Amazon seller: Employees caused the company to lose nearly 800,000 yuan, and its performance ranked last for three consecutive months!

In recent years, workplace disputes have frequently entered the public eye. What is more important than pursuing who is right and who is wrong is to find the best way for bosses and employees to get along with each other!

The relationship between boss and employees is like the two ends of a scale, which can easily lose balance if you are not careful.

Most of the time, employees complain about the various injustices they encounter in the company. With the popularization of legal awareness, more and more employees choose to use legal weapons to protect their own rights and interests. The proportion of labor disputes in arbitration cases has soared year by year.

In these disputes, each side has its own opinion, different interests, and different joys and sorrows.

Recently, there was an example of unbalanced labor relations in the cross-border e-commerce industry, and the boss said that the behavior of the resigned employee was "heartbreaking"!

The boss of this integrated industrial and trade business stated that during the 9 months that a certain employee was on the job , the account he operated was basically in a state of loss or non-profit, and his sales and gross profit were ranked last for three consecutive months. According to the evaluation system formulated by the company, those who failed to meet the standards in all aspects of the data were eliminated and automatically resigned.

However, the employee did not agree with the last-in-first-out system and the severance pay standards, which led to contradictions and conflicts!

The boss expressed the hope that through his own experience and narration, he could try to restore the whole story and prevent other cross-border e-commerce bosses from encountering the same problem in the future!

The author also hopes to further explore the deep-seated causes behind workplace disputes through the boss’s perspective. At the same time, during the current peak recruitment season, this article can serve as a guide for relevant personnel to avoid pitfalls.

The following is the boss’s own account!

"Employees spent a lot of money on advertising to promote products, causing the company to lose nearly 800,000 yuan"

I am a small seller among many companies in Shenzhen, the capital of cross-border e-commerce. Previously, I have been mainly running a factory. In 2019, I officially started to work on Amazon and recruit relevant employees.

On April 12, 2021, employee Liu joined the company and served as the Amazon operations team leader.

During the application process, the employee claimed to have 4 years of Amazon operation experience. At that time, considering the industry salary and personal situation, the base salary for him was 11,000 yuan. In addition to the base salary, the actual salary also includes commissions. Starting in 2022, the company implemented a team dividend system. Employees need to complete the corresponding assessment to get commissions and dividends, and the final income of each employee is different.

From April 2021 to January 26, 2022 , during the nearly 10 months that the employee was on the job , the accounts he operated were almost always in a state of loss or non-profitability.

When he first joined the company, this employee was spending a lot of money on advertising in order to make the sales data look better . At first, I didn't know what this employee was thinking. Later, I learned that the high sales data of this employee was just inflated, and his operational ability was very problematic.

In the process of promoting products, she spent very high advertising costs. As can be seen from the above figure, the employee 's sales in April 2021 were 9,058 yuan, and the advertising costs alone amounted to 7,163 yuan, accounting for 79.07% of the total.

In other words, the employee completely relied on advertising to earn sales. The data seemed impressive, but it barely made any profit for the company. Her crazy advertising spending also exploited the company's system loopholes. In the early stages of the employee's operation, I actually did not control the proportion of employees' advertising costs. I generally trusted the employees' operational capabilities and required them to reasonably control advertising expenses based on their own product data.

Therefore, during the operation process, as soon as the employee stopped investing in advertising, the traffic and conversion of the product also dropped significantly, from three to four hundred orders a day at the beginning to only a dozen or even a few orders a day. At that time, she had about three products in her hands , and each product used this quick-in and quick-out strategy.

When the product sales were very high, she asked me to stock up a large amount of stock. Although I am very knowledgeable about product development, I am not very good at operations. Seeing that the product sales were particularly high and I trusted my employees, I promoted the product she had as a hot seller. So I followed her advice and stocked up a large amount of inventory. Our company sells products in sets, and we stocked a lot of stock. The total value of the goods sent to the Amazon warehouse was nearly 800,000.

Later, as soon as the employee stopped advertising, product sales dropped sharply. The nearly 800,000 goods stranded in Amazon warehouses became a pile of dead inventory. In order to clear out these unsaleable products, the company not only had to clear out the inventory at a loss at a low price, but also had to destroy them.

It is worth noting that even after the employee had been employed for three months and the accounts she operated after the probation period were almost always losing money or not making money, the company still did not fire her. I had three main considerations at the time:

First, the epidemic was spreading rapidly in China at that time. Out of humanitarianism, the company understood that it was not easy for employees to find jobs during this period and still gave them a chance.

Second, during the period when the account operated by the employee was losing money, the company actually talked to her. The employee said at the time that she would work hard and improve her operational capabilities. I chose to believe her.

Third, the nature of the company is an integrated industry and trade company, and it is located in an industrial area. Commuting is inconvenient and it is difficult to recruit people. Under this background, the company is willing to give this employee another chance.

Who knew that this employee was so ungrateful and his subsequent actions were so chilling.

