I know people will say, you have to work hard and smart to hit your numbers, but c’mon! Not when you are calling smaller companies who aren’t even paying their previous invoices. Hitting the “floor” is a major feat that isn’t feasible for most.

Meeting over.

How did you ever guess that the other person works for CB? I’m happy that you wrote “clearly” for those of us who probably couldn’t figue it out.

I don’t even understand what your post means: “Talk about something that matters, like keeping your job through the end of March” – so that means you care about Dumbfounded’s job? Keep up the good posts!!

Dumbfounded – I agree with you (mostly)

Yes, there are things like LiveMeeting and GoTo Meeting and CareerBuilder utilizes these resources (for the vast majority of their meetings as well). Since the creation of the telephone and the idea of doing sales directly over the phone, why did outside sales roles continue to further grow? Because meeting someone face to face helps build stronger relationships. Should every organzation with an outside sales force shutdown operations and force everything to be done inside? Didn’t CEO’s of these companies know (even in a good economy) that video Conferences would probably be more cost effective than a travel budget for their outside sales roles?

The simple truth is that some divisons within the organization are outside/inside roles. With the rep coming out to see you in person, and perhaps taking you out to lunch is not trying to be insensitive to your own perosnal situation or blatant disregard for the economy. Rather it is a sign of appreciation of your business and trying to help further stengthen the current relationship. If you are personally against the rep coming out to see you, then you should just respectuflly decline instead of facilitiating something you are completely against.

With that being said, CareerBuilder is still extremely sensitive of the times and have implemented cutbacks in their travel budget as well as many other areas to try and operate more efficiently. Just because the economy is down doesn’t mean that every business should completely alter the way they do business, but rather make sure they are a lot smarter with their methods than they normally would be – which CareerBuilder is doing.

Again – big fan of CareerBuilder, but something to think about. The impression is that there’s little regard to the economy. We would appreciate it more if you *didn’t* come to town for an afternoon meeting than coming into town spending money on a hotel, car, valet, dinner, tips, flight, etc. when we’re struggling to pay last month’s invoice.

That said…. this is temporary folks. Keep your chin up and do your job. And like Dumbfounded said – you just might not have to worry about being laid off. But even worrying about it doesn’t change a thing – just do your job.

CB is budget conscious and worried about the well being of their employees. This is why upper management decided to cancel the Holiday party as well as many other initiatives to watch costs in this economic turmoil.

I also love the speculation that layoffs are right around the corner as well. You have no validity on those statements. Instead of focusing on gossip, do your job and guess what, you won’t have to worry about being laid off.