Working for free during the Spring Festival, basic wages forced to drop, a large number of sellers spend the New Year with "nothings"

The countdown to the 2023 Spring Festival has begun. Many cross-border people have finished work and returned home to wait for the New Year, while some people are still sticking to their posts and fighting at the forefront of Amazon's operations.

After a year of hard work, it is a great time to enjoy the joy of harvest and warmly welcome the Spring Festival. However, some sellers were "debt-drained" by the company several times at the end of the year, making this Spring Festival quite bitter.

Recently, a seller reported in a forum that his boss’s wife asked him to reduce his base salary from 7,000 to 5,600. If he did not agree, he would probably have to pack up and leave.

It was learned that when the seller was converted to a regular employee, the company refused to pay for his social security because it disliked that his base salary was higher than other employees. When his performance improved and he began to receive commissions, the shipping fee was deducted from the money he received. Not only that, the commission was changed from monthly to quarterly and then to annual, and the commission points became half of other employees, unless the seller was willing to voluntarily reduce his base salary to 4,000.

"An Amazon operator who came in before me has only been receiving commission once a year. I suddenly felt that the routine was very deep. The boss's routine was to lure people in first, and then be very attentive when they first join the company, and communicate frequently about how to do Amazon. But after they succeeded, they would be benched and wouldn't even glance at you for months." The seller said helplessly.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

Many sellers have experienced similar salary reduction incidents:

"My case is even more outrageous. The cost is quoted high, and the first leg is also quoted high. These bosses hold all the profits in their hands. The sales are hundreds of thousands of dollars every month, and in the end, based on his cost, he just breaks even."

"My colleague originally made 60,000 yuan in profit, but after deducting the commission for his share, he owed the company 500 or 600 yuan."

"Yesterday my boss came to me and told me that he wanted to reduce my salary by 20%, and the commission rate would also be reduced. Not only that, the commission rate can only be increased based on the increase in the previous year. This means that my future income is basically fixed, and it will be difficult to get the commission rate."

In addition to the year-end salary cuts, some sellers are forced to go to work as usual during holidays and work without pay.

The seller said that the company had a 21-day holiday starting on January 10. However, the paid annual leave was only three days, and there was no year-end bonus, holiday allowance, or New Year's goods. Even the salary payment had to be delayed until New Year's Eve. Not only that, because the new product the seller was responsible for had just been launched, he had to work from home for free and report the product performance to his boss every day.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet

The seller couldn't help but say angrily: "The benefits I was told during the interview have not been realized. The wages of factory workers have even been reduced, and many people are saying they won't come back after the New Year."

Many people with "three nothings" feel the same pain. One seller said: "The holiday started on the 14th, 18 days off, seven days paid, no year-end bonus, annual meeting, holiday gifts, and even in January, because there were too few working days, the HR department notified everyone that their performance was 0."

Judging from the feedback from sellers, the end of the year should be a harvest season, but many companies have seen a reduction in basic salaries, "three-no" New Year's Eve, and free overtime. The root cause is that due to the sluggish environment in 2022, shrinking orders and declining profits have become a common pain point for small and medium-sized companies, resulting in a decline in employee benefits.

It is not just small and medium-sized companies, employees of large-scale sales companies may not be able to rest easy. It has been reported before that an employee of a large-scale sales company criticized the company's system, not only changing the two-day weekend to a single day off, but also delaying the payment of performance bonuses and suspending welfare benefits, and only giving them 5 days of annual leave, and having to make up for the holiday.

But people do not share the same joys and sorrows. In comparison, the big sellers with thriving performance are generous. Anker spent 1.5 billion to buy houses in Shenzhen to improve the office environment for employees, and Jihong shares spent 100 million in cash to distribute dividends to its shareholders. Now Lejia shares also waved its hand and provided 10 million in housing subsidies to its employees.

In June last year, Leckey launched an internal policy to provide financial assistance to employees for purchasing houses, namely, setting up an interest-free loan pool for purchasing houses with a total amount of RMB 3 million. After the amount is used up, the loans returned by employees and the unused amount will be recycled for subsequent loan applications for purchasing houses by company employees.

It is reported that this policy applies to employees who have signed labor contracts with Lechuang and have served the company and its branches and subsidiaries (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas companies) for 1 year or more. The company's directors, supervisors, senior management, actual controllers, shareholders holding more than 5% of the company's shares and their affiliates are excluded.

Now it is the 2023 Lunar New Year, and Lechuang has once again issued an announcement. In order to reduce the burden of employees buying houses, motivate employees' work enthusiasm, and improve the company's employee welfare system to better retain talents, Lechuang plans to adjust the interest-free loan pool for employees to buy houses from 3 million yuan to 10 million yuan. The disbursement of employee housing loans must be within the budget of this fund pool. Applications that exceed the budget must wait until the employee's loan is repaid before they can be borrowed again.

▲ The picture comes from the announcement of Lechuang Holdings

According to the regulations, only those with excellent work performance, excellent performance evaluation within the team, and special talents who have been assessed to have made significant contributions to the company are eligible for loans. The highest loan amount that a borrower can enjoy is determined by his or her total annual salary (excluding overtime pay).

It is understood that in the first three quarters of 2022, Lechuang achieved revenue of 2.312 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.10%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 158 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.12%.

▲ The picture comes from the announcement of Lechuang Holdings

With the steady growth of performance, Lechuang's internal employee benefits are also constantly improving. Not long ago, Lechuang's chairman announced that he would spend 60 million yuan to improve employee meals. In July last year, he took out nearly 30 million yuan in equity incentives for employees, and even spent 3 million yuan to recruit senior executives. The successive employee welfare policies also reflect Lechuang's determination to attach importance to talent management.

In these turbulent times, cultivating and retaining outstanding talents has become an important strategy for leading retailers to plan their future development routes. There are endless means to promote and increase salaries for employees, help them buy houses, and provide equity incentives.

For small and medium-sized cross-border companies, they should also take a longer-term view. Only with a solid talent base can they ensure lasting competitiveness. They should not burn bridges after crossing them and repeatedly "dump oil" to discourage their employees.