So during my training to become an outside sales rep, I heard multiple stories of sales guys/gals getting into uncomfortable positions while out in the field. I guess let me back up. I work for a large uniform and facility services company and am on the road 4 days a week. While my territory is a maximum of 3 hours away, if a life threatening situation were to ever arise, in many cases my phone would have no signal and I would have no way of contacting help. I searched my employee handbook to find any reference to any sort of weapons, or CCW to no avail. My job consists of calling on small to large companies all across my state. One week I can be talking to a higher level executive in a high rise in the city and the next week talking to a business owner of a small mechanic shop at his house. One of the trainers I was with my first week, a female, told me a story of one afternoon she was visiting an old scrap yard, miles and miles away from civilization. She pulled up to the location and it was a fenced in facility that opened up for her to pull in and then the gate closed behind her. She immediately called her husband to give her location as two, large, country boys started to approach her car. She wanted to inform him of her whereabouts and to tell him to call the police if she didn't call him back within the hour. All ended up well, but it really got my mind thinking, what if I were in that situation and it something did go crazy, then I thought nah, wouldn't happen to a guy, I wouldn't be that scared. By the time I was done thinking that very thought, she said "oh yeah, and go talk to Chris. He has a crazy story that happened to him just a few months back". Oh damn, now what. So walking down the hall at work the other day I saw Chris and decided to ask him about the incident she referenced. Chris proceeded to tell me that on a day just like any other, he was out in the field cold calling local business'. He walked into what looked like an everyday run of the mill auto repair shop. He walked in the door, noticed the door to the right and walked to the counter about 20 feet inside the door. He saw some men in a glassed in room that looked as though they were having some sort of meeting. So he smiled and waved. By the time he put his hand down from the wave, he heard a slow cliiiick, like the cocking of a revolver a few inches behind his head. The guy asked him what the hell he was doing there, who sent him, and who he told that he was there. Chris, like many of us would, nearly **** his pants, but proceeded to tell them who he was and what he was doing there. Long story short, Chris being a savy, quick thinking guy he is, got his way out of that situation and ran immediately to call the cops. That business ended up being a front for some kind of drug ring.
The point I am trying to get to is, that due to the inherint dangers of being an outside sales rep, would you elect to carry your weapon for a scenarios like those, knowing already there is nothing in your employee handbook for that or would you ask a supervisor and expect he tell you no and then have no shot at it anyway? Let me know your thoughts on this sensative subject.
The point I am trying to get to is, that due to the inherint dangers of being an outside sales rep, would you elect to carry your weapon for a scenarios like those, knowing already there is nothing in your employee handbook for that or would you ask a supervisor and expect he tell you no and then have no shot at it anyway? Let me know your thoughts on this sensative subject.
