Found this absolute trainwreck on Reddit yesterday that perfectly sums up everything wrong with cowardly sales management: See the dumpster fire here
Let’s Break Down This Garbage
Some sales manager has been dumping all their nightmare accounts on one poor bastard FOR YEARS. We’re talking about all the service nightmares, legacy contracts, and dead-end opportunities that “don’t result in sales.” The manager openly admits this employee “keeps shit off my plate” and handles escalations so they don’t have to.
And the reward for this service? HR wants to put him on a PIP and push him out because—SHOCKING!—he’s only at 52% of quota!
The manager rated him a 3/5 despite KNOWING they set this guy up to fail, then has the audacity to act conflicted about firing him. Why? Not because it’s wrong, but because they “can’t truly defend him as a salesperson and stake my reputation on it with sales leadership.”
Translation: “I’ve been using this guy as my personal janitor for years, but I’m not willing to risk MY reputation to save his job.”
Absolutely disgusting.
What This Manager SHOULD Do (But Won’t)
Here’s what I’d do if I had any integrity as a leader:
- Create a goddamn CSM role already. Stop pretending this is about “performance” when you’ve created an unofficial customer success position without the title or compensation structure to match.
- Fix your broken-ass compensation. If these accounts matter to your business, compensate people properly for handling them! That’s like asking someone to mine gold with a plastic spoon and then being shocked they’re not meeting their quota. “Sorry Rahul, other miners with power tools are extracting 10x more gold than you. We’re going to have to let you go for underperformance.”
- Stand up to HR, you coward. Your job as a manager is to protect your team from corporate bullshit, not sacrifice them to protect yourself. Document the actual value this person creates. Fight for them. That’s literally your job.
- Own your hypocrisy. You created this situation. You benefited from it. Now you’re throwing this guy under the bus. At least have the decency to admit you’re doing this to save yourself.
The manager’s pathetic response to the CSR suggestion says it all: “I agree 100% – our company does not have a CSR role so we’re stuck with these throughout our org.”
No, asshole, YOU’RE not stuck with anything. Your employee is stuck with YOUR failure to create appropriate roles and advocate for your team.
Why This Pisses Me Off So Much
This represents everything toxic about middle management in sales. This manager:
- Created an unofficial role they benefited from
- Let one person shoulder all the garbage work
- Rated them mediocre despite this arrangement
- Now won’t risk their own neck to save them
- Acknowledges the solution but won’t fight for it
If you’re in sales leadership and you pull this kind of crap, you’re not a leader—you’re a coward with a title. Real leaders create the right structures, distribute work fairly, and go to bat for their people when the system is broken.
The most infuriating part is watching this person pretend they’re conflicted about doing the right thing while they’re actively participating in screwing over someone who’s been making their life easier for years.
Bottom line: If you set up a system where you dump all your worst accounts on one person, you don’t get to act surprised or conflicted when their numbers suffer. And you DEFINITELY don’t get to wash your hands of responsibility when HR comes knocking.