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Employee A oversees a team responsible for $10 in revenue, Employee B (who reports to Employee A) is responsible for $3 of revenue on that team. Employee A & B work on a partnership and strike an agreement with a client that brings in $50 of revenue, well beyond all goals set forth and ever achieved for this particular team.
So basically, the employer has protected themselves and can cap payouts based on language from page 24 of an employer agreement with little recourse for the employees?
Yes, it was signed when hired
Oof. I'm glad my employer doesn't have such a clause. That being said, they want to move me from Sales Director with 5% uncapped commission to Business Development Director with flat salary.Yes, it was signed when hired
It's about the length of Tolstoy's War & Peace.
I assume I have my answer and there is nothing that can be done here? Maybe except plead our case to the powers that be and hope for the best outcome?
indeed. 
Salary/commission - it just appears there is a cap we were unaware of, prob bc nobody has ever gotten close to anything like this.
i think it is a common clause in commissioned jobs, but you likely never pressed up against the ceiling. how much we talking about you miss out on? bring it up on raise and bonus discussions.
I wouldn't just give up on it due to anything written here - definitely plead your case. In my experience, there are circumstances in which it makes sense for the employer to retain some control over commissions in extraordinary circumstances. A flat cap seems odd though, so I would take a hard look at the language in this contract clause. The real questions in this situation are, how much you did to actually bring in this work, how much you "own" this work (meaning, if you bolt, will it follow you), how much potential for future similar opportunities - essentially, how much leverage do you have and how willing are you to fight for a bigger cut?Yes, it was signed when hired
It's about the length of Tolstoy's War & Peace.
I assume I have my answer and there is nothing that can be done here? Maybe except plead our case to the powers that be and hope for the best outcome?
A lot of this is up for debate. IDK how much would be lost without us at this point, but with certainty, I can say a good amount of it would have been recognized with lesser employees at the helm.
Agreement is basically non-cancelable. They know we aren't walking either, we're getting paid nicely (just not as much as we anticipated), it's just bull#### that some footnote buried in an agreement signed years ago is being held against great work. We are still early in this phase of negotiation, and my hope is they will do the right thing.
There are better ways around it than just capping it. For one you can stagger the commisson over the life of the contract/sale.
This same thing happened to a buddy of mine years ago. He landed the Costco meat account only to find out that his commission was capped. Pretty chitty. Sorry gb. Hopefully your company does the right thing or you could be heading down the street some day with your new account I am sure.
Interesting. All the windfall/bluebird clauses I've ever dealt with address commission compensation that comes in that is expressly not due to the efforts of the sales rep. You're talking about what sounds like more of a hard cap in a situation where you decidedly did earn the commission. Windfall clauses are hardly ever invoked and I've never heard of anything like what you've described in 21+ years. But if they followed the agreement as written, it's probably enforceable.
We did not expect anything close to what came in. As a company, we're pretty solid about predicting revenue, and when a team has a surprise, it usually isn't of this magnitude. Regardless, this is a discussion that is now funneling up the chain.
Yeah, but you're not describing a bluebird clause scenario. The typical clause limits comp where some longstanding customer, for reasons having nothing to do with any sales rep and usually internal to the customer, submits some huge order out of the blue.
I used to see this a lot when I worked for a large software company during the dot com boom. Multiple 24, 25, 26 year old reps closing deals that had them due $3M-$6M in commissions. The company would cap it, employees would quit and sue, usually a settlement was reached I think.Brunell4MVP said:
No offense but why in the world do you think the company will do anything? They put the language in the employment agreement precisely for the scenario that is unfolding.fantasycurse42 said:
Because they run the risk of losing their better sales reps? Nothing a customer that increases their business loves more than having the sales team they are familiar with get replaced by tight-pantsed muppet-haired millenials at their next meeting.
