainshark is my nemesis at the moment. Super behind. 
FormerStartupJobHopper
Tycoon
2
AE
Yeah I mean agreed with coups as (almost) always. If its really worth it for you pay wise to stick around, do the least you can get away with with that shit and keep crushing it. That'd drive me crazy lol
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
The compliance training that is mandatory at some companies can be very long.  Much of it is only required every 2 years, so once you're done, HR should leave you alone for a while.

And +1 as well for what coups said.   Besides the mandatory trainings, the rest is mostly noise.  Only do what you want to do and just put your head down and blow out your number.    There's only so much time in a day, and much of it I want to spend away from work.
nemix
Politicker
1
SDR
It's always a weird conversation because I'm black, so companies think i automatically wanna join there "cultural" groups. Yeah no thanks my guy lol
ChrisSellsHisSoul
Fire Starter
1
Owner
Book clubs and diversity trainings mostly exist so bosses can feel like they've checked a box. Obviously there's no problems with culture here. We paid for a training!

The irony is that these programs are usually designed by white people to help other white people feel better about themselves.

Black sales reps don't need to spend hours listening to someone explain to them what a microaggression is.
Phillip_J_Fry
Opinionated
0
Director of Revenue
I'd talk with your peers and see if they have completed them. I've been in a couple companies with 100's of "trainings" that had completion dates attached. 


No one did any past the first 10 or so and never looked at them again.
Jewcan_Sam81
Politicker
0
Account Executive
I’m a huge believer in what I consider to be the golden rule: don’t do anyone else’s job. You won’t get paid for it, and rarely do you get ahead because of it. Crush your numbers, that’s proof enough of your amazingness
Beans
Big Shot
0
Enterprise Account Executive
fOR ThE CUlTurE~~
FinanceEngineer
Politicker
0
Sr Director, sales and partnerships
This tends to happen with larger corporations all of the time. It happens, but the sales team tends to be a little more flexible on it.
ChrisSellsHisSoul
Fire Starter
0
Owner
Avoid the book club if you can. 

They will say that culture is just as important as your quota, but they will be way angrier at you for missing quota than they will for missing book club discussion hour.
godpull54
Praised Answer
-1
PDR
That's the company culture you signed up for. I defiantly recommend taking a closer look at a companies values/culture before accepting an offer in the future. This is one of the most overlooked aspects of starting a new job and It can definitely come back and bite you. My current position values a work life balance and they've stated that once I leave work they don't want me to worry about anything work related. I am however expected to be hyper focused while at work. I like the culture here. 
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