This installment of Employees Behaving Badly is a little different, in that this time the Career Limiting Decision isn’t one of mine!

Here’s the thing about working on commission: You’re on commission! While being on straight salary means that you get paid the same no matter what, on commission you’ve actually got to, you know, sell stuff.

That would seem obvious, but apparently not to everyone.

Years ago I hired a salesman who came from outside the industry. I hired him because in the interview he demonstrated traits that I thought would make him successful, including tenacity.

Unfortunately I learned he was tenacious about all the wrong things.

After a month on the job he started complaining about his paycheck.

My response was consistent with my outlook: “Sell more.” I told him.

What happened next took me by surprise.

He started faxing photocopies of his paystubs to, not my boss, but my boss’s boss at the regional office in Vancouver.

Amended to the faxes were whiny personal notes letting the Western Canadian regional manager know “I can’t work under these conditions.”

The first I learned of this was when my regional calls me and “Who is this guy? Is he a comedian?”

He was still on his probationary period, so I let him go, but that still wasn’t the end of him.

He proceeded to call me every day for the next week to find out if I had processed his termination paperwork to HR and when his final paycheque would be.

Tenacity: It’s not always a positive attribute.