They make it up on volume.
Just wanted to provide an update. If this weren’t so laughable, it would be maddening.
Like I said, 2 weeks ago we had a meeting where the boss stressed the need for production in my area (let’s call it litigation - the majority of our office’s work) and went on-and-on praising the efforts of the highest producer (me).
Last week an e-mail came out announcing the promotion of 2 guys who had intentionally distanced themselves from litigation.
Yesterday we get another e-mail, saying that litigation backlogs are growing, and we have to have a 2-hour :eek: meeting on Monday to discuss how to handle it.
-The boss is not a stupid person. How can she not realize the predictable result if you consistently reward people for doing work in areas other than litigation, and provide no incentive for people to excel in litigation?
I mean, the answer is simple: assign the work and require that people do it.
Provide incentives for high production, and disincentives for low.
Not exactly rocket science.
But perhaps that is why I am not a boss!
Today I received a very large check as a settlement for my client in a non-litigation case. My direct boss covered me on a very complimentary e-mail to the big boss, and the big boss covered me on an incredibly complimentary e-mail she sent to the national #1 and #2.
Both e-mails are way more complimentary than I deserve. And while it is always nice to have folks say nice things about you, do they think I am so stupid that I’ll think a lollipop and a pat on the back is as good as a bonus or a promotion? At what point do I say, “Well, praise is nice, but SHOW ME THE MONEY!”?
Hell, I know that for whatever reason they do not reward litigation. I do litigation because I really really hate the other types of work we do, and I’m really good at litigation. And the only reasons I turn out high numbers is to have my bosses leave me alone - which they generally do.
Heck, I shouldn’t bitch too much. Like I said, my pay supports a very comfortable life, and many many people work far harder than me for far less pay. 
What is your usual review/raise schedule? Do you get a yearly review with a raise? If you don’t then I don’t think you are out of bounds asking for more compensation.
I’d get some “stats” together and go to your boss and say “this is what I produce on a daily/weekly/monthly basis and it far exceeds anyone else here and I’m due for a raise/promotion.”
If you do get a yearly raise what are you looking for here? I get the feeling from your posts that you are more of a “lay low” kind of worker and aren’t really looking for a promotion. Of course I don’t know you, but this is just a general feeling.
Can you negotiate for a percentage of the “litigation”?
Ah, the plight of government work. I feel for you, Dinsdale.
I strongly suspect I’ll be in your exact position a few months from now. Government agencies and contractors are very top-down organizations. And it takes an act of God (or really good connections) to get to the top. I just keep repeating to myself, “I’m not in the hellhole I was in earlier and I’ve got an income, I’m not in the hellhole and I’ve got an income.”
I’m person two in a now 3-person product development department at a company that contracts with the government. My department and the marketing departments are only just over a year old. I’m the only one in this company with product development experience and experience in government-run healthcare, yet I’m provided with no management opportunities and no real power to make decisions. There’s very limited possibility here for promotion since I’m only a few steps down from the CEO (we’re pretty small so far). When I put together a business plan for the development of my product, I was told I was “putting the cart before the horse.” So we have no plan, we’re just flying by the seat of our pants, and every time I bring up the prospect of a plan, I’m patted on the head and told, “Great plan, overly! Let’s keep that in our back pocket until we get X done.” Huh?
Oh, well - what do I know? I just work here.
Well, good luck, and enjoy your nap!
I work for a government agency. Positions are paid at various grades, and there are 10 steps within each grade. I get within-grade step increases on a set scale (currently every 3 years - my next one will be the top for my grade.)
My job description has one grade level above mine. Promotion to that grade would give me about a 5% raise and start me off on a new schedule of annual step increases. The promotion standard appears sufficiently nebulous that mgmt can pretty much choose to promote or not promote whomever they choose. For whatever reason, our office has decided not to promote people like me who specialize in litigation.
At the beginning of every calendar year I get a cost of living raise.
