I don’t get how corporate is so detached that they’re making these policies. I left my last job about a year ago because a competitor offered 30% more. My manager said they could do 3% and, with regular raises, I’d be at that amount in 10 years. I know his hands were tied and he was just grasping at any reason he could come up with to keep me, but that just makes me even more incredulous that companies are crafting policies like this.
Edit: This job also requires about a year of training to be halfway decent, with multiple business trips overseas, so they didn’t even save any money as far as I can tell.
They’re not detached, they’re playing a different game. The game of the greedy little piggies.
If I give you a raise, well, it just might get out that we give raises around here! Suddenly, I got all these, lazy, do nothing greedy little piggies asking for more money! That 5k becomes 20k, then 50k, etc.! My hard earned slop is drying up quick!
But if I hire someone new, I send the exact opposite message. We don’t do raises here, and if you don’t like it, we have no trouble replacing you, greedy little piggie!
This is the real reason. A universally beaten-down workforce is how you keep people working hard for the minimum pay. One new employee being paid more than the others from the get-go isn’t anywhere near as damaging to the bottom-line as one employee getting a nice raise and inspiring the rest of the office to demand one as well. With the taboo against asking people how much they get paid, nobody will ever know that the new guy gets paid more, and soon enough even they’ll get paid well under what they’re worth with inflation constantly rolling away.
I think it’s short sightedness. If you look at the costs over a decade it would be a no brainer to invest in retention, but if you’re only looking at the change in this quarter’s budget then it’s not as clear.
I always assume they believe you are lying.
They are willing to risk the “ok cya here’s my 2 weeks” to never suffer the “lol I made that shit up thanks for the big raise”
In which case, who cares? If the person can do the job and is happy to do it for $5k less than a new hire and no training is required, you could be Pinocchio for all I care.
If they can’t really spring for higher salaries, but you’re too lazy to change jobs just yet, get them to pay for credentials and training that make you a more desirable hire. Make them load the gun you’ll shoot them with.
Hiring budgets are often very different from operational budgets. The job you’re moving to for a 30% raise has the same policies as your current job; you’re just seeing the other side of it.
I’ve come to understand that but it’s a foolish way of operating on their part
They only loss out on the ones that leave. They win big on the ones that stay.
I wonder if anyone’s ever did the maths, I wouldn’t be surprised in many instances if it works out. However, it would be hard to estimate the impact of the employee resentment and loss due to losing knowledge.
Yes, middle management gets a bonus for keeping costs down, so it’s in their personal interest to refuse raises.
The one in charge of hiring gets a bonus for bringing in people because work needs to be done and there aren’t enough workers.
The incentives make the system as it is. And good long term incentives seem to be few and far between.
I had something similar happen. I lined up a second job that was offering almost double the pay. And my current company was just at a loss they couldn’t even offer me online work it was just like a goodbye. Though now I’ve kind of hit a paid cap for my particular field so I doubt that golden moment will happen again
I think that’s the point where I’d start considering trying to find something else in the same company. If I can make lateral moves for pay raises, I’d prefer that to toeing the company line and hoping they’re nice enough/like me enough to promote me
And that’s exactly what I’m doing 👍. Going for that senior role. While trying to avoid management lol
I had that happen to a team member (me as a manager). She came to give me notice, the pay jump was huge. 45k to 70k. I loved her and I tried to swing it with my boss, but the ultimate answer was no and she left. I hope she is happy now. She really was awesome and I wish she stayed working for me, but I’m happy for her. She was a single mom to 2 teenagers so there’s no way she couldn’t accept that money
In my experience, a lot of management positions are filled by people that are meeting a need of feeling a sense of power and control over others. They don’t care about the company anymore than they have to to meet this need.
Also, it’s possible that they’re worried that if they give you a raise, you’ll tell others and they will demand one as well. They rather hire a new person without social ties to other workers that wont share what their salary is.
That seems pretty credulous based on your anecdote. Also, you’d surpass 30% in 9 years of 3% raises.
The answer is you already have the 40k person, it’s not broken, there’s no urgency for HR to approve additional funding.
That person says they’re leaving, now HR can approve a counter offer, but also, can you trust they won’t leave later? Maybe we shouldn’t.
You’ve failed to give a raise and they’ve now left. Now there’s a gap and the team can’t pick up the slack. Oh shit, guess we better hire someone else. Oh, the market average rate we all pay the same company to provide says the rate is higher than 4 years ago, so they get hired with the higher rate.
Isn’t that unfair to the existing employees? We’ll see point 1. It ain’t broke, we can’t approve more funding.
This is why the idea of maintenance is something that should be better appreciated. If that person’s pay kept up in the first place, an employee can expect to not need to find another job and the problem never appears in the first place.
It’s because they know one dissatisfied person leaving is cheaper than either giving everyone a raise or creating 1 satisfied but many angry people after the others were ‘unfairly’ looked over for a raise.
That and for many people/managers it’s just the default to do nothing until required.
Edit: this is part of why unions are so important.
That is only true when employees are not skilled and do not gain inside knowledge.
Small business with one person leaving having a catastrophic impact, sure.
Giant corporation, one person can’t tip the scales, regardless of skill and knowledge.
Small businesses do the same shit.
As an embedded systems engineer, I left a small business to triple my pay. They eventually replaced me with someone at twice my old salary, but they couldn’t hack it and the company folded not long after.
I was at a small company for 7 years working 50-60 hours weeks. I left for a large company where I work 40…at most. Usually I get my stuff done and have a “free” day.
Even including the overtime pay at the first job, my checks here are over 50% bigger.
It took the threat of poaching for the boss to do anything but they wound up giving my coworker a raise. Clearly they had the money.
Didn’t forget paying 20% of their salary to a recruiter
Yes, the best way to increase your salary drastically is to change jobs.