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Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

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Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#61

Post by Just_A_Engineer »

The reason is that YOU have to ASK for a raise. I assume you didn't.

I can't believe what people write here. You don't need to change jobs, just sit down with your manager, tell them your pay has been stagnant and doesn't reflect your performance.

"I am deeply hurt and disappointed with way corporate works. I feel cheated." I'm sorry but this reads like it's written by a whiny teen.

Also as a side note. Extra work does not directly translate to improvement of your state. You first have to make sure that it is a) noticed, and b) called for.

Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#62

Post by danaris »

Why?

Because they can get away with it.

And that is because we no longer have strong, nationwide union presences (either in the US or Canada) holding them accountable.

Unionize your workplace, and get a bare minimum of annual cost-of-living increases included in the contract, plus some sort of performance-based increase. Those sorts of clauses are, from what I've heard, still standard in many union contracts.

Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#63

Post by devopsexpert »

Keep working at your current position, ask for a raise immediately and apply into another company as well for a backup option. Just as they charge customers as much as they can get away with, they will pay you as little as they can.Companies will only raise salaries for employees who they genuinely want to keep; if you're just a cog in the machine, they can afford for you to leave and replace yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#64

Post by AstralStorm »

tjansen wrote: post #50
WithinReason wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even better if you do look for a job, get and offer and say to your manager that you already have an offer but you would stay for X amount. This worked for me twice before and the company went out of its way to meet my request and now pays me the maximum allowed for my position.

Whether that works depends on the company culture. It makes you look like "you're only working for the money" and people won't trust you because "you will switch as soon as you get a better offer".

Which is what a rational person looks like under the circumstances. One would assume reasonable people are easier to hold and work with. But not necessarily cheaper, no.

Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#65

Post by AstralStorm »

onion2k wrote: post #59
Shadowed_ wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No raise will push harder.

You'd think so, but it doesn't. People will wait for the 'big raise' that's 'coming soon' for a really long time. Getting a small raise tells them that there won't be a big raise, so they look for a new role as soon as they get it.

People who were played for suckers in this obvious way are less likely to return to you in a crunch. Word also gets around about practice of your company. A big corporation might weather the bad PR and missed hiring opportunities, small company not necessarily.

Who you are left with are either very naive new kids, high rotation desperate people or people adept at minimizing work done.

Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#66

Post by AstralStorm »

nummerfuenf wrote: post #49

Did you ask for a raise? Because if not, then this is completely normal. You have two options (leaving out the "just continue and feel miserable"): - ask for a raise - change the company Whatever you do, make sure to have a realistic idea of what your work is worth. Ask fellow employees how much they make and check local statistics about salary in your specific field. Isn't Canada in a shortage of skilled software en…

Or you can shortcircuit it and just switch jobs if you're comfortable with risk.

Be careful you don't go into the same but worse situation. Have backup plans and do your research.

Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#67

Post by AstralStorm »

yodsanklai wrote: post #37

> For last 2 years, my compensation has remained the same. Not a 0.1% increase You can't generalize this to all companies. In some companies, raises are automatic if expectations are met. It's a free market. If you're unhappy with how your corporation works and if you can find better, it's your responsibility to change.

The whole idea is that it shouldn't be a responsibility of a single employee to try to find a less garbage employer with the limited resources and information they have. Even if you are resourceful, hiring literally has it in their job to get you to sign on even for bad conditions - whether it is by shaky contract, things outside the contract, obtuse negotiation structure, hiring freezes with carious excuses, literal ghosting and so on.

It takes actual weeks of time to properly research one employer. Perhaps more. Do you feel like moonlighting as a personal investigator for yourself? Or, rich enough to hire a good one?

Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#68

Post by global6000 »

tjansen wrote: post #50
WithinReason wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's even better if you do look for a job, get and offer and say to your manager that you already have an offer but you would stay for X amount. This worked for me twice before and the company went out of its way to meet my request and now pays me the maximum allowed for my position.

Whether that works depends on the company culture. It makes you look like "you're only working for the money" and people won't trust you because "you will switch as soon as you get a better offer".

What else are you working for if not the money? XD

Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#69

Post by caeril »

Depends on the nature of the business. Speaking for us specifically, with COVID, supply chain issues, and rapidly rising rates hitting one after the other, it's a simple matter of not being able to afford it. We're granting options and offering "platinum" health plans to compensate, but that's about all we can do right now. We fully understand if people choose to go.

> has exceeded the expectation in quarterly results and gained billions in surplus.

Doesn't sound like your employer is in our boat, however. Perhaps they're just dicks.

Re: Ask HN: Why corporate culture never increment your salary?

#70

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

philpem wrote: post #28

Because they know you'll do the work you're doing -- and the tenfold increase -- for what they're paying you. They exist to make money, not to enrich their workers. The optimisation strategy is to pay as little as possible for as much productivity and labour as possible, then charge as much as possible for it to customers as a package item. Everything trickles up to the top of the pyramid. Sadly the only way to relia…

Before looking for a new job, put together all these things you have done in a paper to make a point for the salary bump. Request exactly the amount you want, the company might negotiate, so prepare for that (ask for more holidays or other types of compensation).

If what you said it's true, this is essentially just a matter of renegotiating your contract.

Yes it's disappointing, it should come from the company itself.

However at least you won't need to interview, just the negotiation phase.

The company is also kinda forced to give you at least a salary bump, or they know you will start searching.

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