My husband & I own a wholesale nursery business, which he started 25 years ago. We grow nursery stock, and sell through our wholesale yard, and to local cities, landscape contractors, golf courses, etc.
His 37 year old son is a union carpenter by trade. Unfortunately, he was employed in the Detroit area, and we all know how bad the economy is there. He made some bad financial decisions, and got himself and his family into a hole. He moved to our state in March, and my husband has given him a job in sales for our company. For the first 4 months, he worked around our farm doing much needed carpentry work. Now's the time for him to start selling. The problem is that he has zero sales experience and zero horticultural experience. I feel that my husband is hesitant to try him out in sales, so he has him doing inventory and other tasks.
To add to the situation, "Junior" has had almost six weeks off in the six months that he has worked for us, is getting perks other employees aren't getting such as a company truck (although he's not driving on sales calls) and a salary about $15,000 over what is should be for someone with no sales experience. In fact, he's being paid only $1,200 a year less than our yard manager, who has been with us over 10 years.
I think you can see where I'm going with this. We are having a lot of conflict as a family and as a business over Junior. Until about 7 months ago, he never had any interest in our business, or in this industry.
Has anyone else had a similar situation, and how do we cope? Or I guess me -- because my husband sees nothing wrong with this scenario.
His 37 year old son is a union carpenter by trade. Unfortunately, he was employed in the Detroit area, and we all know how bad the economy is there. He made some bad financial decisions, and got himself and his family into a hole. He moved to our state in March, and my husband has given him a job in sales for our company. For the first 4 months, he worked around our farm doing much needed carpentry work. Now's the time for him to start selling. The problem is that he has zero sales experience and zero horticultural experience. I feel that my husband is hesitant to try him out in sales, so he has him doing inventory and other tasks.
To add to the situation, "Junior" has had almost six weeks off in the six months that he has worked for us, is getting perks other employees aren't getting such as a company truck (although he's not driving on sales calls) and a salary about $15,000 over what is should be for someone with no sales experience. In fact, he's being paid only $1,200 a year less than our yard manager, who has been with us over 10 years.
I think you can see where I'm going with this. We are having a lot of conflict as a family and as a business over Junior. Until about 7 months ago, he never had any interest in our business, or in this industry.
Has anyone else had a similar situation, and how do we cope? Or I guess me -- because my husband sees nothing wrong with this scenario.
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