Sleepys, HQ'd in New York. All Employees should do a mass walk-out. Horrible employer Shame on you Dave Aker! You LIE to people, set them up for FAILURE. Warwick Rhode Island

I intereviewed with Sleepys 2 years ago for the position of Sales Associate.    Except they don't call you a "Sales Associate."   You are an MP' Mattress Professional.   Okay, whatever, I was fine with that.

I drove 3 hours every day, 6 round trip, to train in their NY/NJ facility.   There I learned all about mattresses, and I will concede that the training was quite good.

Their pay structure is simple:  You get $125 a day, as an advance against your commissions.   The work schedule is brutal; Stores are open 11 hours a day, nad you have to punch in before the doors open, and stay after they close. 

There are many, many extremely negative, if not downright dangerous, aspects to this job.   I will be frank and honest here, and I swear that every single word I'm writing is true:

1. You have no choice of location.  That in itself isn't so bad, except you are working at a different location every day.   As a result, you have NO chance to build a relationship with the community, no chance to become a familiar face, no chance to follow-up with people who come in, but then wish to return after "thinking about things."    You're always starting over.

2.  This is PASSIVE sales job.  After you've inventories the stock, rearranged the bedding and made the store look presentable and attractive, you have aboslutely NOTHING to do but wait until someone comes in (they call this "door pulls.")

This point is very important.  As a veteran sales person, I'm used to networking, marketing, (sometimes in person, sometimes on the phone or computer.)   At Sleepy's, you cannot partiicpate in ANY of these activities.  After my 3rd day of sitting in an empty store in which not one person pulled on the door, I called my District Manager and said "can I call people who have purchased from us in the past?  Perhaps see if they need a new mattress, or if I can sell them something else? (Sleepy's sells bedspreads, down comfroters, pillows, even furniture.)   His answer to me?  A resounding "NO."

3. As I mentioned, I'm a veteran sales person, and I know how to sell.  My closing ratio for those customers who DID come in was close to 100%.   If a person pays by cash or check, you are expected to go to the nearest bank, on YOUR time, and make a night deposit by yourself.

Some stores are in bad neighborhoods.  On more than one night, I felt acutely uncomfortable depositing hundreds, or sometimes thouands of dollars, in the dark, alone and vulnerable.    Most companies that deal with big-ticket items such as Sleepy's have a night-deposit drop box.  It opens with a key, and is located right outside the store.  Not Sleepys.  The owner is too cheap to install these.

4.  Commissions are very low.  Around 8 to 10 percent.  On a $1000 mattress, you'd make $100.   It wasn't diffcult to meet your daily draw of $125, IF CUSTOMERS CAME IN.   But day after day, I would sit in stores and not a single soul pulled on that door.     You end up owning the company money (going "in the hole" is how they put it) and the debt piles up quickly.   When you DO finally get a customer, and sell them a big-ticket item, you are likely so far in the hole, that you never see a dime of that commission.

5.  They fire people with no warning.  I repeatedly told my District Manager that I needed to be in a location that drew more traffic, and that I could handle working by myself.  He promised me I would be made a "PRIMARY" which means I work in one store only.  Okay, great, I thought.  Now I'm getting somewhere.

I had plans to walk around to local businesses and introduce myself as another shopkeeper in the neighborhood, and if they were looking for a quality product at a decent price, to come and see me.  My manager and I talked about other ideas I had.  I'm a go-getter, ambitious, and do not require much supervision.

For the past 2 weeks, I have only customers come in ONE day, over the past weekend.  Four different people came in and I sold all 4 of them. 100% closing ratio.   Two days later, I was fired.

It came without warning, and with no appeal.  I asked my District Manager and he passed the buck onto Human Resources.  Okay, I called HR and was told my "numbers were down."  Well of course they are down!  You've been putting me in a different store every day, in lousy locations, where I sit for 11.5 hours all day, feeling like a babysitter.

Something is very wrong here; I can FEEL it.   I don't know what this company is up to, but in my opinion, if this is how they treat their employees, perhaps being let go was a blessing in disguise.  

The work is slow, tedious and incredibly boring.  But in this type of economy, one can't be choosy.  I never called in sick, always filled in on my days off (in fact, I am pretty sure that I worked on ALL my days off.) and I was never, ever late.   And yet, I still lost my job. 

David Aker, CEO of this company...you should be ashamed of yourself.   Wake up and come into the 21st century.   Sleepy's is not very high tech, and I think they are dealing with a mentality that went out with child labor and slave wages.   With the advent of the internet, word travels quickly, and in my opinion, Sleepy's is going to find itself facing an increasingly lower quality employee, because anyone with half a brain is going to avoid working for them altogether.

Oh, one final point:  Benefits.  They aren't great, but they aren't too terrible either.  You have a choice of 80/20 or 90/10 coverage.  I opted for the latter.  Last summer, my wife developed pneumonia (she has asthma) and spent 10 days in the ICU.  She is fine, but the bill came to well over $50,000.00.   I was faced wiht paying 10% of that toal, or $5000.  And it isn't as if that is a deductible, that has to be met only once.  It's applicable to EVERY medical service, treatment, test, dianosis, or hospitalization that might be required.

This is just my opinion, but RUN from this company.  Do not accept a position with them, as you will inevitably get fired wtihin a year.   I've since discovered that this is their modus operandi and they've been conduting business this way for over a decade.     Also, their prices aren't really any better than some of the large name furniture stores.   

As for myself, I will never shop in thsi store again, and I intened to tell every single person I know or come into contact with WHY.