Company Man
21 05 2009A friend of mine recently received an offer to accept a new position in his company. It was a position with numerous new responsibilities and requirements. But it didn’t come with a pay raise.
(I know that times are tough and can see the rationale behind a pay freeze, but I’m not entirely willing to concede that accepting new responsibilities and receiving compensation for that violates the idea behind a pay freeze. But that’s a semantic question for another day.)
The problem I’m more interested in addressing came up when my friend balked at the idea of accepting a bunch of new responsibilities and exactly zero new pay. His bosses told him that it would show that he was a company man. They said it would help him build credibility within the company.
This wasn’t the first friend I’ve ever seen go through this. Another of my friends was asked to put in a few eighty hour weeks on a special assignment without any additional recompense. His bosses told him that he was building “name leverage” or some kind of stupid non-tangible concept like it. He asked them point blank: “Can I buy food with name leverage?” Of course not. He knew it and they knew it.
What I want to know is if this is a a tactic that is used only with young people, or if they try to throw this kind of crap at older employees, too?
I’ve never heard of and simply can’t imagine someone saying this to a 50-year-old manager:
“Bob, you’ve been with us for twenty years, and we were hoping that you could take a bit more time away from the kids, because we know you’re working to provide for them and they’d definitely be benefited if you had a bit more name leverage.”
You know what that kind of request says to me: “We own you, and you’re too young to know any better, so bend over and get used to it.”
My response to that sentiment is to write my resume and start sending that bad boy out. If you won’t pay me more to accept extra responsibilities, someone else will. Moreover, it’s insulting that you’re constantly cramming productivity down my throat as the reason I can’t have a raise, and then when you ask me to step into a more productive position, you still tell me I can’t have a raise. Even more so given that I get the feeling you’re just trying to put this one over me since I’m relatively inexperienced.
Am I completely off base here? Is this something that managers only use with young employees, or is “name leverage” some kind of currency offered to people of any age but accepted by exactly zero retailers of repute (or ill repute, for that matter)?
there is no way i’d “accept a promotion” or take on higher responsibilities without the monetary benefit. company woman/man or not that is just not right nor is it fair.
i agree with you, its one thing to have a temporary pay freeze but its a whole matter completely when they give you added responsibilities that another person was paid more for and they not give you a little bump in pay. that’s bullsh*t.
hell, even a promise of “we’ll raise your pay more when the freeze is over” would be something!! but i’d want it in writing, not words or empty promises…
I know for a fact that this happens to those of us in “older” generations. A boss or company will get away with whatever they can. I just left a position that was considered a promotion–I worked 80 hours a week–because I knew that I was being taken advantage of. I did receive a small raise, but promised increases never materialized.
take it from an older worker (50) now during my time in the corporate world - i very often worked 70 hours a week and got paid for 40 hours a week….most of the time i was in middle management and the work needed to get done, I lived through the recession late 80″s - early 90″ …do more with less and raises? should you take on more without pay…this depends on what you want out of it…can you leveredge what you learned and the experience as you move forward in your career path? I did and started my own business in 1999….
As for this type of request from companies being asked only of young people…trust me it is asked of “baby boomers” all the time and in their case it is the fear that if they don’t agree to it they will be replaced by a “gen Y” for less money and more spunk and energy….you are not alone GEN Y!!
Thanks to all for your comments! I wish it were more comforting to know that it’s not just young’uns getting the shaft on this one.
I guess there is hope out there, though: The friend about whom I wrote this post called me today. He said that the VP of his division happened to stop by on his first day (which was last week) and find out that he had accepted the position with no new pay. The VP said, “I’ll send a couple e-mails to see if we can fix that.” My friend found out today that he got a raise!
So there’s hope after all! Glad your buddy got the raise he deserves, and I’m sure the company will benefit from treating him the right way, too.
I’m in the “closer to middle age bracket than I want to admit”, but a few years ago my responsibilites literally doubled without added compensation. I took the change in stride and committed to NOT doubling my time at work. I most certainly did my best to get as much done as possible, but I also worked hard at communicating clearly with those I worked with that some things may now take a little longer. I felt that to maintain my sanity, I had to set limits, I wasn’t willing for the added work to hamper my personal life. I also looked at it as if they were going to pay me double, they would have more justification for me to work 80 hours. In the end, I am still gainfully employed with the same employer and have a healthy work/life balance. It is possible.
Same thing happened to me and I am old by this blogs standards. Fortunately, one of my employees quite within a few months of my “promotion” so I had to post the job. Since it paid more than my “promotion”, I applied. HR got involved at that point and wanted to know why I applied. I pointed out that the job paid more than my “promotion”. Within a month, I got the raise. Shame I had to leverage someone leaving to get a raise but it appeared to work.