Commission in the minors

I have never had a job where my salary changed based on how much I sold. I know that this is common in many sales industries such as for car salesmen, but my previous baseball experience was just a small monthly salary.

Based on what I have, the jobs I was accepted for, and what other people in similar jobs have, I know of at LEAST 2 ways that the pay scale works in the minor leagues. I never knew how it worked before I started working here, so I just thought I would share this bit of insider knowledge with you.

There are two different types of commission: group and individual. Individual commission is how most teams do it. You get paid for the sales that you bring it - whether it be groups in the regular seating areas or in the more luxury areas just depending on what your ballpark has. The good part about individual commission is that if there is someone in your department that is slacking, you don't have to suffer as well. It also makes it obvious to your bosses how good you are doing. The negative part is that when you're first starting out, it could take a while to make enough sales to get that bonus check and there is a lot more stabbing in the back. Coworkers might steal sales that were supposed to be yours. There's a lot more competition in this type of environment. It is just something that you have to get used to.

The other type of commission is group commission. All of your department's sales get added up together and you reach the bonus level as a group. The good thing about group commission is that depending on when you start, your coworkers already probably have their sales numbers up so you can ride on their coattails. The negative part about this is that your coworkers can easily slack and you pay for it.

Pay scales are different with different teams. Some base your salary heavily on the commission, others just use it as a small bonus. Either way, it's an adjustment to get used to having your salary depend on how good either you are doing or your group is doing.

I didn't mean for this entry to be so long - kudos if you read through it - or skipped most of it that's fine too!

Opening day is right around the corner - I can't believe how fast time has gone at my new job!

Job Fair in the Minors

In order to hire game day staff members, most MiLB teams that I know of host a job fair to interview lots of candidates in a short period of time. My team was no different. Those who worked in departments that would be using game day staff members/were in charge of the game day staff members all sat at little tables around the U of our ballpark. The crowd was held in our clubhouse as they filled out their applications and waited for their interviews.

The job fair did NOT go how I was expecting it to, and it made me realize that I should make a list of things to do and not to do at an MiLB job fair based on what happened at ours.

1) Do not come to the job fair looking like you haven't showered in two weeks, and havent changed clothes in the same amount of time. Baseball is an outdoors job over the summer meaning it gets hot. We are already going to be smelly, we won't hire someone who is that bad to begin with because we'll be having to smell you all season long.

2) Do not try to schmooze the lowly front office staffers who are handing out the applications to you. We get hundreds of applicants and have absolutely no say in who gets hired. The only people that we are going to remember are the ones that should not want to be remembered as it's for a bad reason. We don't talk to those interviewing about who we thought was best.

3) Do not come to a ballpark and not know who plays there. You don't need to know everything about the team, all the policies, or anything like that. Asking us, however, what the team name is, and if this is a job fair for the entire county is not very impressive.

4) Do bring a resume or a letter of recommendation or something to make you stand out. Of the 200-250 people we had at the job fair, only a handful stated at least to us that they had a resume to bring to their interviewer. It made them look prepared for the job even though it's only for a game day position.

5) Do not assume you will be getting a front office position from being a game-day staff member. This really doesn't happen. I believe in my team's history we have had 1 game day staff member become front office staff.

I guess that's my list for now. It was a crazy job fair and made me realize just how lucky I am to have a job in these times.

Why you should donate to Japan

I have seen a lot of blog entries and twitter remarks stating that we should all donate to Japan. But how do we know that all those people begging us to donate have donated themselves? In reality the unfortunate likelihood is that they have not donated and are just trying to make themselves feel better by telling others to donate. Well I did donate, so this is why I feel like I can talk about this without any guilt.

A lot of people also didn't donate when tragedy struck Haiti. Maybe you felt like you don't know anyone in Haiti or from Haiti. That's NOT the case with Japan. We all know someone that lives in Japan, has studied in Japan, or their family is from Japan. If not, you have eaten at a Japanese restaurant and talk to your waiter who probably has family in Japan that were affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Donate to help their families and friends to make it through this horrible time. Donate because you love your local Japanese restaurant and want to help them. 

If you need more incentive to donate, if you donate $50 or more and show that you did to Dirk Hayhurst, a pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays, I believe by tomorrow (March 14), he will personally call you via Skype to thank you for donating and who knows what else he may throw in. Dirk Hayhurst or http://www.twitter.com/thegarfoose is the author of one of my favorite books ever, The Bullpen Gospels which you should buy and read because it's all about life in the minor leagues. 

$50. You say that's a lot? Think of it almost like Lent and give up something. Drink a lot of Starbucks? Give it up for a week and save all the money from that and donate it to Japan instead. Eat out a lot? Decide to eat dinner at home every day for a couple of weeks and use that money instead to go to Japan. You really don't have to make that much of a sacrifice. 

I hope that this helps you to go ahead and make the decision to donate money to Japan. Even if you cant donate $50 or more to get that thank you from Dirk, donate whatever you can because they need it right now more than you probably do.

Please just donate whatever you can. Every little bit helps. 

Lovely co-workers

Watercooler talk it happens at every office. You find yourself away from your desk with another co-worker, and you start gossiping about anything and everything. It is the worst when it's two females that do get together and I am no exception. Sometimes it's good to break up the monotony of doing the same thing hour after hour behind a desk.

