This site had 3 pop-overs. I'm not sure they want me to read their content.
Sorry for the inconvenience. I experienced no kinds of popups when reading the article (Firefox+Ubuntu). I would not have had submitted the article otherwise.
Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
21–30 of 50 posts
Re: Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
#22I'll make the same comment I made when this was posted last year: Fog Creek has secret profit-sharing plans. All Joel has done is move a portion of employees' compensation from the "salary" column to the "profit-sharing" column. If Joel were to begin posting the annual profit sharing of all employees, including Michael and Joel, then this article would make sense. But until then, it's just flair.
I don't know what fog creek does. Usually some % of profits is reserved for distribution to employees. say, 10 dollars in profits. 10% to profit sharing, that dollar is divided among the employees, proportional to their salaries. The other 9 dollars go to other stuff, like growing the company, or distribution of profits to shareholders.
So, joel may make a lot of money, but i seriously doubt he's half, or even 10% of the profit sharing money. I also wouldn't count out the idea that some employees (other than Joel and Michael) have stock, so they get paid again when profits are distributed.
employees are rich. shareholders are wealthy.
Re: Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
#23I thought Joel promised us that he was retiring from writing.
Re: Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
#24I feel like my system is simpler. I pay people what they're worth to me (provided I can afford it). Even this system isn't perfect... given a specified experience/skill level, they may be worth more to me 2 months ago than they are now (or vice versa). But it makes it very easy to decide what everyone should get paid.
If they are worth X, but I can only pay Y (where Y Also note that, if they are worth X, but you can only pay Y, this should only be a temporary situation. Because, if they are truly worth X, then once you hire them there should be no reason you cannot afford to pay them X eventually (since they are bringing that value to your organization).
Re: Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
#25I thought Joel promised us that he was retiring from writing.
If you look at the comments you'll see that the oldest one is from April of last year.
Re: Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
#26An off-topic Complaint:
I was going to read this article, but halfway through the first paragraph some stupid ad blocked my view. I'll definitely think twice before clicking through on anything pointing to inc.com again.
Re: Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
#27An off-topic Complaint: I was going to read this article, but halfway through the first paragraph some stupid ad blocked my view. I'll definitely think twice before clicking through on anything pointing to inc.com again.
same here. super annoying. not sure I'll ever read anything from inc.com again.
Re: Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
#28I'll make the same comment I made when this was posted last year: Fog Creek has secret profit-sharing plans. All Joel has done is move a portion of employees' compensation from the "salary" column to the "profit-sharing" column. If Joel were to begin posting the annual profit sharing of all employees, including Michael and Joel, then this article would make sense. But until then, it's just flair.
I work at Fog Creek, and this is just incorrect. Profit sharing is a simple formula known to everyone in the company, so you can easily figure out how much everyone made in profit sharing at the end of the year.
Honestly, I know it sounds too good to be true, but all compensation is completely open and honest.
Re: Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
#29I'll make the same comment I made when this was posted last year: Fog Creek has secret profit-sharing plans. All Joel has done is move a portion of employees' compensation from the "salary" column to the "profit-sharing" column. If Joel were to begin posting the annual profit sharing of all employees, including Michael and Joel, then this article would make sense. But until then, it's just flair.
I work at Fog Creek, and this is just incorrect. Profit sharing is a simple formula known to everyone in the company, so you can easily figure out how much everyone made in profit sharing at the end of the year. Honestly, I know it sounds too good to be true, but all compensation is completely open and honest.
That is not what I was told when I asked last year. Thanks for jumping in and clarifying.
Just to be clear - does that apply to Joel and Michael too? If so, a tip of the hat to both of them.
Re: Why I Never Let Employees Negotiate a Raise
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work at Fog Creek, and this is just incorrect. Profit sharing is a simple formula known to everyone in the company, so you can easily figure out how much everyone made in profit sharing at the end of the year. Honestly, I know it sounds too good to be true, but all compensation is completely open and honest.
That is not what I was told when I asked last year. Thanks for jumping in and clarifying. Just to be clear - does that apply to Joel and Michael too? If so, a tip of the hat to both of them.
Since the formula is based on number of days worked, I've always assumed that they just use the same formulas for themselves (and they get a lot more because they've worked at Fog Creek much longer than anyone else), but I guess I've never asked.
But I think the point is more that I know I'm not getting screwed over compared to my peers in the company -- it wouldn't really bother me to find out that they take extra for themselves since it is their company and all...