Employers and Managers: Is this fair?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I process claims for a living. It’s boring, repetitive and quite easy once you get the hang of it. We are on production. Pre-audit 60 claims per day. Audit 75 c/p. Accuracy 93%.
My last monthly review: Pre-audit 98 p/d, audit 105 p/d, accuracy 96.3%
I have the internet open on my computer all day long. Many people here do. This has never been a problem until recently. I got a new cubemate and he is struggling to meet production. He is absolutely beside himself that I get to surf while he spends most of his day slogging through claims. So he complained to my boss and I was called into “the office”. The result of our meeting? My boss raised my production. Just mine. Everyone else is still 60/75. I’m now 75/100.

I told my boss if my production has to be higher than everyone else’s I want to get paid more than everyone else. He laughted as if I were joking. He knows I’m not.

I’m so pissed right now. I came to my desk and surfed for 1/2 an hour solid and made sure the cube-head next to me knew about it. And do you know what? I’ll still make production.

Other facts: I’ve been at this job for about 5 months. My other co-workers have begged me to slow down.

So all you managers and owners out there: Is this fair? Am I being unreasonable? Should I kick my cubemate up the butt?

2

Doesn’t sound fair to me. What are the department regulations or procedures for raising the requirements? I would think that there would be some kind of department standard set somewhere. Have you complained to Human Resources?

3

I’d definitely want a raise. If you’re expected to do more work than your coworkers, you deserve more $$. Plus, get a new cubemate.

4

Ohhh…real jobs are so going to watse me for stuff like this.

I try to be logical, do the work get paid on a fair basis. It sounds great to me. I have problems with evenly applied standards (dress codes: I’m wearing a lab coat and acid won’t eat through my shoes too quickly. Business casual can…)

For you: no its not fair. What’s your contract? If you meet it at your pay rate then you should be good to go. New and higher requirements should get new and higher rewards.

For your cubemate: give the whiner some tips, is he doing things the hard way in places? I know, he’s a prick and its not your job to make him a good human being or even an efficient worker, but it might make him see how its possible for you to do such a good job.

If he continues to be a prick or is too rock dumb to do a job the fast way, run him over in the parking lot.

5

Biggirl, I feel for you. I had the same problem once in a gov’t job - we were basically doing accounting on client files - math. My co-workers did theirs by hand with an adding machine and paper spreadsheets. I used the computer spreadsheet. I was asked by my manager to slow down because I was making my co-workers look bad. I offered to teach them. I was not allowed to do so. They requested training on the computer spreadsheet. Because it was not specified as a job requirement for the position, they were denied.

Bottom line - no, it’s absolutely not fair.

6

Whatever you do, put everything in writing. I used to work in HR and believe me, most places have their hands tied if things aren’t documented. If there is not written proof that you requested something and were denied or complained about something etc, they can’t do anything about it and all they will say is, “Why didn’t you complain about it when it happened?” Make sure there is proof that you DID.

You have every right to see your employee file, so make sure that there is something in there, in writing, that your production standards were raised and you were denied a pay increase. Try to get your boss to sign it.

Also give/send an official complaint letter to HR and copy your boss. Provide accurate documentation of your past excellent performance and justification as to why you should get a raise or your standards should be lowered back to what everyone else’s is (which ever you want more).

Check out what the industry pay rates are for a person in your job who consistently meets your production standards. (You can find this on the internet but I don’t remember the site. Sorry.) Your company should pay you what the market says you’re worth. If they won’t, tell them you’ll find someone who will. (Caution: then you might actually have to go find someone who will.)

Anyway, that’s the best advice I can give you–put it in writing! It also doesn’t hurt to develop a good relationship with someone in HR.

7

Is it fair? No.

Next question: So what?

As they say, life ain’t fair.

If the new standards are still less than what you were doing anyway does it really make any difference?

You aren’t going to be doing any more work than you were yesterday. Did you feel you should be paid more than everybody yesterday?

That said, if you feel you should be more rewarded for your output then stand by your guns and demand a raise. If you feel strongly enough about and they don’t give you anything then quit.

In many workplaces where work is mostly rote you will find that one person vastly performing everybody else will cause resentment. Again, not fair, but if you feel compelled to excel regardless I would suggest you find a job where excellence is appreciated and rewarded.

8

Sounds like this bozo should be told to shut up and sit down. If you’re meeting or exceeding production standards, what business is it of his what you’re doing? I keep the Internet open almost all the time, get my work done, and no one gives a flip.

