My annual performance review was good - 3% pay raise

[slackmaster]

The boss told me 3% was the maximum that anyone was getting, because the company didn't meet its earning objectives set by our parent company masters up in the Great White North.

Now I don't regret not busting my ass to get an excellent review.

How is everyone else being treated by their employers this holiday season?

[J Miles]

1. Cool

Congratulations!

[NMDemDist2]

2. is the raise gonna be eaten up by Health Ins?

congrats and good on you though, it's always nice to get kudos

[slackmaster]

3. Great question about health insurance!

Increased health insurance costs are another reason the parent company is giving for being a bit stingy on the raises. We had an unusual number of employees have major illnesses and surgeries, and rates in general are going up.

They decided to keep our out-of-pocket expenses for health insurance the same as last year, and hold back on pay raises.

So you are correct, raises did get eaten up by health insurance premiums.

[meegbear]

4. We're having our holiday party at lunch today ...

We got acquired eariler this year and didn't expect any bonuses, but we're getting one! But the boss mucked up the filing so we're gonna get it after Christmas, the 29th.

No biggie, just glad to get it. :hi:

[slackmaster]

7. Mind your p's and q's and have fun

There is no carreer-limiting move more devastating than making a drunken fool of one's self at the company holiday party.

[meegbear]

8. No boozing: 12-2 and back to work ...

but we get a half-day Friday.

[hippiechick]

5. 3% is the max our company has given for the past 4 years ...

... except for Execs, of course. :eyes:

Last year, instead of Christmas Bonuses, the Execs decided to give a huge donation (tax deductible, I'm sure) to the United Way in the company's name. All us foot soldiers got was an email explaining it - no input on where it should go, etc. A real kick in the teeth for so many associates who are borderline poverty-level themselves, who would have used that bonus for Christmas gifts for their kids or groceries for their Christmas meal.

And then our CEO took a $900k 'performance bonus' after having been in the position for less than a year and left the company. Asshole.

Corporate America can bite me.

[acmavm]

6. Our max is 3% too. But we get points for every day late,

for calling in sick (even though we get sick time) etc. So they look at the points and then decide what kind of a raise you deserve.

I have 9 points. I rode the bus for a long time and at first it was on time. After a while it was late constantly. Especially if we left late and got caught by a coal train or just because the driver used to like to sit at the transfer hub and gossip. Plus I was really sick twice so I got points for calling in.

I don't look forward to much of anything.

[sui generis]

9. in the world of high finance

staff raises are generally higher plus sharing bonus, but the flip side is you work sixty to seventy hours a week, carry pagers, phones and a whole month's worth of wall street journal and other industry publications jammed up your ass plus a ticker tape in your bedroom and another one in the crapper. Investors and management advisors get paid quarterly fees, and profit when the investments pay, plus a significantly higher percent of annual bonus on management equity.

Some places pay last years bonus in four equal payments over the upcoming year as a gold plated handcuff; that is of dubious legality but it essentially means you lose a year's bonus any time you quit since it's paid a year in arrears.

Generally speaking the more visibility you have, the more you get paid. It's a reward to keep you from running off to work for (or invest with) the competition (and ostensibly to share internal strategies and contact lists), and also because everyone compares notes. "MY bonus is bigger than yours" oh yeah? Well we got solid silver golf clubs from the founding partners! Oh yeah? Well we got a $20 McDonald's gift card! Guess the McDonald's guy wouldn't be busting his (or her) ass for another year for another McDonald's gift card, so in this case competition is good for the little guys for a change.

[dysfunctional press]

10. you have to change jobs anymore to get a decent raise...

a company i used to work for would only give a 3% raise- although i was deserving of much more(i accounted for over half the revenue in an office of 12 people). i left for another job with another company with a 20% increase in pay- 6 months later, the first company hired me back at 10% above the second company- so ultimately i basically ended up with about a 33% raise.

