If you ask just about anyone around you – friends, colleagues, family members, a stranger on the train – if they’ve ever lost someone in their life to the cult of multi-level marketing, there’s a pretty high chance they will answer “yes”.
Then comes the suggestion that you should buy whatever it is they’re selling, that you should spread the word of how great whatever it is among your own network. This then escalates to “friendly check-ins” and “recommendations” that start to feel more like low-level harassment. That’s in part because the most common products sold via these companies are popular with women , and because the casual structure of this kind of work is highly appealing to women with domestic responsibilities such as caring for young children or older family members.Direct Selling Australia, the national trade association, estimates that between 77 and 95 per cent of consultants working for MLMs are women.By now, you can probably sense that I’m not the biggest fan of multi-level marketing.
In Australia, the MLM industry is estimated to have a $1.4 billion turnover, and about 500,000 people work as sales people or consultants. While not all MLMs are the same and not all use the same tactics, the lack of transparency around structures, targets, incentives and actual take-home remuneration is enough to warrant criticism.
Perhaps that’s why they are willing to accept a job where they literally pay to become an employee, and enter an industry where it’s estimated that onlyEarlier this year, the Rural Freedom Movement, an MLM selling machines that promise to electrolyse tap water, came under fire after former sales agents went public about their experience.In addition to selling a $6000 machine that isn’t backed by peer-reviewed scientific studies, sellers were required to buy their own model too.
Call me crazy, but no workplace should have structures so confusing that employees don’t entirely understand how much they will earn as a base salary.