I keep professional contacts with loads of folks in different industries all over the country, and after a couple of years of them being divided between ‘I’m happy to still have a job’ and ‘oh crap, I no longer have a job’ … this is the first year folks are starting to discuss raises.
Having talked to several people in the last few weeks I have found a few basic themes: there are ~1% companies like Google who are saying ‘we had a great year – here, have some money’. Then there are the companies that are still struggling – which is the majority – and those folks remain happy to have a job.
Finally there are companies – and you only need check last week’s earnings reports to see many of them – who had very good years in 2010 and are therefore offering raises. Yet those raises are disproportionately small compared to the company earnings. I have heard the same management mantra from several folks, ‘we need to be conservative in these still uncertain times.’
Um … yeah, right!
Translation: ‘the economy is still lousy in most places, and your mobility is limited because most places still have restricted hiring if they are hiring at all. We are giving you as small a raise as possible because we have the power. You can look forward to better raises when the economy improves and we are desperate to stop the brain drain due to the ill will generated now.’
What are you seeing in your company / industry?