An MiLB front office is also filled with people that are not from the area. I thought there would be a lot more local people when I moved and that I would be looked at differently for being so far away, but it turns out that I'm not even the person from the farthest away which was really surprising given how long it took me to drive to my new residence. It's also really nice though because it means that we don't have our college friends still living nearby for the most part. It also means that especially during the offseason we hang out with each other a lot, even when it's weekends and we can spend time apart. I believe that every weekend we've had so far there has been some sort of shindig going on where we have all gotten together for something not work related.

I imagine that the amount of time outside of work that we are spending together will lessen as we get sick of each other but for now it is nice having no friends out of work that I'm not just sitting at home all the time on weekends and can go out places with my co-workers.

Spring training has started, and opening day is right around the corner. I am so happy that it is baseball season again!

Having a Family in the Minors

I am a single female. I do not have a boyfriend, I do not have children. I do not understand how other staffers on my team can have relationships, have families, and maintain all those relationships. We work long days. When I say we work long days, I mean we work typically about 8.5-9 hours a day not including the travel time to the ballpark. That is just the offseason. As the season approaches, we come to work earlier, leave later, and have weekend commitments as well. Come baseball season, our nights may end at 11:00 pm on weekdays and involve the entire weekend as well when the team is home.

When I am with a partner, I like to be able to spend quality time with them. I am not the kind of girl who always needs to be with their partner, but I do like my time spent with them to be quality time. For me, after I get done at work all I want to do is grab a quick meal, relax on the couch and go to sleep as early as I can so that I get enough sleep for the long work day the next day. I would be a horrible conversationalist and that is not how I would want my relationship to be. This is probably why I am not currently in a relationship. I do not want to do something 1/2 ass. I'm either in it or I am not.

This brings me to having children. Most of our staffers have children. Children require so much effort and work yet between the hours of 7 am and 10 pm during the offseason us MiLB staffers are only home for approximately 6 hours of that. That is 6 hours spent with children that are able to stay up until 10 pm. The younger the children are, the less amount of time we are able to spend with them. This does not even include the season. This essentially means that all the work is put on the partner. How is there not anger on their part towards the staffer for not being there to pull their end? It's not like we're making a ton of money to support them. I can barely even support myself and even then it's a struggle week to week much less a partner and child.

Alright sorry this is a long blog. Just a disclaimer: this blog is not saying that all MiLB staffers are poor partners/parents. This blog is just me saying I do not know how it is possible to do a decent job at doing it. For now, I will just be happy that I am single with no children so I do not have to worry about things like that and can just worry about myself instead.

Being female in a man's world

It can be difficult to be a female staffer in MiLB. We are constantly surrounded by men and constantly have to prove ourselves far more than the men. In terms of dress at least in my office the women also dress much more formally than the men. Personally I think that the women would not be able to get away with dressing as the men do. In our society it is important for the women to look good. Now I am not saying that the men are wearing sweatpants to work, but they are considerably less dressed than the women. I know that the women average over an hour of time to get ready for work in the morning. Many of the men in my office wake up 10 minutes before they leave and are still out the door in time. 

Then there is the problem of attraction. Attraction is normal, and is going to happen to everyone. We can't help it. The biggest no-no, however, is attraction between players and the female staffers and this is where we get in trouble. We have to be very careful to prove that we are not in this profession to "hook up" with the players on the baseball team. Females in sports have gotten a bad name through other females who work in sports that have crossed the line with players. I am definitely jealous of guys who don't have to worry about this. They don't have to worry that what they are wearing is too suggestive to the players or other staff members who see them. 

There is a lot to worry about as a female MiLB staffer and a lot to prove. I hope that through my interactions with the guys that I work with that I will prove that women are just as worthy in this profession as men and that we know just as much about sports as they do. Women are already behind enough in the working worlds its hard to be put behind even farther. 

Minor League Internships

DISCLAIMER: This is just what I have seen from my own organization, and what friends have told me about their minor league internships. It by no way extends to all teams. It is all my opinion and has no facts to back it up.

So you landed an internship with a minor league team. Awesome! Now here is the catch. You have basically become an errand boy for the team - doing the tasks that those above you don't want to do. Answering phones, stuffing envelopes, and doing the most mundane tasks. Many hours of the day you will not be doing much. You won't really be learning skills needed to advance you in the organization. You may think you are, but it seems to be pretty rare that those in that type of position actually get to be hired full time by the organization after the internship. Many minor league internships seem to be very generalized and doesn't give you the necessary experience to become a full time staff member.

You think it will get better with the season? Think again. You will be pulling tarp (all of us full time staff pull tarp as well mind you), and once again filling the roles that nobody else wanted to fill.

Also, the pay is miserable. Many Minor League Baseball jobs are unpaid. UNPAID. You are PAYING to do these tasks with all the gas money and long hours you will be putting into the job. Even those that are paid are not enough to live off of. Jobs like this are the reason that a minimum wage was created, but teams are getting away with it by calling it a stipend instead of paying hourly.

Now, not every internship is like this. I would suggest making sure that you are getting a specific internship which will give you experience in one aspect of baseball. Experience is key and is really what teams are looking for. As good as it is to learn about all different aspects, in the end you want to gain a specific skillset that will impress your team. You don't need to learn everything, but learn the basics so that when you are looking to be hired full time they know that they don't have to start from the beginning with you.

Finally, I suggest finding a smaller team that needs more help from you. Getting more responsibility will help tremendously in advancing your career in baseball.

Not all minor league baseball internships are bad. I do know people that have been hired full time, however I do also know a lot of people that are left afterwards with that what now feeling.

Thanks for reading this post! Spring training has begun, and minor league baseball players will start reporting very shortly! Winter is finally over.

Jane Doe