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I wouldn't call him/her weird but rather insecure, not because he/she is unsure of the current status of the economy and its outcome but rather about his/her management skill. The only thing I can suggest is your husband looking at every angle, including the big picture of the company. Is it a small company, midsize, or large? Is your husband in a management position, ie manager, director, etc.? Does the company have realistic goals and/or projections? What plans/projects are in place make those happen? What of the company policies? (While your husband may increase the efficiency of the business, the lax policies permitting employees, including the upper and executive management, to deduct questionable expenditures as business/work related. In the end, the company didn't make real improvement in the business profits.) One reason why the boss would be reluctant to give your husband a raise is that he/she may have to give everyone else a raise too. Otherwise, there will be a lot of discontent within the workplace. Even so, there should be some kind of communication dialog like, "I recognize your great contributions to company. However, because of the current state of economy and we're struggling to keep as much people on the payroll as possible. Therefore, I/we can't give you a raise at this time. When the economy or our business' profits improve, you'll be among the very first to be considered for a raise." Or "Because of the great contributions you've made to company, I/we can give a little raise. But the current state of economy can't permit us to give everyone a raise so you'll have to keep this between us to prevent discontent within the workplace." etc...
To me, there's not much of difference in terms of business operations/process between a small, midsize, and large business. The only real difference is the number of people working in different areas. While a small company may have people wearing different hats, the large company will have more specialized people. But the overall success of any company should have some of the things I've outlined above. For example, if your husband's company is a retail business, has the company manage to maintain it's stable sales despite the bad economy? If they are unable to, why not? Because of the quality of the product? The sales people are not being as aggressive (I don't mean that they should behave like a used car salesperson)? What of customer service/support? What of marketing/advertising campaign? Is it because the consumers are being cautious or lack the funds to spend? If the overall management is unable to recognize and address those questions, then it's definitely time to change. Any smart leader(s) would recognize and retain the great employee(s) he/she/they have. There's nothing worse than having those great employees leaving your company and, by chance, end up working for your competition, eventually driving the company out of business because the company can no longer perform well. It's even more important to do so in this current state because the company have to operate at its optimal level.
This is typical of employers in this city. I went for four years without a raise in my last job. I had glowing employee evaluations every six months at this company and was always praised for my hard work. Even at this company I recieved raises during the first two years I worked there.
The way I see it is that there is so much competition for jobs, employers know that they can replace most employees almost immediately if they quit so there is no incentive to keep even the best workers. That of course wouldn't hold true for highly skilled people whose jobs are not typical. But for most of us, unless we are in Unions, it's pretty much the norm.
Thanks for all of your replies. I know I missed some details of my story and this is one side story anyways. My husband's job is web developer. He is the only one in his small company (producing websites). The one before him did a so-so job, and my husband is an expert that cleared up the mess and put the company into benefits. But the project manager lied to him about everybody else's salary to try to lower my husband's expectation at the beginning. My husband found it out accidently and was very angry. But he tried to prove his ability deserve a better salary after one year. Then this happens. He likes everybody in the office and never expected to be ignored like this. If the company lost him, they will miss him for sure because it is not easy to find a good one as him and they have to train from very beginning for the replace one. But I don't think they realized his value and make him think he is not that important.
But anyways, I don't think there will be raise soon. Instead, they might wait for him to leave. They celebrate others anniversary of work no matter how many years, but not for him. This is another thing make us quite disappointed. Sometimes it is not about a raise. Maybe just a positive acceptance. But he just got coldness besides coldness.
Thanks for all of your replies. I know I missed some details of my story and this is one side story anyways. My husband's job is web developer. He is the only one in his small company (producing websites). The one before him did a so-so job, and my husband is an expert that cleared up the mess and put the company into benefits. But the project manager lied to him about everybody else's salary to try to lower my husband's expectation at the beginning. My husband found it out accidently and was very angry. But he tried to prove his ability deserve a better salary after one year. Then this happens. He likes everybody in the office and never expected to be ignored like this. If the company lost him, they will miss him for sure because it is not easy to find a good one as him and they have to train from very beginning for the replace one. But I don't think they realized his value and make him think he is not that important.