My only guess is he’s throwing up a smokescreen to cover up the fact that he’s insecure about his own ability to perform. By making YOU look bad and focusing attention on YOU, he’s trying to keep it away from himself.

Can you go above your boss’s head and talk to your boss’s boss? I definitely wouldn’t let this slide.

Robin

9

“employers and managers” yep, that’s me.

now for your question. “is this fair”

Of course not. but that’s not the issue to me, the employer and manager. If you were paid by the task vs. by the hour, the situation would have been more fair to all - the other employee would get exactly what they’ve earned, as would you and the boss wouldn’t be paying for anyone to play (you could choose to work less hours and make same amount of money or work more hours and make more)

Now: (pretend I was your boss)
I have a business to run. I have set standards. I pay my employees an hourly rate. If they fail to meet their standards, I may choose to let them go. If they far exceed their standards, I’ve chosen, ** so far ** to turn a blind eye to whatever the person chooses to do on slack time.

Now, I have a situation. One employee, who is slow, resents another who is faster and then is able to “play”. Is it fair to the slow employee that they actually perform work tasks the entire work day in exchange for their pay, vs. the other who works and plays both while getting paid?

I have several choices at that point. I can (maybe) change the situation from hourly rate to production rate payment plan, I can make the fast employee work fewer hours, I can reduce the quota for the slower person, I can raise the quota for the quicker one, etc.

** keep with me, I’m getting to the good stuff **
Now, let me step out of the role of “your” boss and tell you what I would have done.

I would have told the person who complained “thanks for your interest. can we now discuss ways you can get your production up?”. I would then have moved some cubicles around. And I would have had a talk with you, too and suggested that you be a little more circumspect with your play time. This comes under the heading of “getting along with co workers”. I’m not slamming you for your actions. Obviously you’ve got experience and therefore can do things quicker. But it can be pretty demoralizing for the others.

As for your options: at this point, I’d refrain from anything for a moment. But, later on, make a time to talk to your supervisor about things. Offer up that you understand how difficult their position is (keeping everybody happy etc.). Point out that your rate is the highest, and that you’re proud of that accomplishment. Point out, too that your rate WHEN YOU STARTED, wasn’t that high. That you had developed your speed and accuracy. That you appreciate that new folks on the job may get intimidated by the experience of other workers.

However, to increase your goals without any attending reward may be actually offering an incentive to the other workers to keep their speed and accuracy down (see, we’re really thinking of the positive for everybody here).

so, options would be to get your goals back where they were and ignore your slack time activities (while you promise to be a little more sneaky about it), raise your base pay rate commensurate with the additional work performed or put you on a “commission” basis pay scale instead? this way, every one would still have incentive to increase their production and accuracy.

10

wring, just the point of view I was looking for.

I would not have been so angry if he had said, “Biggirl, you’re on the 'net too much, please curb your wanderings.” I wouldn’t have liked it, but I can understand this. What I heard was, “Biggirl, since your fast you’ll just have to do more than everybody else.”

I’ve only been here 5 months and I don’t want to be a “troublemaker”. The pay here is good, the hours are flexible and the work is easy. I like this job.

And Obfus, I can meet my new production standard with no problem. This is not the point. The point is that I am being punished for doing a good job. And while it is true that life isn’t fair, I don’t see why I should stand by while an injustice is being done to me.

When I first started working here I didn’t surf at all. But since I really didn’t want to show up my co-workers, I started spending time on the 'net. I don’t want to show any of them up except for Cubeboy, that is. I don’t think he’d take to kindly to me telling him how to work faster. I once suggested he split his screen and he just sorta looked uncomfortable and said he was used to doing it his way.

11

It sounds to me like, from that answer, and remember, I don’t know this guy from a whole in the ground, that he may not know how to split the screen, set things so he can work faster.

I would recommend trying to help him out-you are all there to do the same thing. You do have to work together, whether you like it or not.

Leave the door open for him to come to you with questions if necessary. See how he responds. (You may want to talk to you supervisor about this before you make the offer. Just say something like “I think I can help cubeboy out, would you mind if I tried to teach him some new things?” or somthing like that.

Remember too, the company you work for owes you nothing. But, you do owe them a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Is a fair day’s work the same for everyone? nope. Not in my opinion. Some people do work faster. Some people take longer to learn. Try to help out cubeboy, not get irritated with him. Keep the peace in the office-because if problems between the two of you come up, you can both be fired for it.

Yes, I know I sort of rambled. It’s a rambling kind of day.