[mnhtnbb]

11. My son just got his 1 year review and got 5% raise...

He works at an international security and messaging software firm based in Cary, NC. His employer is considering adding another position to the area where my son works--tech help desk.

He also has been getting quarterly bonuses tied to dept. productivity. If he gets for this last quarter equal to the other 3 quarters this year, it will effectively raise his pay by 12% for the year (not counting his new 5 % base pay raise).

I told him I thought he was getting a very good deal from his employer.
He has only a HS diploma and is making in the mid-30's.

[TygrBright]

12. Well, our Co. gives some latitude...

...to facility directors (like my esposo) with regards to holiday plans, so he gave the whole amount to an employee committee and let them decide what to do with it. They chose to have a catered holiday party at a local hotel, with a DJ/karaoke setup, and then to give each employee their choice of a $50 gift card to Trader Joes or Target.

Annual reviews are on the employee's anniversary date, so they're scattered through the year. When the company acquired the facility, the compensation packages were skewed way out of line-- maintenance, housekeeping, and office support staff were making totally crummy and uncompetitive wages, and the professional staff had been rewarding themselves lavishly with big annual raises so that they were way over the local market rate in their specialty areas. One of Himself's first priorities was to get the underpaid staff up to competitive in the local market (and in Santa Fe, that's quite high given our local minimum wage ordinance and the big hospitality industry here,) and in order to do that he had to pretty much freeze the professional staff increases, holding them to COL and no more.

Needless to say, some of the employees REALLY LIKE how they're being treated, and some are whining like spoiled six-year-olds.

The four management staff get comparatively modest (about 1/2 to 1 percent of annual salary) bonuses in the spring, based on how the facility performed in relation to its prior-year goals. Since Corporate insisted on performance goals wildly and unrealistically optimistic for what's essentially a turnaround this year, we'll look for the 2-3% COL and no more, which is fine. We're not hurtin'.

discursively,
Bright

[radfringe]

13. no christmas bonus this year

not that it was alot to begin with... but they've cut that out.

two years ago they cut out the "performance bonus" completely.

this summer the company "picnic" was stopped.

and forget about the Christmas luncheon - that was squashed last year.

as far as raises go - it's been a flat 3% for everyone every year regardless of performance, and then they raise the insurance co-pay which pretty much wipes out the "raise"

we have "masters" in St. Louis. the small place I work at has about 20 employees. the general view about it is that it's on life support and the doctors are trying to find the DNR order

[jdadd]

14. I got 100% pay reduction...

Company that I worked for went chapter 11 in October

[slackmaster]

15. Did you go down with the ship?

I've done that a few times, and managed to enrich myself with quite a bit of material stuff before going on "unenjoyment".

[FormerDem06]

16. No pay raise...

But a fat bonus for being highly billable this year. My Roth IRA and savings account are sooo thankful.

[RebelOne]

17. My review comes up in January.

And my employer hardly ever gives anything above 3%. Supposedly, you can get up to 7%, but you would really have to bust your butt.

[William769]

18. Well being on Social Security disability, we got a 3.3% raise.

I was shocked we got that much.

[aikoaiko]

19. Bad management.

Token raises bite.

In my industrial organizational classes , we talk about inadequate raises a lot. If the difference in raises between the top performers and lowest performers is less than 10%, then management is all but rewarding mediocrity.


Make yourself feel better and get a 80% receiver. ;-)

[slackmaster]

21. I already own several 80%ers that need to be worked on

If I could retire today, I'd have enough fun projects to keep me going for about 10 years. I'd leave home only to stock up on food, beer, and an occasional tool or fastener from the hardware store.

[dmallind]

27. This is an important point you make

but the difficulty is almost nobody thinks THEY are a poor performer. Pay for performance works best when objective criteria can be applied and understood by the employees.

