Compensaton for new job turns out to be 50% undervalued. Now what?
Three months ago, you had your opportunity to negotiate your compensation and the requirements for the job. If you’re getting paid less than you did when you had 8 years less experience in this field, then perhaps you are a sucker for taking this gig at this pay rate. Coming in after you’ve started and asking for more money because you underestimated the gig (or didn’t read the salary surveys) is bad form for a new hire, and it is not going to help with the employer/employee relationship. What you need to do is work with management or HR, or whomever to change the other problems. If you’re working 80+ hours a week, every week, then your department is short-staffed or poorly scheduled, and you should work to fix that. If the staff is incompetent, and/or needs to be gutted and reorganized — explain that up the food chain and work towards fixing it. If the sheer number of hours is the problem, make arrangements to fix that — even if that means resetting everyone’s goals and expectations
it’s not in anyone’s best interest – yours or the company’s – to have a position that’s not correctly compensated within the market Yes and no. It is in the company’s short-term best interest to keep its personnel costs low (and predictable). Many many many companies pay well under “market rate” for all sorts of reasons. Until recently, Google was famous for it — it was widely believed that the combination of employee perks, environment, options, and magnitude of impact of the Google name on a resume more than made up for a check that frequently was only 50-70% the size of what the employee would be getting down the street. (To a certain extent, this was true, especially since the equity part worked out well for a lot of people — but we have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. A Google option, circa 2001, is worth a lot now, but 95% of options written in 2001 are worth nothing today. It’s not easy to tell the difference between the two at the time) In the long term, though, this usually
I winced a little bit in terms of being accused of being “a complainer” Sorry for the strong language. Though, I think it’s necessarily harsh. I’m not actually accusing you of being a complainer, as much as saying what the default reaction from your employer is likely to be. Sometimes, it’s about perception. A recent hire trying to renegotiate to the tune of 50% based on the realities of the job (and especially on external market conditions) is very likely to be perceived in a negative light. the company culture was to continue to heap responsibility upon responsibility upon people to see what they can handle Wow. That’s pretty lame, unhealthy, shortsighted, and ultimately less productive, though I wish I could say it was uncommon. Does the company culture at least recognize when people are approaching their limits, and respect it when they push back? Is it worth it to continue to work for as long as 7-8 months at a significantly underpaid wage Well, first, you need to not look at it a
I have to admit, I winced a little bit in terms of being accused of being “a complainer”, having prided myself in being a good soldier for most of my now 15 year old career, but I can understand how someone might say that. I did speak with the Director of HR yesterday, where she admitted that the company culture was to continue to heap responsibility upon responsibility upon people to see what they can handle, and said that the job was undersold. She said that after another review cycle (now 4 months away), I could make a case for salary review, but that a 50% increase is not likely. She also suggested some of what has been suggested above: get clarification on these new goals/objectives with my direct manager(s So, now it’s on me. Is it worth it to continue to work for as long as 7-8 months at a significantly underpaid wage in a gamble that I may get a raise that gets me only part of the way to market rates? I’ll need to make the determination.
Related Questions
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- Compensaton for new job turns out to be 50% undervalued. Now what?
