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Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

arstechnica.com

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Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#11

Post by a2tech »

Sgt_Apone wrote: post #2

This tactic allegedly resulted, this person said, in tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in phantom revenue. He added that more than a dozen people reported the practice to the relevant human resources representatives, and CEO Elon Musk himself, who never replied. So employees were pumping up projected sales figures for (at least) personal benefit in the form of bonuses. What happens when these figures don't mate…

Nothing. Its a pretty common problem in sales. Lots of sales people are constantly moving jobs and pushing their numbers up.

Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#12

Post by mkirklions »

Why are we blaming the employees when these kind of things come from high pressure management.

Everyone is aware the Elon works his employees to death at Tesla, SpaceX, and apparently SolarCity.

I feel like these tech companies are great for consumers and shareholders, but employees are worked like dogs to keep the profit flowing.

Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#13

Post by sk5t »

a2tech wrote: post #11
Sgt_Apone wrote: post #2

This tactic allegedly resulted, this person said, in tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in phantom revenue. He added that more than a dozen people reported the practice to the relevant human resources representatives, and CEO Elon Musk himself, who never replied. So employees were pumping up projected sales figures for (at least) personal benefit in the form of bonuses. What happens when these figures don't mate…

Nothing. Its a pretty common problem in sales. Lots of sales people are constantly moving jobs and pushing their numbers up.

Who are these poor souls paying out bonuses and commissions on unrealized revenue?

Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#14

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

Sgt_Apone wrote: post #2

This tactic allegedly resulted, this person said, in tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in phantom revenue. He added that more than a dozen people reported the practice to the relevant human resources representatives, and CEO Elon Musk himself, who never replied. So employees were pumping up projected sales figures for (at least) personal benefit in the form of bonuses. What happens when these figures don't mate…

The Sales people will survive, with their bonuses. Someone in a "cost center" like Support will get laid off instead.

Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#15

Post by amarant »

shafyy wrote: post #5

"This tactic allegedly resulted, this person said, in tens of hundreds of millions of dollars in phantom revenue." SolarCity had revenues of ~$480M in 2016 [0]. "Tens of hundreds of millions" would mean billions of dollars of phantom revenue. Even if that fake revenue would be distributed over a couple of years, it would have been a significant proportion of SolarCity's revenue. Just seems unrealistic that the SEC or…

i would guess it's a typo, and it's supposed to be "tens or hundreds of millions"

tens of hundreds is a pretty silly way to describe numbers

edit: darnit I got duble-ninjad!

Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#16

Post by matthewmacleod »

mkirklions wrote: post #12

Why are we blaming the employees when these kind of things come from high pressure management. Everyone is aware the Elon works his employees to death at Tesla, SpaceX, and apparently SolarCity. I feel like these tech companies are great for consumers and shareholders, but employees are worked like dogs to keep the profit flowing.

That's a shite excuse. "Just following orders" etc.

Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#17

Post by pc86 »

sk5t wrote: post #13
a2tech wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. Its a pretty common problem in sales. Lots of sales people are constantly moving jobs and pushing their numbers up.

Who are these poor souls paying out bonuses and commissions on unrealized revenue?

When everyone pays bonuses on unrealized revenue it puts you at a hiring disadvantage to pay bonuses off of realized revenue only, or to cut future bonuses when revenue doesn't materialize.

Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#18

Post by Declanomous »

sk5t wrote: post #13
a2tech wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. Its a pretty common problem in sales. Lots of sales people are constantly moving jobs and pushing their numbers up.

Who are these poor souls paying out bonuses and commissions on unrealized revenue?

Commission typically isn't paid out until the company is paid in my experience. Bonuses are different, but some companies I work for actually tracked how many orders were actually fully paid for vs. how many were entered into the system. A concerning number of salespeople would basically sign people up if anything the customer said could be construed as being interested, and their numbers would look great until you looked at the number of sales that fell through.

I never has the most sales in a single month when I worked sales, but I regularly had the highest realized revenue because every single person I signed up actually wanted what they were purchasing.

Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#19

Post by prima-facie »

Sgt_Apone wrote: post #2

This tactic allegedly resulted, this person said, in tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in phantom revenue. He added that more than a dozen people reported the practice to the relevant human resources representatives, and CEO Elon Musk himself, who never replied. So employees were pumping up projected sales figures for (at least) personal benefit in the form of bonuses. What happens when these figures don't mate…

The next Enron happens

Re: Ex-SolarCity employees: We were fired after reporting millions in fake sales

#20

Post by Hello71 »

pc86 wrote: post #17
sk5t wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who are these poor souls paying out bonuses and commissions on unrealized revenue?

When everyone pays bonuses on unrealized revenue it puts you at a hiring disadvantage to pay bonuses off of realized revenue only, or to cut future bonuses when revenue doesn't materialize.

Yes, it in fact does put you at a hiring advantage because it will select for employees actually selling products instead of claiming to sell them.
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