Techs on Commission?

An Anonymous Coward asks: "I've started seeing something over the last year in my local area - technicians at local service companies working on a base salary + commission basis. To me this would seem like a pretty sorry way of getting paid (if you're not a good salesman like some techs you don't get a big commission or the sales staff can screw the tech by giving the customer a Good Deal TM). My employer is not doing this currently but like any pointy haired boss fad I'm sure it will eventually be considered. Any one out there have any experience with this (as in does it work out good, does it cause high turn over, etc)?" The largest problem with this is that such a system is highly prone to abuse. I would think that lowering the average salary would also lower the incentive to do as good a job except on the most costly of repairs, while machines needing regular maintenance would lag in the queue. How do you all feel about such a system, especially those of you who may have just such a job?

From a consumer point of view

[gss]

I tend not to give my business to companies that have their employees work on commision. They tend to be more high presure or try to upsell where as a salaried employee will typically try and give you what you need and nothing more.

Of course it's sometimes hard to avoid commision.

I worked like this, made good money

[Anonymous Coward]

I worked with a bonus plan which was base pay + (insanely stupid calculation which proves your profitable). If you had enough billable hours in a quarter ever hour above that resulted in significant increase in the bonus. Enough so I made about 1/3rd more than I would have without the plan. (Note: My employer did not drop the pay to add the plan, they added the plan because their pay was already in the toilet).

On the other hand, a co-worker of mine worked her ass off and because of the rate at which her hours were billed she made nothing off the bonus plan. (As to why her billing rate was so low, I can't and won't get into it, but suffice it to say it is hard to motivate somebody if you keep smacking them with a stick when they do a good job)

Commission isn't always what you think it is...

[Anonymous Coward]

...for example, my payslip has a "commission" figure, but it's not directly derived from my personal performance but from the overall group. If the group only gets half the monthly target, I only get half my agreed monthly commission. If we do double, well... I'll let you work it out.

Usually, this is worth about 6% more than the numbers would imply, but I suspect things will be down a little this year. Must remember to bear that in mind during my next review!