We get performance reviews every 6 months, a midyear and the end of year (September 30) assessment where you get number ratings on 4 or 5 categories. I’m satisfied with “fully satisfactory” across the board if that means my boss stays out of my hair. I generally get rated above fully-sat, but just below the level that triggers automatic bonuses.
Bonuses are generally awarded in the spring for the previous fiscal year’s
performance. Bonuses are ostensibly tied to performance ratings. The largest bonuses are pretty small - less than 1% of annual income. They appear to try to “spread the wealth.” Probably 2 out of 3 years I get a big bonus, the other year a smaller one. I’m not eager to make waves or bust my ass over what amounts to a couple hundred bucks.
Like I said early on - I’m pretty much just bitching here. My preference would be to get the maximum bonus every year, and be promoted to the next level. The raise would come in handy over the next 4 years when I will have 3 kids in college. But to even have the possibility of a promotion I’d have to ask to receive non-litigation assignments that I’d really hate to do. And, even if I get those assignments, there is no guarantee I would get promoted.
I guess what confuses and frustrates me is that mgmt continually claims how important the litigation work is, but when it comes down to handing out raises and bonuses, they consistently favor other areas.
I’m just doing my job for the paycheck - which is nice and sufficient. But there is someing kinda insulting for mgmt to tell you what a good job you are doing and how much they value your work, when they are giving $$$ to someone else. If they don’t want to give me the $$$ - fine. Just don’t treat me as tho I were so stupid that I would be satisfied with an “Attaboy” and a pat on the back, when folks who have been here half as long as me and work no harder than me are being promoted above me. Does that make sense?
Like I said, I’m just bitching here. Don’t really want/expect anything other than to do the least possible work for the most possible money!
Don’t those two go hand in hand? 
I know your frustrations. I remember my time working for the State of WA and it was very frustrating to see people get promotions/raises based on seniority versus merit.
How does one get a job as a TV critic or how about that girl from the Travel Channel who just goes around the world staying in luxury resorts? How does one get that job?
Right after this.
Seriously. If there was ever a “right time” it’s right now.
Enjoy,
Steven
Maybe you should ask your boss for a private discussion before the meeting, and say you think you see an issue about it. Show her the letter, and say that you know how much I do on litigation, but this is what I get rewarded for. I like the reward, but… you know, people get rewarded for this, they tend to seek it rather than litigation. Say that the two things coming together made you think about that pretty seriously, and say that if we need to do so much litigation, something should be done to refocus the reward system.
As in, say the memo and the letter together got you thinking, offer it as a potential reason for the continuing issues, and don’t blindside her in the meeting with it.
I did this once!..kinda.
We got a new boss as our company was bought out…and the new boss sent in by the buying company pretty obviously tagged me and my group as ‘important but not glamourous…just nuts and bolts area’. It really settled into me how bad it was when we had a discussion about “Does your group REALLY need to be composed of people with college degrees?” :dubious:
Excuse me? My group does pretty sophistcated math-stuff…the other groups you value so much make powerpoint slides pretty.
I became so upset later on that I decided I needed to get away or I would do something stupid like quit…so I faked father being really sick and was gone about a month.
When I came back, things were SOOOOOOO screwed up. I mean BAD! I even got a raise out of it 
Still left though, because I found a place that valued the math-stuff I was good at and now I compete with the old company.
Yeah, that’s probably the responsible/professional way to handle it. We’ll see how I feel Monday. But I’m DEFINITELY not going to say anything at the meeting.
Sorry to hear it Dinsdale. What I am hearing is that you have a lot of stuff that should position you well, but through a combination of other factors, that isn’t happening to the extent you would like.
So the real question is one three options:
-
Should you just accept it and keep your head down, make decent money and stay in a stable, sorta under-the-radar position?
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Should you modify your upward management approach, so you can get folks to perceive your contributions differently or think differently about your candidacy for promotion?
