Career advice: Asking to NOT get a raise?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m debating with myself if I should ask my boss to NOT give me a raise this year.

Sounds crazy I know, but listen to my line of logic:

As a technician, I’m currently making way more than I should be for someone with my level of education and years of experience.

My concern is when the market softens and my company starts laying people off; I don’t want the HR department looking at my salary and saying: “Whoa, this guy makes too much. Let’s fire him.”

The business I’m in; my company lays off people about once a year. So layoffs aren’t uncommon.

This year has been a good year for me. I pulled through on a couple of projects making my boss look really good in front of his superiors. In turn, I know he’s going to try and make sure I get a big raise this year.

I’m just nervous I’m going to make myself a target for the HR department.

So am I being ridiculous? Do big corps think this way? Or do they look towards other avenues for layoffs?

2

Your logic is sound, however, in reality, your request is quite likely to be misunderstood and received with suspicion. It might actually have the opposite of the desired effect by drawing attention to you already.

3

Don’t forget to ask to not get a pony for Christmas!

I think Mangetout is right - asking to not get a raise is drawing attention (from the wrong people) to yourself. You say that you’re already making way more than you should - would not getting a raise do anything to change that?

4

Talk to your boss about it. Maybe he can wrangle you a bonus instead of a raise. That might not draw the attention of HR.

5

I know +1 posts are frowned on, but /\ this /\ is 100% correct

6

Chances are, when they want to lay people off, they won’t be looking at individuals - they’ll just go to your manager and ask him to fire some people from his department. Just make sure you aren’t on THAT list.

7

To the OP, far better than to ask to not get a raise is to just have a straight talk with your manager about your fears. Also remind him/her of your contributions and how much you like your job (I assume that 's the case). When the time comes and you think layoffs are gonna happen, that’s the time to talk to your manager about your willingness to take a pay cut (perhaps what you got in your last raise) to keep your job. But don’t do that unless you really sense that your job’s in jeopardy. That’s why you need to have as good a relationship with your boss as possible in order to keep a two-way line of communication open.

8

I’ve yet to pluck up courage for this one myself, but could you ask that the raise not be an increase in salary but in holidays or a commensurate reduction in hours? It’s still effectively a raise in the unit price of your working hours. It won’t cost the company anything, they still get to show they value you and, should the worst come to the worst, you’ll have freed up some job hunting time…

9

I agree with the others. Make yourself as indispensable as possible and keep your mouth shut.

10

Also, get some goat pictures of key management personnel, and study the film A Shock To The System.

Stranger

11

I agree with the others. For that matter, some people DO earn more than others through a combination of luck, hard work, and competence, maybe being ambitious is the answer after all?

12

Shakes, if you’re given a raise it’s because that’s what the company perceives you’re worth.

Take it. If you are apprehensive about the amount, then work in a way that has you know that the company is getting real value for the money it’s paying.

13

Getting a raise insulates you from being a target. When the bosses are asked to make budget cuts do they cut those on the highest salaries?

Why would your boss say, “Let’s get rid of Shakes, the guy I rewarded for his good work with a raise.” Makes him look like an idiot.

14

your boss thinks otherwise. why disagree and say he’s wrong?

15

One year, my husband asked for an extra week of vacation in lieu of a raise, because we were doing OK financially, but he only got 2 weeks a year at that point. He got the extra week, plus a little bit of a raise, so it was win-win.

16

This has been my experience too. Managers get told to cut a certain number from their team, so they can keep the skillset balanced. Otherwise you wind up with HR deciding to layoff the only 2 guys who know how to support the build system, or decipher the arcane perl scripts someone wrote 5 years ago, or something.

17

Most good companies, don’t look at the highest paid people as targets for lay-offs. They normally look to lay off the least productive and those employees that aren’t necessarily preforming above expectations.

It sounds like your exceeding expectations and making significant contributions and that’s why you’re getting the raise. In my company, you would be way down at the bottom of that list to be laid off.

18

Speaking as a manager in HR, when we are forced into layoffs we always consider performance as primary - if you’re a star employee we’re going to keep you, and we’ll assume that you’re being paid more because you’re worth it. Lower performing employees will always get the axe first.

19

This is really good advice. Thank you.

20

HR doesn’t pick people to fire. At least, they shouldn’t if the division managers are doing their jobs correctly. If HR circumvented my authority and started firing people who report directly to me, I’d be going to HR’s bosses and raising hell.