$50 sounds like a ridiculous commission under any circumstances. There are more numbers that we need before we can really judge the situation though. It’s not like $50 went to your friend and $14,950 went to their boss’s pocket. Surely there’s a cost to manufacture whatever it is being sold. Still, there’s no way that 0.3% is a reasonable sales commission.

I worked in customer support/sales for the largest ISP in my country. We were always understaffed because it was a shit job, so the turnover was high. We were forced to sign overtime, weekends and holidays included. I'll never forget this middle management asshole who enthusiastically attempted to convince me it's totally worth it. He does it, too, and he's always happy to see higher paycheck. At the end of the month that overtime amounted to ~€15-20 for me. Yeah, fun times. I was thrilled to kiss that job and its abusive management goodbye.