Okay, so I work as an advertisement sales executive/receptionist for a small town newspaper and have done for two and a half years now.
Duties include the following - dealing with customers who want to book adverts over the counter or by telephone, securing at least one advertising feature per week (3 adverts from a similar field of interest I.e. Garages, with editorial), and handling one specific section of the paper.
When I first started, I was in the busier main office. There were 4 of us out the front and we were usually always busy. Mostly with things like birth announcements, death notices, classifieds etc.
I was on the tradesman section, had about 20 regular customers to deal with every week, and a target of £400 pounds (anything after that you get a 5% bonus on + £5 for hitting target... It's not a lot, but it's something, and when your only on minimum wage you appreciate it).
Features were hard from the beginning, because sometimes you'd be down to do ridiculous things like 'focus on fishing'... And once the three fish bait shops in the area have said 'no thanks' to you trying to con them out of £50, there's not much left to you... So you have to think up another one!
And if you fail? Well it's not good enough. Someone with a clipboard is standng behind you breathing down your neck, huffing and telling you to keep trying. It's a horrible feeling that only goes away once you get that third yes.
Well let me tell you, after 2 and a half years of doing that every week, I HATE getting a new feature list. Sometimes i look at it and all I can see is 'well that's not going to go, that's not going to go' etc. And it keeps you awake at night sometimes worrying about it.
Well, things got worse when the general manager quit and we got a new boss.
She switched me to the situations vacant section. After a recession. When there were no jobs... And then my target was bumped up to £1000.
I did not make a bonus at all for weeks. She had a meeting with me suggesting I should give up my second job as she was worried it was effecting my performance.
A week later, she made it so that any adverts coming in through agencies would not count towards my target! So I was able to make even less!
A couple of months after that, the woman in the small office in town had a heart attack at work. My boss was so worried about the company being in trouble if anything happened to her while in the office on her own that she decided one of us 4 sales people had to go work from that office.
Muggins here was chosen.
And a whole new set of rules to suit this other woman where layed out. I was now no longer allowed to put anything I took over the counter towards my target... It ALL goes on hers. I do the work, SHE makes a bonus.
All I can put towards my target is my feature and the few jobs adds that come in.
And all day every day, I have to spend with this miserable old woman, who does not get up off her arse if she can help it cause she knows she gets the money for it anyway!
And the people in the main office, now split all of the over the counter ads between just three of them, so they get more money as well.
So figures wise, it looks like every single sales person but me makes the company money and works hard, but I do nothing.
I have tried having meetings with my ad managers about it. But they just say they'll 'do what they can' and it never changes.
Apparently though, they don't seem to care.
Since being disregarded and shoved into this office I've pretty much been left to my own devices. The old woman doesn't care what I do. She mostly just reads her paper anyway. And so I bought a blackberry, and I sit here talking to you guys all day
But this office, because it is in town, is crazy person/complaint central. Irate people moaning because their FREE advert hasn't been in yet, or because the picture they wanted next to their son wasn't zoomed in enough etc. Or old people that don't listen when you say your not the journalist and decide to tell you their life story and you just have to stand their smiling patiently until they finish.
I'm on my own in the office at the moment a lot because the old lady is in hospital, and I literally feel like I'm going mad.
I'm in an old building that's falling apart. It's freezing cold and the toilets are disgusting. We don't have hot water, we have a microwave that was full of mold the first time I went to use it a year ago, and a kettle I've never dared touch. And I spend half my dad wishing someone, anyone would come in and book an advert, and the other half wishing people would just go away with their crazy stories about their prize winning carrot.
Oh and today is a prime example of the 'no feature' feeling. Tried one feature, everyone said no. Tried another, everyone said no. I now have only this afternoon and tomorrow to try another one and get it to go or I will be scolded over the phone and my ad manager will be told to crack the whip with me next week (which means him visiting me all the time in the office to say 'how many have you got now?
Wish me luck!
t: 
