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The company I currently work for made across the board 10% pay cuts this past pay cycle. It has absolutely demolished morale among the rank and file. It's defi

The company I currently work for made across the board 10% pay cuts this past pay cycle. It has absolutely demolished morale among the rank and file. It's definitely contextual to some extent. We're in an industry that's going to take a revenue hit, but the sustainability of the company isn't in question. Doesn't help that the company could afford nearly a billion dollars in stock buybacks in the last year, either. I think one of the big takeaways for me is that it's burned any good will the company had with a lot of its employees. I expect pretty heavy turnover once hiring starts to thaw again and I'll likely be part of it.

perl4ever 6y ago
I kind of think it is conventional wisdom that you can't have major, albeit temporary pay cuts. But my immediate reaction is, sure, that is strictly better than laying people off in a crisis, and my only caveat morale-wise would be that any top level people paid in stock ought to entirely forgo cash salary instead of saying "look, we're taking a 30% pay cut".
ashtonkem 6y ago
Smart companies should consider how they're going to retain their talent as priority number 2. Priority number 1 is surviving.
onion2k 6y ago
The company I currently work for made across the board 10% pay cuts this past pay cycle. It has absolutely demolished morale among the rank and file. Whenever I've been at a company when jobs are made redundant the same thing happens - everyone worries that their job will go if there's another round of cuts and morale plummets. That usually pushes more people to find new jobs, and it's ofter the people who are good because they can get new jobs more easily. There is no winning strategy for cutting costs.
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  > There is no winning strategy for cutting costs. But there are better and worse ones. Cut once and cut deep is close to as good as it’s going to get.
caseysoftware 6y ago
I'm sorry, that sucks. I hope they at least gave you notice so you could adjust and prepare instead of day-of/before "Hey, by the way!" Granted, a lot less people in tech are living paycheck to paycheck but it happens. Getting pinched there would be awful. Regardless of how these things - layoffs, pay cuts, whatever - go down, doing it with respect is key. After all, these are the people we've worked with, helped each other, and probably had a drink or two with. We're not family but we are human and it's a small world.

perl4ever 6y ago

I kind of think it is conventional wisdom that you can't have major, albeit temporary pay cuts. But my immediate reaction is, sure, that is strictly better than laying people off in a crisis, and my only caveat morale-wise would be that any top level people paid in stock ought to entirely forgo cash salary instead of saying "look, we're taking a 30% pay cut".

ashtonkem 6y ago

Smart companies should consider how they're going to retain their talent as priority number 2. Priority number 1 is surviving.

onion2k 6y ago

The company I currently work for made across the board 10% pay cuts this past pay cycle. It has absolutely demolished morale among the rank and file. Whenever I've been at a company when jobs are made redundant the same thing happens - everyone worries that their job will go if there's another round of cuts and morale plummets. That usually pushes more people to find new jobs, and it's ofter the people who are good because they can get new jobs more easily. There is no winning strategy for cutting costs.

barry-cotter 6y ago
> There is no winning strategy for cutting costs. But there are better and worse ones. Cut once and cut deep is close to as good as it’s going to get.

caseysoftware 6y ago

I'm sorry, that sucks. I hope they at least gave you notice so you could adjust and prepare instead of day-of/before "Hey, by the way!" Granted, a lot less people in tech are living paycheck to paycheck but it happens. Getting pinched there would be awful. Regardless of how these things - layoffs, pay cuts, whatever - go down, doing it with respect is key. After all, these are the people we've worked with, helped each other, and probably had a drink or two with. We're not family but we are human and it's a small world.