If you are paying someone less every year after adjusting for inflation, how can you be upset over their lack of loyalty? That’s just…hypocritical.
Also, people (particularly professionals) feel that they should be making more each year after adjusting for inflation. They also expect significant ‘gaps up’ from time to time (usually called ‘being promoted’). If you, as an employer, are unwilling or unable to do this…then OF COURSE the employee will leave eventually! The better they are at their job the more likely and sooner this will happen. Why be pissed over their lack of loyalty?
Like I said in a previous post…be a mentor, not an asshole. If you are unable to pay/promote people…then you are essentially a training ground. You need to come to terms with your role in training people so that they can go to other companies when they are trained and worth more because of their skills. You will have a period of time where you have a skilled person at lower wages before they leave. Nothing is free…your need to pay low is compensated by your time training them.
I agree. The guy is just checking out his options. Don’t fire him for it. He’s an employee, not a slave. Unless he’s a total loser and you’ve been looking for an excuse to can him, just tell him what **Wallenstein **recommended: you can’t give him a raise right now. If he chooses to leave because of that, so be it. If he realizes he can’t do better elsewhere, so be it.
If he decides that he’ll stay but get all resentful and nurse a grudge because he feels stuck with a company that won’t pay him more, he may give you cause to fire him. But looking around to see what’s out there is not grounds for dismissal.
Are you just trolling at this point, or do you really not grasp the concept? Because I’d really hate to explain this to you, only to have you contiue to act deliberately obtuse for the remainder of the thread.
Maybe, due to slow business, he has stockpiled several months of inventory. Say it will take him 2 weeks to train a replacement. Even if there was no excess inventory, maybe he’d even be able to handle the extra workload himself for a couple of weeks. Business is slow, after all.
Maybe he’d lose little enough business that he doesn’t care in the long run. Regardless, you don’t have anywhere near the necessary information to conclude that the employee “has him by the short hairs”. That’s just inane.
I don’t see any reason to assume that this is some sneaky negotiation technique. It’s entirely possible it was a mistake, perhaps on the part of the interviewing company, or more likely Bob is not up on his job search etiquette. What with him having worked at the same job for most of the last decade.
I’ve seen multiple threads in this forum asking how to handle references while still employed. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least that someone botched this up.
They are right. You just don’t understand the concept of inflation vs. rising prices. Inflation has to do with the value of money, namely that your dollar is now worth less. Rising prices has to do with the supply/demand curve. If there is a 3% inflation year and your premiums increase 7% it is because the insurance got more valuable. Of the 7%, 3% is due to inflation and 4% is due to the rise in value of the product.
Ah yes, business is slow, inventory isn’t moving, no apparent urge to turn any of this around…sign me up for a thousand shares.
The point is: the employee is probably going to get another offer–from an employer that is poised to take on more employees, and so, let’s assume, an emplower that doesn’t have this inventory backlog problem (or “luxury,” as you apparently seem to see it).
Meantime, if the OP’s business is as you’ve glossed, it sounds like it’s circling the drain. And that the OP responds to this crisis of losing his only widget manufacturer emotionally rather than in a calm, cool, collected, and business-like manner amplifies all this.
My point stands: It’s not the OP’s employee who’s in the vulnerable position here.
Why would you assume the employee is going to get another offer, especially from an employer that’s expanding? Are that many employers expanding right now?
This is what struck me, too. 22% increase counting both pay and benefits in eight years is pretty miserable.
Let’s say he started at $30,000 plus benefits. Even assuming that all of that 22% was pay and none was benefits, that’s means he’s making $36,600 today.
According to this pdf, $36,600 today is worth $30012 in 2001 dollars. So basically he’s gotten a $12 raise – in eight years! Would you stay at a job where you got effectively no raise in 8 years? Plus, any amount that went to benefits that didn’t get better (e.g. increased coverage, not just increased premiums) basically means that compared to 2001 he’s in a worse situation. No, you didn’t make health costs higher, and you didn’t cause inflation, but his standard of living is effectively less today than when he first started.
Frankly, if he wasn’t looking for work, I’d think him insane.
Now, giving you as a referral without asking does strike me as somewhat unprofessional. But, any person who’s only seen a 22% increase in total compensation in eight years had better be making a ton of money or it’s simply not going to look very favorable in real dollars.
The economy is starting to rebound. I’m looking at potentially moving jobs and I already have a phone interview – three days after I started looking – and I’ve only applied for four positions. If someone has marketable skills, they should be looking, and I don’t think you should resent the guy. If you honestly can’t pay more, that’s understandable, but you shouldn’t expect the guy to stay when he’s not being compensated fairly.
Employers usually don’t call references until they are prepared to make an offer. Obviously there’s no point in contacting if you rule the candidate on other grounds, and it maintains the confidentiality of the application.
And yes, some employers are expanding. I know it’s a poor economy, but that doesn’t mean everyone is on the cusp of bankruptcy. I know some employers like to encourage that mindset (and that one should be profoundly grateful that they even condescend to give you a job), and some employees are all to willing to swallow that codswallop, but the truth isn’t so grim.
The employee felt emboldened enough to ask for a raise. The OP’s ego was bruised (doesn’t the employee know he’s the Big Boss!). It seems like the employee won’t get a raise; but on the other hand, it sounds like he might be trading up in terms of the quality of his employer.
Nope. I think you’re unnecessarily rude and wrong. The OP’s in an awesome position. He holds all the cards since he has all this information available to him. As a matter of fact, even if the employee leaves, who is to say that he won’t be able to find a new employee who is more motivated and willing to work for less money due to lack of seniority? Granted, until the new employee is fully trained the OP’s life might be a little more difficult, but in the long run the pay savings could be just what he needs to bring in more business and grow to the levels that he once knew.
There is lots of great stuff here. Thanks to everyone! I think I am really a pretty crappy manager and tend to take things personally. I particularly like the advice about being more of a mentor and less of an asshole. ( I wasn’t really being an asshole but I see I wasn’t being very sensitive to his position).
The meeting was pretty much a non-event. He says he periodically applies for jobs in hope of improving his income. (Fair enough). He claims that he didn’t give anyone permission to contact me.
I left the door open to further discussion. I feel more like working with him. That can only improve things for both of us.
I don’t think you’re a crappy manager. It takes time to gain perspective for employees, and you have a pretty limited pool of people you’re working with. I am basing what I posted on several years as a manager in a high-turnover, high-stress environment – I dealt with hundreds of different people each year, either transfers or new hires. It still took a long time not to take it too personally when an employee I put a lot of time into working with would look elsewhere. But, you know what? I’d do the same thing.
I love my current manager; he’s awesome, and he’s everything a boss should be. He’s supportive, consistent, flexible and even a good friend to me. He always backs me up and we’re a great team. Nonetheless, I’m looking for another job because, between a wage freeze and increasing health care costs (with decreased benefits) it’s simply getting to the point where I can no longer afford to work for my current company. It’s not personal. It’s just that having an awesome boss doesn’t pay the bills.
I didn’t accuse, I just asked. On top of that, the guy has been making idiotic comments about myself and the OP without so much as a blink from the mods here.
“I didn’t accuse, I just asked.” That ain’t gonna fly here.
As far as idiotic comments go, if I had to warn people about all the idiotic comments made in this forum, I wouldn’t have enough time to make my own.