Every summer, the powers that be gather us around to talk about what our raises will be. Our raises are directly related to how much (or in the case the last few years, how little) the governor decides to contribute to a certain sector. In prior years, it was a flat percentage for everyone. To even things out a bit more, the plankton in the crowd usually received a one time flat dollar amount given along with the flat percentage. The last couple of years, they were doing it on merit only. If you "met expectations", you received a certain percentage. The "exceeded expectation" people got a bit more, etc. In 2008, it will be that (which I dislike because it's very subjective. One supervisor thinks you're great, they move on and the next one thinks you aren't a 'team player' even though you are doing exactly the same thing and your scores drop) with our 'market value' (i.e. how much people in our positions in the rest of the world get paid). During the seminar yesterday, we had to find our job title and our annual income in one of the the three sections: below market value, at market value, above market value. Just as I suspected, I'm below. At first my giddiness at having the powers that be recognize it got to me...and then it hit me: I will never be at market value. I could bend over backwards to get a superior score only to find out that budget constraints leads to smaller percentages than in the examples they gave and all the while, the market grows every year and the people at the top who exceed market value, keep getting paid more and more.
I've now decided to be happy and content with just being a 'meets expectations' kind of girl and embrace whatever tiny percentage it may be and use this as just another incentive to move on to bigger and better. Preferably in a sector that doesn't rely on the government for its money.
5 comments:
sorry to hear about your troubles--but since you sided with the squirrels...
I'd be very leary working for the Mitten State, it seems that we go from one bit of economic bad news to another
As I hear 3 nights a week while watching Big Brother 8, it is what it is.
I find it humorous when the newsreaders try to spin some good news out of a story about a company and include that there will be 1,000 new jobs. They never then continue on to include the number of people who are unemployed and looking.
One thing I've learned about raises is that to guarantee the biggest raise, you need to switch jobs. Everytime I switch jobs, my salary increases more than 3 to 5 years of raises at the same job.
So who do you think Evel Dick and his crew are voting out tonight?
I was with an employer for 10 years and was always paid less than the guys doing the same job. The argument was that I was always maxing the raises. Great but it still always left me behind my peers. One boss finally said "this is not right" and got me promoted out of zone to get my pay equalized. Of course some of the guys thought I was getting "preferential" treatment.
Sometimes, even if its right, you can't win
Ed - Actually I was hoping for Amber because I'm getting tired of her constant crying. So now I'm torn...Jen's been pretty quiet lately but really, according to Jamika, God has already determined the person that will be going home tonight so I can only wait and see God's plan unfold. :-)
Mal - Here, some of the long term employees are well above their market value thanks to being here during the years when double digit raises were common so now they are kind of s.o.l because they won't be getting hardly any raise. To prevent complaints, they were told that they should just appreciate their higher than norm salary.
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