Promotion, No Raise

HR doesn’t set the salary pool for raises, top management does that, and HR just implements it. Actually all the places I’ve worked, all big companies, the department got a pot of money which could be distributed sometimes under certain rules.
Also, raises did get given out once a year, except when someone was promoted. I’m in favor of that. People may fantasize asking and getting raises in the middle of the year, but would probably happen is that most people would get no raises at all, except for a few loudmouths. It would probably wind up increasing the gender gap even more than it is.
Managers aren’t limited in giving performance feedback to once a year, but lots of them don’t even like doing it that often.

I just want to point out that it’s a good idea to review and update your resume annually. I’ve always recommended that you should do this just before your annual performance appraisal. For one thing, it’s helpful during the appraisal session. For another, if the appraisal really pisses you off, it’s of some comfort to know that your resume is ready to go out to other employers.

A friend of mine responded to that situation by blurting out “Golly, now little Jimmy can get a pair of shoes!”

Twice now, I’ve served as “Acting Medical Director” for my healthcare system with over 23,000 rather specialized patients. Once for 9 months, and once for 11 months. It was full of aggravation and stress, and I didn’t get a dime more than my standard salary for it, because our public sector government run system doesn’t work that way, despite the fact that the Medical Director salary is about 14% greater than my salary.

I did get a lot of ‘attaboys’ and all that, and the eventual Medical Directors I helped interview and choose did defer to me, and came to me a lot for institutional knowledge. They also let me run my area pretty much the way I wanted. But money is the sincerest form of flattery.

Never again.

Not anymore. All the Payless stores are gone.

I got one of these a while back. Within a year or so, I got a raise to the midpoint of my new pay grade - about an 11% bump.

Then again, in my case I’d asked for the promotion at my review (because my responsibilities matched a fellow with a better job title who was just leaving) and didn’t ask for a pay raise. Not exactly apples and oranges, but a little different.

Yup, happened to me three years ago. I resigned over it and got a new job.