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Should you modify your work, so you are more in line with what you have come to learn what upper management values?
Sounds like 3 is not something you are interested in - you like the work and know how important it is to your agency’s mission. Sounds like 1 is kinda attractive - well, except you were peeved enough to start this thread. So what about option 2? I know, there is a bit of “do I really need to play the game??” - but the short answer is that upward management is an acquired and necessary skill and the trick is to finding an approach that feels natural and comfortable to you…
Sorry if this is just stating the obvious - bottom line is that we have all been there and I hope you can get past it quickly and in a way you would prefer…
I know it’s a bit late but you trying to make a point?
The number of calls I get every day from people trying to get me to tell them how to fix thier cars is disgusting. Me giving away infomation is taking money away from mechanics that get paid to fix shit. Joe Public doesn’t want to buy anything from me because they got that crap from Pep Boys or Autozone and when they have a problem with it they figure I’ll know just what’s wrong.
The information I have is cut and dried, it’s not anything to argue about, you know, like say a court case.
You know, you need a part, I have it, this is how much it is.
The only question is how much of my time I allow to be wasted talking to people that aren’t going to spend a single dime with me. Don’t get me wrong, if you act like a human being I’ll see what I can do to help but do you seriously think I or lawyers waste their time on helping people for free? I’m sure many are upstanding human beings but being nice doesn’t pay the bills.
Just so you know, I average about 16-18% profit on what I sell. And that’s just what I get paid on. I work 11 hours a day to get even that.
You comparing what I do to what a lawyer does is ridiculous.
Well see, I wasn’t comparing what you do to what a lawyer does. I was comparing what your business does to what a law business does, which is generate profits. Why in the world would any business dedicate 90% of it’s work time to projects that don’t generate profit? And why did you feel the need to add the rolleyes when you were clearly talking out of your ass?
Yeah, dumb ass! That was my point. They don’t generate profit so they go on the back burner.
Omegaman, you know personal insults aren’t allowed in here. This is a formal warning. Don’t do this again.
Both you and Contrapuntal should take your beer elsewhere if you feel the need to continue it.
What exactly would I be continuing?
So did I…a rather substantial raise. I found out later from my let-go boss’s boss that he had arranged for me and the other manager to get larger than normal raises. Upper management knew how much slack we were having to pick up…because he had told them. Pretty damn cool, if you ask me.
Look, it may be cliche’, but nobody is going to toot your horn but you. If you don’t speak up. why should they care? They’re getting you at a bargain, and it’s time you told them so.
You nailed it, sir. I’m not sure there are any other alternatives. And I think I’m pretty solidly relegated to #1 for a number of factors. First of all, I’ve got 20 years of history with these folks. Tho on balance I’ve done a large amount of high quality work for them, I also have shot my big mouth off on more than one occasion, and our big boss is definitely the type who holds a grudge forever. I think it has long been determined that I am not “management” material. And I don’t think I want to be a manager - at least how it is done in my office.
I guess what kinda bothers me is simply seeing folk who IMO are not working any harder or better than me, getting promoted to higher grade positions. For whatever reason, mgmt has determined that excelling at litigation will not be rewarded with promotions or bonuses. But, as you say, if I want one of the non-managerial promotions, I could ask to do an area of work other than litigation. However, I far prefer the subject matter of my work, as well as the fact that I do it at my own schedule, without having to deal with anyone else, and allowing me to manage my schedule as I wish.
So - like I said - I’m just bitching here. Please send some kind thoughts my way as I head into a 2-hour meeting to discuss “how to handle our current workloads.” I know - how about mgmt assigns the work and then the staff does the work? What a concept!
Or here’s another idea, how about never promote anyone based on high litigation production, and instead promote people who have effectively removed themselves from litigation production?
All I want from this meeting is the strength to keep my big mouth shut! Better head in early to grab a seat in the back. . .
Glad I got some work done already this morning, because these meetings always seem to ruin me for the rest of the day!