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I think our district manager is ripping us off... our phones were shut off for non-payment, and our computers have been down... Should I start looking for another job?

July 2005

Dear Office-Politics,

I work in a small, three-person office. Our manager is only the manager by default -- meaning he has seniority. He comes from a construction background, with zero management experience before this job. He accepts all orders from our district manger without question, and expects me to "respect his authority" when it comes to everything. Anytime I raise a question, I get the feeling he thinks I'm trying to undermine him. I do mostly outside sales, and have been told I'm doing an "excellent job" by my manager, and his boss, our district manager.

The issues I'm having are:

1) I haven't gotten back any money for my expenses in over a month. I didn't start asking any questions until about two weeks ago, and was told today by my manager, "If you keep asking about this, you're only going to cause problems for yourself." Should I perceive this as a threat? How do I handle this?

2) Because I'm out of the office most of the day, I get the feeling that our other office mate is getting "jealous" of my freedom, while she is stuck in the office. She's been subtly dropping hints that she'd like to do some field sales, something for which she was not hired. Now, we're going to be switching jobs because I've been raising questions about my mileage expenses.

3) I think our district manager is ripping us off of our commissions. I've been trying to determine for personal budgeting reasons how our commissions are calculated. I've gotten nothing but a brick wall everytime I've asked.

In addition to the above, our phones were shut off for non-payment for a day, and our computers have been down now for eight straight days.

Should I start looking for another job?

Walking Target

Yes.

Thanks for writing to Office-Politics.

Arnie Herz

Arnie Herz, Esq.
Author, LegalSanity
Attorney at Law