It's okay if it's not great. Mine's not, either, (although I never expected it to get like this.)

I keep freaking out about this and I've mentioned it in Natter and I know I maybe over reacting but I just feel like...damn at work I feel like I'm screwed no matter what. If sales fall and my commission doesn't cover my pay then all I get is my pay and I don't get any commission and I got into a deficit and don't make commission until I crawl out of that hole. If the store does something like close but gives us paid time for closing and I only get my hourly rate I'll be screwed. I did the math and unless I can get creative with non productive time (time spent doing things besides selling that are necessary) I'm looking at having a pay check that will be almost half of what I'm making now. Which won't be a lot.

It's just got me super anxious.

I don't blame you, that would make me anxious as well. Have you spoken to the powers that be about this? You just went back to commissions like 5 minutes ago, and wasn't part of the deal that commissions were going to be sufficient to make up the difference? Are they approachable?

I vaguely talked about it yesterday with our HR manager. I haven't worked a full week so I don't know what is going to happen but once I agreed on the hourly rate it was set until May when they can revisit it. So I can't change my hourly rate at all but if I could change my hourly rate to be higher it would mean I would go into a bigger deficit much faster and then in May they could switch my pay rate to lower but I would have to earn my way out of the deficit so I would still be stuck with the low pay.

I am going to work this week and see how it goes and I'm going to figure out who is covering the dept when I'm not there and talk to them about ringing sales of shoes under my numbers, well the ones who aren't commission .

I am not the only person who is on commission or who has just switched and I know that other people are going to be effected but right now it's just stressing me out on top of everything else.

PArt of this stress is brought to you by the fact my medicine costs me $250/month out of pocket until my deductible kicks in...which will be june this year I think

In non stressy work news....

but kind of work related. Last week (or the week before...) I was up visiting mom and I stopped by the old store and said hi. And the HR person there commented how much more relaxed and happy I looked than when I was there. And I realized it's true. that despite all the various stress-y things going on I am much more relaxed and happy than I have been in a long time.

That's really great to hear.

Askye, I'd talk about this very specifically with your manager and HR asap. It's maddening that so many Americans are in this kind of position.

I don't think there is any clear policy about what is going to happen if the store has to close. I did ask the HR manager about that and brought up Wal Mart's new emergency policy. the HR manager said he's heard "rumblings" of ideas but nothing concrete.

I really hope they are taking into consideration what will happen to commission employees if they have to be out of work for an extended period of time.

But I do need to talk about the schedule in general. I'm going to have 3 Sundays off in a row, which sounds nice, but Sundays are good sales days so I need to figure out if there is a way to work some of them. And men's shoes is slower than women's so this has been eye opening.

Yes, the thing to keep in mind is that all sorts of business may have blanket policies, but they are not built to account for this type of shutdown. So very specific questions are in order, and it is okay to not accept the standard policy. This is an exceptional situation. At minimum commission works should not be racking up a deficit in this situation.

They have policies in place now but they will have to make changes. Wal Mart, at least temporarily, changed their policy. I know people are already making less because of declining sales (between fewer people shopping and more aggressive mark downs and coupons to bring people in the store). They just recently change the policy when it comes to deficits. Last year if you were in deficit you stayed that way and had to work your way out. Now they changed it so every 3 months they look at where you are and drop your hourly rate to help you make commission and get out of the deficit.