But anyways, I don't think there will be raise soon. Instead, they might wait for him to leave. They celebrate others anniversary of work no matter how many years, but not for him. This is another thing make us quite disappointed. Sometimes it is not about a raise. Maybe just a positive acceptance. But he just got coldness besides coldness.
I am so sorry your husband has had to deal with this. As I mentioned, my company did not give me a raise in the last four years I was there but my supervisor was always giving me gift cards to Starbucks and little things like that to show her appreciation.
Sometimes it helps to get any little acknowledgement to show one has some value. If your husband does wind up being let go or leaving on his own, I hope he finds something much better where he is appreciated.
Thanks for all of your replies. I know I missed some details of my story and this is one side story anyways. My husband's job is web developer. He is the only one in his small company (producing websites). The one before him did a so-so job, and my husband is an expert that cleared up the mess and put the company into benefits. But the project manager lied to him about everybody else's salary to try to lower my husband's expectation at the beginning. My husband found it out accidently and was very angry. But he tried to prove his ability deserve a better salary after one year. Then this happens. He likes everybody in the office and never expected to be ignored like this. If the company lost him, they will miss him for sure because it is not easy to find a good one as him and they have to train from very beginning for the replace one. But I don't think they realized his value and make him think he is not that important.
But anyways, I don't think there will be raise soon. Instead, they might wait for him to leave. They celebrate others anniversary of work no matter how many years, but not for him. This is another thing make us quite disappointed. Sometimes it is not about a raise. Maybe just a positive acceptance. But he just got coldness besides coldness.
From what you've been saying, I'd say it's time for a change. If your husband is confident in his skills, he could look forward in being a contractor also. Being a web developer has a lot of benefits. You can work remotely at home which means you can work for anyone and any company in the world should he find the work and the compensation to be fair.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Minervah
I am so sorry your husband has had to deal with this. As I mentioned, my company did not give me a raise in the last four years I was there but my supervisor was always giving me gift cards to Starbucks and little things like that to show her appreciation.
Sometimes it helps to get any little acknowledgement to show one has some value. If your husband does wind up being let go or leaving on his own, I hope he finds something much better where he is appreciated.
If the management somehow manage to predict the decline of the economy 4 years ago and prepared for it, then I see why they don't want give you or anyone else a raise. However, if you didn't get a raise but some others did, then I'd would question about the integrity and fairness of the management. In my past job experiences prior to this bad economy, some of the employers said "what can we do to make you stay" and others said "what can we do so you'll come back and work for us because of the things you did, we have to hire at least 2-3 people to do it". When I left those companies, I didn't leave them because I asked them for a raise and didn't get it. It's because of other factors that I find it's no longer beneficial to work there because of commute, learning about the business, etc.. It's always been quality of work and the extent of my knowledge or my voluntary action to learn something to get job done right that make the employers realize what they have. As I've mentioned, if the employer doesn't recognize that, then all the more the reason to leave and possibly work for the competition, even if means going into your business.
Why did your husband write a letter and send it to the boss instead of just asking?
Because the work area is a open space, boss doesn't have his own office. If just going directly to him, it's probably embarrassing with such sensitive topic because everybody else could hear it. They usually talk personal stuff in a coffee shop. So my husband organized his thoughts and reasons and wrote a nice letter to his boss. The boss came in and out there, just had no words with him until the second email from my husband.
He is planning to be a contractor again as the situation before this job. He accepted this job because that is his dream company and he could learn and grow and also of course the stability. He tried to get along with everybody and enjoyed it. The only issues are the salary lies and ignorance of raise request.
Anyways, thanks a lot everybody. We need to suck it up and get over it. Life is still good
Why did your husband write a letter and send it to the boss instead of just asking?
Not mailing the letter, just put on his desk
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