reply to post by 2manyquestions
I realize I'm a little late to the party, but I'm so infuriated by the ignorance displayed here I felt I needed to comment. The originator of this
post states that they learned of mag crews only an hour before, then goes on to make generalized comments about an entire industry. It's a simple
fact that people are more likely to report negative experiences rather than positive or neutral experiences, because the negative come from a more
emotionally charged place. Did any of you ever think to look at the other side of the story
One of these "monster" managers happens to be my husband. We've been off the road almost five years now. I'm a full time college student and
mother to two beautiful children. He's worked his way up from salesman to finance manager at a car dealership, and brings home 6 figures. We own
our home and pay our taxes. None of this would have been possible if not for magazines.
Was it inappropriate that he had a romantic relationship with subordinate in the workplace? Yes. Does it happen in offices all over the world
everyday? YES!
Selling magazines is a job and you are expected to do your job everyday. It's a commission based job, so if you don't sell anything, you don't get
paid. (Same as selling cars when my husband sold cars there would be weeks we lived off $200) It's not easy, it's not for everyone, and just like
anywhere else there are unsavory characters involved. I believe the reason that there seems to be so much corruption in field selling is simply
because of the long hours and travel, the people that stick around are the ones that don't have much to go home to. They corrupt the business, the
business doesn't corrupt them. For example, I came from a very unhappy middle class home. I rebelled, did drugs, and was shunned. Had I not gone
on mag crew immediately after rehab, I would have most likely fallen back into drugs. My husband came from a very poor family and had also had issues
with drugs. He dropped out of high school and probably never would have learned to sell without crew.
My first week on crew, three people were fired. Two for doing meth, one for lying to customers. Hard drugs were simply not tolerated. Smoking pot
and drinking were, however they were never to be done in the hotel or in excess. You would be fired on the spot if it was discovered that you were
telling anyone that you were affiliated with any school or fund raising organization. You would also be fired for stealing. The contest is real, I
came in third place and first place my second and final contest.
I saw a sales agent slapped once by another manager (not my husband). While the manager obviously reacted inappropriately, the agent was putting his
reputation at stake by smoking weed in a hotel room the manager had paid for. I never liked this manager and wouldn't be surprised if he was
involved in some of the other horror stories you find here and on other websites, but that's really the worst abuse I ever saw. No one was ever
beaten or stranded anywhere. We did ask that since we paid for the ticket out and paid for your meals while in training that you give the job a
chance for two weeks, but at the end of that period you were dropped off at the bus station with a paid ticket; no questions asked and no hard
feelings.
I do remember at one point we ran into another crew and some of them asked us for help. Three or four of them ended up coming over to our crew and it
was obvious that where they came from was terrible. At least one of them hadn't been home for years. They didn't last long because they had been
lied to and cheated for so long they didn't know how to do anything else.
I just want to put out there that the whole business isn't evil. There are plenty of decent people out there and for every horror story, there's at
least one success story.
If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them
