Sacked...I think
I was a few months out of uni and had just started working for a media sales company (yuck).

A few times the lead salesperson that sat across from me, a bloke called Nigel, had sneakily rang some of my leads and undersold the space they had been considering buying from me.

He did this while I was away from my desk, usually at lunch.

What irked me the most was he didn't need to do it. He had lots of big clients to sell to and was pretty good at what he did - but I guess media sales and greed go hand-in-hand.

One day, when he was a lunch, Levis, his client, called up wanting to place a full page ad. I seized the opportunity and sold it to them at a much cheaper rate than he'd been offering.

He came back from lunch. I didn't mention the call and waited for him to chase up his clients.

A few phone calls later and he'd obviously gotten around to calling Levis. I could tell because his face was crimson and regardless of whatever the person on the other end of the line was saying, our mate Nige could only muster repetitions of "is that so?".

He put the phone down and immediately reached over the desks to throw a punch at me. The act of throwing a punch from a sitting position across two desks was more difficult than he'd imagined, he fell short.

In true internet hardman style, I stood up while he was sprawled over the desks, grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him across the remainder of the desk and on to the ground.

There was no epic fight to the death, I left him on the floor and walked (relatively calmly) in to the manager's office. After I had finished explaining what had happened the manager agreed that Nigel was in the wrong - not only for throwing the punch but also for his underhanded selling tactics.

A moral victory for me? Not quite, the manager said that it was best that I left the company as Nigel was a top performer after all.

I got paid out for the month based on my current commission level - which was tracking quite well after the Levis sale.

TLDR: An unethical salesman tried to punch me and I was let go.
(durtydriscoll, Tue 3 Jun 2014, 1:53, 1 reply)

Surprise, commission only sales roles lead to no ethical dilemma.

( d.r._and_quinch when will you be famous?, Tue 3 Jun 2014, 9:14, closed)