"I have been ranked last for three consecutive months. I have reached the company's elimination system but I did not resign automatically."

In order to better motivate employees at work and increase the income of Amazon operators, the company formulated two rules. Both of these systems were formulated while the employee was still in office.

The first is the last-in-first-out system. After this regulation came out, the company made it public in the WeChat group.

The elimination system stipulates that if an employee ranks last in sales and gross profit for three consecutive months and fails to meet the standards in all aspects, he/she will be eliminated and automatically resign. This system only applies to regular employees, and new employees who are still in the probation period will not be ranked according to their performance in the first three months.

At that time, all employees, including this employee, were aware of the company's evaluation system and had never raised any objections. I tacitly agreed that this employee accepted the company's elimination system.

After that, I also developed a dividend system for the Amazon team:

1. If the team's net profit reaches more than 200,000 yuan in the month, a team dividend will be issued at 10% of the net profit;

2. If the team's net profit for the month is less than 200,000, there will be no dividends;

3. For all store sales, if the gross profit for the month is negative, there will be no commission.

4. Net profit accounting standard: gross profit from sales - cost of unsaleable products and first leg - expenses attributable to the department - shared expenses.

It should be noted that this dividend is an additional reward for employees in addition to the basic salary and commission. I never make promises, and all dividends are paid out in the same month.

In January and February 2022, those with the highest rankings received more than 10,000 yuan more in dividends each month.

During his tenure, the employee did not receive any dividends. Instead, after the elimination system came out, the account he operated was still in a loss-making state for three consecutive months in November 2021, December 2021, and January 2022, and his average sales and gross profit ranked last for three consecutive months, as shown in the following figure:

According to the evaluation system established by the company, the employee met the criteria for voluntary resignation set by the company, so the company persuaded him to resign.

Generally speaking, when employees meet the elimination criteria, the company will ask the relevant employees to sign for confirmation. Although this employee met the last-in-first-out criteria, the company did not require him to sign because I always believed that employees had no objection to this rule and I trusted that employees would consciously abide by the "rules of the game" set by the company . However, this employee was not as I expected.

On January 26, 2022, our company’s human resources department found her and had a talk with her to persuade her to resign. In order not to affect the employee’s search for her next job, the company also clearly stated that it would issue a certificate that the employee had resigned voluntarily . However, she expressed her disapproval of the company’s last-in-first-out system, on the grounds that the company only announced such a message in the WeChat group and did not form a formal set of rules and regulations, and she herself did not sign this system, so in her opinion the company’s last-in-first-out system is not established.

The company further stated that according to the labor law, we would compensate her with an additional month’s salary. However, she did not agree to one month’s compensation and refused to sign the resignation letter. She only agreed to sign after being asked for two months’ compensation. Our company felt that two months’ compensation was beyond our compensation scope and not realistic. After all, this employee had not worked in the company for a full year, so she left the company without signing and applied for labor arbitration.

"Employees not only like to take advantage of loopholes, but also lie"

The employee stated that on January 26, 2022, a colleague who was temporarily in charge of human resources at the company suddenly notified her via WeChat to go to the finance office, and verbally expressed her intention to resign, asking her to go through the resignation procedures on the same day, and requiring her to sign a labor termination agreement that was inconsistent with the facts, and stated that she would not be paid if she did not sign it.

Therefore, the employee demanded a total compensation of 53,601.1 yuan from the company, including 9,904 yuan in arrears of wages from January 1 to 26, 2022, 9,904 yuan in overdue wage compensation, 14,000 yuan in economic compensation for termination of the labor contract, 14,000 yuan in economic compensation for not notifying the termination of the labor contract in advance, and 5,793.1 yuan in triple salary for paid annual leave.

I am shocked by these claims from employees, many of which are not true and are taking advantage of my trust in them.

First of all, the employee said that I owed her salary. I want to say that even when the employee caused great losses to the company, I did not deduct or delay the employee's salary. When she was about to leave, I had no reason to deliberately deduct her salary. The situation at the time was that after talking to the employee on January 26 without any results, she resigned on her own and left the company without signing. I thought she did not sign, so I planned to pay her salary after signing. The employees in our company are very clear that I never owe wages, dividends, etc. are paid in the same month, and the company's turnover rate is almost as low as 0. Although no matter how much I say, I can't change the fact that I did not pay wages on time, I still think it is not my fault alone. This employee is just taking advantage of the loophole. The latest situation is that last month, I paid her the salary for January 2022.

The employee also claimed that she demanded economic compensation of 14,000 yuan for one month's salary from the company . In fact, when she joined the company, the labor contract stated that the basic salary was 11,000 yuan. Commissions and dividends could only be received after completing a corresponding amount of tasks. She only received commissions in certain months, and her salary reached 14,000 yuan. However, she wrote that the overall salary was 14,000 yuan. This is a blatant lie and it makes people feel very disgusted.

