On Monday morning (30th of July), I started working for Ivan. It was just a 2-hour trial. I actually managed to sell something! That morning, he gave me five euros as a commission for my sale. These five euros are the sole money I received from this man for weeks!
I came back in the afternoon, and worked again from 3 to 8. From now on, that would be my shift, every day of that week: 15h-20h.
The work, basically, was about selling tickets for boat cruises to the tourists passing by us in the street. Captain Morgan, Eezee Cruises (Ivan's company), Sicilia Tours, and so on. It was hard, because you had to be in the heat all day long (August, in Malta, is VERY warm), standing and talking to people who most of the time couldn't care less about you. Moreover, when working in front of the shop, I would invite people in, for car or motorbike rentals.
On Monday and Tuesday, I discussed the terms of my payment with Ivan. The deal was: the hourly minimum wage (around 3,90€) + a commission of 3% of whatever sales I would do. Since I was very short on cash, I asked him if he could pay me weekly, the commission being monthly). He agreed.
The week was spent normally, selling tickets with more or less success. Despite that, it quickly became clear to me that I would not work there for long. After tow or three days, I could not stand him anymore: at every turn of the day, he would behave in a despicable way.
He would not explain to me how things worked and had to be done, but then would nonetheless expect me to know how to do it. Right at the beginning.
When I was stationned across the street (there are many “outspots” on the strand wherefrom his employees sell tickets), and some customer would ask for an information, I would call Ivan to check the details of the offer and try to close the deal. His answer would be to treat me as an idiot, and tell me to look at the brochure. After this warm welcome, I would stop calling him. And he would lose sales...
When for some reason I would not close some sale, he would talk in a nasty way to me, in front of other customers. They would themselves feel uncomfortable at his behaviour, feeling that he just saw them as sales. He doesn't have the intelligence to understand that customers often “fish” for information before committing. So that you have to be nice to them, even if they don't buy right at the moment.
He would be cold to his paying customers, who would come out of the shop with a strange look on their face... and would complain to me about his coldness!
If I had to summarise: the man is a complete idiot. He doesn't understand that he has to be minimally to his team and his customers, if he wants to have success. That is why his shop is messy, dirty, small, and old: he is a loser.
Many employees confirmed to me that he was always like that, just interested about money, treating all around him – even those who didn't harm him in anyway – like garbage.
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