Most people think they are doing a good job and deserve good raises, regardless of where they are on the pay scale and what comparable performers make in the same job. It's harder to give 5-7% raises to someone who is already at the top of the scale for a job. This is especially true fo longer term employees who have enjoyed consistent raises perhaps higher than they merited ( a surprising number of managers give out unmerited raises). Unrealistic performance evaluations often go hand in hand with unrealistic raise expectations - you would be surprised (or maybe not) how many self-appraisals I have seen with the highest grade - "far above expectations" checked in every category. When I ask for examples in pre-review meetings from people submitting these reviews they usually say things like "well I'm reliable and I get my job done". Ermm.....that would be "meets expectations". Often people think that means "average" or "mediocre" when in reality it is the category most people SHOULD be in for most criteria. It means you are in the right job and doing it right. Someone consistently exceeding expectations should be in a better job.

Fewer still will EVER rate themselves as "needs improvement" in any category even where they admit in non-review discussions they struggle. I have given reviews to literally dozesn of people and I can recall just two who thought they needed to do a better job at anything. Strangely (perhaps not though), they were two of the best performers.

Typically I have tied raises to completion of projects and improvement plans agreed to the year before (and I mean agreed to not mandated). It still gets some grousing from those who think they deserve 5%+ every year just for being there, but at least they understand that it's based on an objective rating of what they agreed they could and would do. It took me about five years at my last company but I finally got people out of the silly habit of expecting that longevity=better money and got them to realize that improvement=better money. I've been told at least twenty times in reviews that "I have given XX years to this company" and you know what? Not one of them who said so ever had - they had sold XX years of work to that company, and been paid for it - often at a higher rate than better performers with less tenure.

And no not a hypocrite at all - my own self-appraisals always contain some needs improvement rankings, and far exceeds rankings only when I can back it up objectively.

Aikoaiko is dead on - there should be a difference in compensation based on performance, and it should be substantial enough to encourage, reward and motivate the higher performers. There's a reason Kevin Garnett makes more than Mark Madsen even though the latter puts in a lot of effort and does his job quite well. The trouble starts because very few people realize that in their work setting they are Madsens not Garnetts.

[aikoaiko]

28. Agreed -- it is a difficult issue.

But now that I work in a medium sized organization, I see the ill effects of not rewarding performance and reward mediocrity. I keep pushing the people at the top of my organization to examine their policies.

[populistdriven]

20. great reviews for 3 consecutive years with no change in pay

company makes huge profits too - it all goes to share holders

[JAYJDF]

22. My wife has been at her new job for 2 years now and hasn't

received a pay raise yet. Each year she has been rated at the top. This year she received a 1% bonus. I told her to give it back.

[1monster]

23. I got a $20 a day pay raise! Which after six years puts me on a pay rate

level with a fast food worker after three years or a Walmart cashier after six months to a year.

I'm a substitute teacher who often does long-term sub jobs. The last one was for more than three months.

My pay raise, however, doesn't take effect until February 1.

And my last pay check (monthly) was short at least $30.00, with no one in the payroll office available until Januray.

:eyes:

[rock]

24. OK slackmaster, coffe break's over

back on your head.

[mondo joe]

25. Nothing special happens ay year end at my work - but my partner got a great

bonus - I think the best yet.

My salary adjustment cycle doesn't kick in until later in the year.

[Giant Robot]

26. Welllllllll

I found out no raises are in sight, no contributions to our 403(b) and starting next year we will be paying a deductible for our health insurance, which has been wholly paid for by my agency. Happy friggin new year.

[mnhtnbb]

29. Hubbie got a 40% reduction in time notice last Friday. He works

two days a week at mental health clinics. He was one of three MD's who were given reduced hours.

This is all a result of 'mental health reform' of county-operated clinics that have been privatized in NC.

He may have the chance to add another day back in at a clinic in another county--but it will mean a 45 minute drive each way instead of the 20 minute drive each way he has now.

Merry fuckin' Christmas--er, I mean, the politically correct happy holidays.