Daft_3PO

Enterprise BD

Valued Contributor

What should I say? Boss using: "We are still a startup" as an excuse for not paying me on-time for the past 4 quarterly payments.

tl;dr is the title.

Company has consistently not paid me on-time for quarterly commissions for the past 4 quarters and today when it didn't show up in my paycheck, I asked my boss very professionally what I could do to help instill some processes around getting commission communicated and paid-out in a consistent manner because it was adding unnecessary stress to my life. His response after accounting simply "missed" it this paycheck (already a month late) was an email with a single line: "We are still a startup"... and it left me flabbergasted.

Our company is in series C, just raised $150M, and you're telling me because we are technically a "start-up" it's an excuse for not paying sales reps their earned commission on-time?

We have a 1:1 later today and I need some ideas on how to approach it without a screaming match ensuing, I've been good about not exploding at work, but I can feel the pressure building.

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35 comments

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

14

🦊

Fuck you pay me. End of story.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

4

Sales Rep

Goodfellas type of mentality

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

I mean, it totally works for this situation.

Daft_3PO

Valued Contributor

0

Enterprise BD

Yeah, it's utter bullshit

Sunbunny31

Politicker

13

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Never mess with someone's pay. Never.

Not a good look, and there are no excuses.

Daft_3PO

Valued Contributor

3

Enterprise BD

That was my first thought, there's no excuse and using our company being a startup as an excuse is just disrespectful to my intelligence thinking I'll just be like, "okay that makes sense, thanks boss!"

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Believe it or not, I first heard "never mess with someone's pay" from HR. A horrified HR person dealing with a mistake, and determined to rectify it instantly.

Filth

Politicker

8

Live Filthy or Die Clean

Turn it around on them - if you were to fall short at your job over and over again and tell them, "Hey, we're just a start-up..." would they accept that as a legitimate excuse? Hell no, you expect the same respect in turn. If they get the money right they have no business running a company let alone, your time and sweat.

Sharpen the resume, look at your competitors, and if the 1:1 doesn't go right go full time job hunt and let your day to day responsibilities fall by the wayside the same way they let your money slip.

Turn around is fair play brother.

butwhy

Politicker

7

Solutions Engineer

OMG Series C?! And pulling this bullshit?!

nonononononono - this is incredibly not ok. It is time to buckle up and push the nuclear button. Document EVERYTHING, get the hell out of there, and name names on the internet so that no one else gets scammed. Or maybe grab a lawyer. Or maybe reach out to the VCs funding, but this is way too late of a stage of a company to be pulling this.

Daft_3PO

Valued Contributor

0

Enterprise BD

I mean is it ever a valid excuse? Them not paying me on-time once is a mistake, them not paying me on-time every single time is just silly.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

6

Bravado's Resident Asshole

"give me my money or I'm gone?"

Daft_3PO

Valued Contributor

0

Enterprise BD

Yeah, I wish I could say that!

jefe

Arsonist

4

🍁

That's no excuse, but tbh there is no excuse.

Daft_3PO

Valued Contributor

1

Enterprise BD

Yeah, it's insulting tbh.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

4

Sales Rep

Its likely not your manager making the decision on sending the quarterly check later its someone else, so they will lead with that. This worst thing is your manager probably cant solve it either

I would start asking questions about how they just raised 150m are they already blowing through it. He will answer no, so then get the real why the payments are delayed if cash flow is good?

End with saying you budget based on getting paid on time, I plan on buying *expensive gift* for someone's birthday and didnt because I didnt got paid late. Or someother bs story about why you need it to be on time

bja009

Politicker

4

Enterprise AE

I had a similar scenario play out last month, so I went on strike.
We have unlimited PTO so I put up an OOO response, and told my boss I'm taking time off and to let me know when commission was ready to be paid out so I could end my time off and get back to work.
I still work there, they think things are peachy now, but my ass is gone ASAP. *Yours should be too.* No matter how the 1:1 goes, this is a pattern and it's not gonna spontaneously fix itself.

