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All simplicity is a lie. If I could give a professional hint to my former self it would be: the best employers are the ones who are comfortable making a deal -

by hawkice 11y ago

All simplicity is a lie. If I could give a professional hint to my former self it would be: the best employers are the ones who are comfortable making a deal -- paying what they need to pay to get it done, and trying to strike the best deal they can. Any hiccup on that road (notably: not paying / checks bouncing / salary negotiations where the numbers decrease at any point, even if it is due to a technical or paperwork error on their end) is a _very_ bad sign.

boomzilla 11y ago
It depends on the size of the company. Once past a certain size, there is not much a manager, even at director level can do to give an employee a raise out of review time. The HR "partner" have a big rule book on compensation and the poor manager can only "slot" his/her reports into a predefined range. A startup does have more flexibility to adjust compensation.
- nikatwork 11y ago
  I've found that's often a BS management excuse to shift blame. If they really want to keep you, they'll find the money.
- droopyEyelids 11y ago
  HR doesn't actually run the business- they're actually there to serve the business needs. You were 'let down easy' by whoever told you that. It's human civilization on planet Earth, everything actually is negotiable, and "my hands are tied" is just a negotiation strategy.
- roel_v 11y ago
  Yeah, as someone who has (sort of) hid behind that excuse to shift the blame, let me tell you - that's an excuse people hide behind to shift the blame. It's like 'legal won't let me'. Bullshit, you don't care about it enough to ignore the advice that legal gave you. HR's role is to serve the business, not the other way around.
- taki1 11y ago
  at one big company with three capital letters they have this policy too. Guess what, they gave me $30k bonus in two payments instead. Countering the article premise really, you don't ask for a raise. You are (should be) so important to their project(s) that they are the ones asking from time to time if you like everything on the project, need a vacation, raise, bonus. One time, at 1:00am still at the office, I got a call from my wife. She wasn't happy to say the least. Guess what, we had a nice dinner booked in really expensive restaurant pretty soon. And all of that administering esoteric set of admin tools ranging from source control, through qa, to pmo. If you are one of the very few guys in town who know the tools: what options do they have? "Underpaying" on purpose or not isn't an option at this point. At this point the Manager makes sure you are compensated well. Just trying to fix the mindset. The mindset shouldn't be about negotiations. The mindset should be: what can i do so they really, really need me.
- btbuildem 11y ago
  HR is a cancer, majority of the time

by hawkice 11y ago

boomzilla 11y ago

It depends on the size of the company. Once past a certain size, there is not much a manager, even at director level can do to give an employee a raise out of review time. The HR "partner" have a big rule book on compensation and the poor manager can only "slot" his/her reports into a predefined range. A startup does have more flexibility to adjust compensation.

nikatwork 11y ago
I've found that's often a BS management excuse to shift blame. If they really want to keep you, they'll find the money.
droopyEyelids 11y ago
HR doesn't actually run the business- they're actually there to serve the business needs. You were 'let down easy' by whoever told you that. It's human civilization on planet Earth, everything actually is negotiable, and "my hands are tied" is just a negotiation strategy.
roel_v 11y ago
Yeah, as someone who has (sort of) hid behind that excuse to shift the blame, let me tell you - that's an excuse people hide behind to shift the blame. It's like 'legal won't let me'. Bullshit, you don't care about it enough to ignore the advice that legal gave you. HR's role is to serve the business, not the other way around.
taki1 11y ago
at one big company with three capital letters they have this policy too. Guess what, they gave me $30k bonus in two payments instead. Countering the article premise really, you don't ask for a raise. You are (should be) so important to their project(s) that they are the ones asking from time to time if you like everything on the project, need a vacation, raise, bonus. One time, at 1:00am still at the office, I got a call from my wife. She wasn't happy to say the least. Guess what, we had a nice dinner booked in really expensive restaurant pretty soon. And all of that administering esoteric set of admin tools ranging from source control, through qa, to pmo. If you are one of the very few guys in town who know the tools: what options do they have? "Underpaying" on purpose or not isn't an option at this point. At this point the Manager makes sure you are compensated well. Just trying to fix the mindset. The mindset shouldn't be about negotiations. The mindset should be: what can i do so they really, really need me.
btbuildem 11y ago
HR is a cancer, majority of the time