This is the first time I have encountered such an operation in all the years I have run my company . I have always believed that once the rules are formulated , everyone will accept and approve them if they have no objections. Based on the principle of mutual trust, I did not explicitly stipulate the last-in-first-out system, which allowed employees with ulterior motives to take advantage of the loophole.

During the epidemic, the company itself was also struggling and faced the survival of the fittest. We also believe in social justice and fairness, more work, more pay, and as long as you work hard, you will get corresponding rewards. Her contribution to the company was completely inconsistent with the requirements, and she took advantage of my trust in her to find loopholes. This behavior is really chilling.

I know that I also did some things wrong in this whole thing, but many of this employee's actions are really unacceptable. I have hired a lawyer, and regardless of whether the outcome is a win or a loss, I don't want to let this employee's unreasonable demands succeed.

Now, I choose to publicly tell about my personal experience. Perhaps I will receive criticism and correction from many people, and perhaps some people will think that I "deserve it". No matter what the voice is, I will humbly accept it. I just want to warn everyone that you must be cautious and cautious again in hiring people, learn from my experience, find out the gaps and fill them, so as to avoid legal risks and prevent repeating the same mistakes I experienced.

At the same time, this incident also warned me that in the process of company operation, I should pay more attention to team management, take profit as the goal, and do a good job of cost control. Although I am the boss, I must have a certain degree of knowledge reserves in some key jobs such as operations, so that I can find and fill in the gaps.

More importantly, all actions must comply with legal norms. Only when one's own actions are perfect will there be no opportunity for individual employees who are incompetent but like to find loopholes to take advantage of.

Lawyer’s interpretation: Employees also need personal moral restraint

After this labor dispute occurred, Lawyer Wang also interpreted the whole matter.

Lawyer Wang said that some unreasonable demands raised by employees could definitely not be met, but the company must definitely meet some reasonable and legal basic demands raised by employees.

As for the issue of wage arrears, since the boss has already paid the employee's salary for January this year , there is actually not much controversy about this. The key point now lies in the definition of economic compensation.

Economic compensation refers to the compensation given to an employee in the form of money when an employer terminates or cancels the labor contract with the employee without any fault of the employee, in accordance with the conditions and standards prescribed by law.

In his appeal, the employee stated that the employer needs to notify the employee in writing thirty days in advance or pay the employee an additional month's salary before terminating the labor contract. I do not think these appeals are completely valid.

Because Amazon operations is a relatively special position, the salary structure consists of base salary and commission, which is different from the general labor contract specifications for a fixed monthly salary. This position stipulates the basic monthly task volume for employees. Generally speaking, if the corresponding requirements are not met, it means that the employee has not provided qualified labor.

This employee has been ranked last for three consecutive months and needs to resign according to the company's last-in-first-out rule. Legally, the last-in-first-out system set by the company is not legal, but from a moral perspective, Amazon operations are special positions. This employee has known about the company's last-in-first-out system and has not raised any objections, which means that she recognizes the company's system. Now the employee is doing this, which is controversial from a personal moral perspective.

Regarding this labor dispute, the final outcome has not yet been determined, and everything is subject to the final judgment.

In order to prevent similar incidents from happening again, Lawyer Wang also suggested that cross-border e-commerce bosses must ensure that everything they do complies with legal regulations and not give employees with ulterior motives any opportunity to take advantage of them.

Behind labor disputes, how can enterprises and employees get along with each other in a friendly manner?

When companies hire workers, there are all kinds of disputes hidden in many links. In addition to the personal experiences of the above-mentioned bosses, there are also a large number of cross-border bosses who "complain" about employee issues every day .

A boss said that he encountered a particularly ridiculous employee. He had a paid holiday for more than ten days during the Spring Festival. When the holiday was about to end, the employee resigned. Because he had worked from home for several hours, he asked the company to pay him double wages or he would sue. Coincidentally, another employee sent an email on February 6 saying that he was not suitable for the job. After the resignation was approved on the same day, he later asked the company to pay his salary until February 9, saying that it was a national regulation. He also sent a long list of documents that he had asked someone to write, and he would sue the company if the company did not pay.

In addition, the issue of women getting pregnant right after joining the company is often a problem that plagues companies. It is reported that a company once hired a new female employee who said she was pregnant less than a week after joining the company. She also told everyone in the office that she was pregnant and could not do heavy work. At this time, the company was in tears.

There are many similar things. With more labor disputes, employees are injured and companies are also hurt. For companies, not only do they have to bear economic losses, but the bosses are also physically and mentally exhausted, which affects the company's operation, management and development.

Behind labor disputes, both bosses and employees often feel wronged. At this time, how both parties can get along peacefully is particularly important. If we want to minimize labor disputes, we need not only legal constraints, but also employees' awareness of self-moral constraints. At the same time, business owners must "act in accordance with the law". Only when employees and bosses understand and trust each other can both parties achieve a win-win situation.

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