I thought a 10% bonus was just smart business. One silent moment proved me wrong. My lesson on accepting gifts from vendors, told through two jobs.
You always have options on your way to work. You can take the main road and sit in traffic. You can take shortcuts via side alleys to skip the line. Or, you can break the law and run red lights.
The first time, I said Yes
I was at my gym job, I was new to all things. So I did all the scrap work, with whatever was assigned. My boss told me to find suppliers to produce gym bags.
I went to Google and found the nearest vendor. Surprisingly, there were 3 vendors who contacted me the next day. Little that I know, it was an illusion of choice (aka: These three websites come from 1 owner, but that’s a different story).
I asked three of them to bring samples to my gym. My boss liked all 3 options, but she didn’t like the price
So I dealt and the price gap wasn’t that large.
The second vendor rang me, and said that if I moved forward with the plan, she would give me 10%. I said Yes.
My boss said yes to the plan, but she wanted to divide it into 2 batches.
After the first 50% came in, she was happy with the quality.
And naturally, I hurried her to approve the second delivery.
She looked at me for only 5 seconds, later that day, she said No. The gym had enough supplies.
Just like that, the air went cold.
5 days later, during dinner, I asked my dad what went wrong. Of course I left out the 10% bonus.
He looked at me like my boss looked at me, and said: Your boss felt that you were getting incentive from the supplier.
From that day, no matter what the SOW* is, I never accepted the incentive ever again.
*Scope of work
The second time, I said No
Funny story, around 4 years after that, my 2019 job was working at a university.
The school director also asked me to find a vendor to design the school.
I said Yes to a task, but No to an incentive. That was my choice, even thought the bonus was much more aggressive than the first time.
Around 2 months later, I left that job. But the contract went through.
A few years have passed. Around 1 month ago, I saw a video on the school fanpage. That same vendor was holding hands with the school director…
So I figured, if I didn’t get the incentives, then some other people would.
But simply, I just cannot take another look like I got from my 2015 boss and my dad.
It’s just not worth it…
In the end
The game goes on with or without you, and someone always takes the payout. I just decided I don’t want in. A few extra bucks will never buy back the trust.
