5 ms·
Seems like a great way to ensure you have mediocre talent. Maybe I've just been on my own too long, but I at least want the allusion that I'm being paid a fair
by Implicated 11y ago
Seems like a great way to ensure you have mediocre talent.
Maybe I've just been on my own too long, but I at least want the allusion that I'm being paid a fair market rate, instead of that which is 'fair' to my co-workers or company.
Those of us who are passionate about what we do, and work very hard, should run from something like this. I'm very open to conversation as to why that's not a good idea.
Buffer is an example of what seems like a cool product and company...but their salary system, IMO, favors Buffer. Not the people building the product. I'd never work for them.
- ahi 11y agoI work for a public university so all salaries are public. There's no fixed salary levels, but everyonein the same position ends up very close. It completely eliminates office politics, but I don't see the downsides. If you want more money you work hard for promotion or a move to another unit. And you know exactly what those positions are worth and what it takes to get there.
- fleitz 11y agoOffice politics have been eliminated in academia?
- saganus 11y agoIf I understood your comment correctly; you say there are no (or very little) office politics in academia, right? I have met a few academics that would definitely bet their paycheck on academia having much more politics than companies.
- chockablock 11y agoMany who work for universities are not academics in the usual sense.
- dominotw 11y ago> It completely eliminates office politics Can't tell if you are being sarcastic.
- fredkbloggs 11y agoDoes your employer promote based on the results of an objective test? For example, many police departments have tests officers must pass to attain a particular supervisory rank. If that's how things work, then I agree that you know "what it takes to get there". In most organizations, public sector or private, there are a limited number of openings at a particular level, dependent upon budget, need, politics, and whatever other means of decision-making are in use. And those positions are filled based on subjective criteria at the discretion of the supervisor(s) responsible for them. So while you do know what other positions pay, the hard part -- assigning each human a role and compensation -- is every bit as opaque and subject to manipulation and error as anywhere else.
- rayiner 11y agoAs a counter example, most of the most profitable and selective law firms are lock-step top to bottom.
- fleitz 11y agoOf course they are, if you can convince high productivity people to work lockstep, then you make profit. In law people take lower salary for partnership just as in startups devs buy into equity. Since equity / partnership for a few is cheaper than labour the company makes money hand over fist.
- nostrademons 11y agoThe causality may run the other way. Lock-step salaries work best when the key driver of the firm's success is not the knowledge and skills that individual employees bring to the firm, but rather pre-existing market advantages that the firm itself has that let its employees be more productive and make more money. Otherwise, the firm has a strong incentive to acquire those individual knowledge and skills to make itself more profitable. The most profitable and selective law firms are such because they've built up very strong brand names and client relationships over time. They make an employee's career; an employee doesn't make the firm's success. As a result, the employee doesn't have the negotiating leverage to demand a higher salary, and the firm has a strong incentive to ensure harmony and control costs among its workers.
- caminante 11y agoI'm not disagreeing, though, I feel the law profession's more of an exception, not a counter-example. Law uniquely aligns with lock-step (like consulting) because... 1. the workers are homogenous (i.e. 3+ years of law edu) 2. the tasks are homogenous (similar to consulting) 3. the end-game is identical (i.e. partner-track/shareholder)
- derefr 11y ago> but I at least want the allusion that I'm being paid a fair market rate I don't. I want to be paid way above market rates. "Fair market rates" in some industries is breathtakingly low.