Champagnemami

Executive

0

AE

fuck yeah, good for you for doing that!

whatsquota

4

Enterprise AE

Play nice and start to document everything, get the pay cycles in writing, looks like they already owned up to not paying you so also get in writing if you haven’t. Get them to admit fault. Next start your job hunt so you have a back up plan in place. In about 2 months if they miss pay again you will have a legal case to stand on, essentially a breach of contract and you will have your next role ready to go. Put power back in your hands, play it cool build a case then unload if they don’t play nice. Good luck!! Let us know how it goes

mdawg

Member

3

VP of Sales

I once had an employee that was not paid commission owed in her paycheck. I went to HR and they rectified it with a one-off payment immediately. Don’t accept that it will be processed in the next pay period….that is unacceptable!

DevSomeBiz

Valued Contributor

2

Senior B2B Sales Guy.

Do you have pay cycles in writing?

Daft_3PO

Valued Contributor

0

Enterprise BD

Not explicitly, but in my OTE plan it states they're basing it off quarterly performance. I need to get a process setup to avoid this in the future.

DevSomeBiz

Valued Contributor

2

Senior B2B Sales Guy.

You need to get that in writing, or you don’t have a leg to stand on. I would redline the comp plan and bring it to the boss.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

2

Rolling 20's all day

Such a copout. At that point you're not a startup anymore. I'd be looking around if someone fucks with my pay.

GDO

Politicker

2

BDM

Not paying on time is never ok. NEVER

FoodForSales

Politicker

2

AE

good luck. Be ready to walk to a lawyer office!

WholesomeGuy95

Good Citizen

2

Area Sales Manager

This is incredibly inappropriate and if any of the reps who I manage got upset at me for this then I would absolutely understand.

Do you think your boss gets paid late too? I would begin the conversation by expressing your concern and then asking for advice on how to handle it, as it won't be the only time you encounter this in your sales career (hate to say that).

The conversation might end up being more amicable, you can learn something about your company's payment process that you didn't know, and who knows? Your boss might actually have some good insights.

Whatever you do, I would avoid giving any ultimatums like "if this happens again then I'm gone"...tensions will ramp up real fast and the odds that you'll get them to invest in fixing the problem will be lower.

Just my thoughts. Good luck!!!

PineappleYa

Opinionated

1

AE

There are laws for this -Depending how aggro you want to be you can say hey A basic expectation and right is timely payment. If needed I can open up a case with the state?

thedue

Valued Contributor

1

VP of Sales

For reference, AP can always bump a cheque out the door, especially, when they are a small, start-up company, without all the rigour and constraints.

Be fact-based.

This is important, because of this lifetime commitment. I am basing the commish as part of my yearly OTE, and now, this is causing me to..... carry a loan, differ something important...

If you go nuclear, you can get legal or someone to draft a letter that may help to get you paid, sad part is, it will be your last pay from that company and hard to come back from.

Slipshot007

Executive

1

Director of New Business Development

Uh.... do you work at Uber corporate? Time to pull the ripcord.

TheDinosaur

1

National Sales Manager

When cash flow is slow in a start up ... execs at the TOP should get paid last. So the first question in any discussion should be how far down the chain of command are individuals also NOT getting paid ...

Then you should ask "... How much interest is accruing on my unpaid income? ..."

At some point the execs need to share enough info regarding THEIR cash flow projections so you can decide if its worth staying. This time THEY NEED TO CONVINCE YOU!

MoneyBag

Executive

1

CRO

Based on your comments it seems that there's not a written policy on your pay and its timing. If there is a stated policy and they're in violation of that, then major FOUL. Go to your boss, be professional but firm. Going to HR with a complaint could stoke the fire as well. In the meantime, figure out plan B...as a general rule you should always be looking so you're never caught flat footed.

CorporateSis

Contributor

1

Account Executive

That stinks! Is the pay at least good when it comes? No business should be in business if they can't pay their employees on time.

And indeed, play the reverse game. And start to look out for something else.

Champagnemami

Executive

1

AE

im calling bullshit on this exec's excuse

ngtr

Contributor

1

Sales

And I still need a roof over my head and food in my stomach. that's a bullshit excuse.

It's insane how the company doesn't think of the aftermath of messing with people's money. If the issue happens on a large scale and drags on for a long time, people will end up leaving. It takes time to recruit, train new peeps. It takes time for the new peeps to actually perform. His "startup" will soon end up in the graveyard. Every business is people business.

Singularity

Fire Starter

1

Consultant, former CRO

you should leave. Dysfunction like that does fix easily.

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