Cogito ergo scribo

I hope the recent troubles at work can finally be put to an end, or at least for now.

Uh huh, i've been having some issues at work recently, mainly originating from problems with people. Well, i guess this is nothing new - most problems we faced at work are to do with people more than other things.

I think the story goes back to April during the time of annual increment. This is also something that i've mentioned briefly before in one of my previous posts and said that i would blog about it separately, so here it goes...

Sadly as expected, boss did not make the rightful adjustment to my pay that was due to me since the promotion back in year 2009. I did get some increment but it was the usual percentage. It was the same with the IT Manager who is in the same situation as me, i.e. promoted from non-managerial level without the corresponding adjustments to the pay. This puts us two as the lowest paid managers in the regional office.

Anyway, the point wasn't about the increment, for i am already over it. As much as i felt it was unfair to me, the money is sufficient for me to live a decent life and i am grateful for whatever that i am drawing now. I mean, if i think about being unemployed with no income, then ain't i supposed to be thankful for the haves rather than dwelling on the have-nots? I think we just gotta see beyond the money sometimes and just do our best at our work, and then the rest of the things will just follow.

My staff all received rather good increment as well, or at least from my point of view. I said that because it really depends on individual's perception on whether or not the increment is good. And as usual, most people will never be satisfied with their pay and will always think that they should get more, even when they are already the most highly paid in the department.

With the annual increment exercise, boss also requested our HR to conduct a benchmarking to gauge the salaries of our staff against the market (because he has been hearing everyone complaining about being underpaid). Two separate benchmarks were carried out and came back with similar results for my four team members - they are all paid higher than the market average (only for my team; i am not sure about other teams). Of course, when they were told of this result, they sneered at it and felt that the benchmarking was inaccurate.

I can't say for sure if it is accurate or not, for different fields and skill sets do demand different pay, and our benchmarking was done based on general IT market. It is known that there are a shortage of NAV professionals in the market, and it may be true that the market is paying higher for people with NAV skill sets. This is similar to how SAP consultants can easily draw more than RM10K per month while it is impossible for the consultants of other smaller ERP systems to get this amount. As i have no idea of what the NAV market is paying now for consultants, i can't judge if they are indeed being paid over, under, or on par with the market.

Whatever it is, this did have some effect on me, and i'm not sure if it was good or bad.

Firstly, i was puzzled at why there were good increment to people who are already being paid higher than the market, while they did not make the appropriate pay adjustment for people who are not being paid within the rank. With this event, i kinda relooked at my team and felt that they should take on more responsibilities that commensurate with what they are drawing. This is only fair to the other teams who aren't being paid as much as they are but have more workload.

Another effect from this increment is that i seemed to have lesser tolerance for their whining nowadays (i used to be able to put up with it). Whenever they started complaining about the work or the company not having good benefits, i would think in my heart that they are really an ungrateful bunch. I would think that the company is already paying so much to them, and why can't they appreciate what they have and keep on harping on what they do not have. I agree there are things that need to be improved in this company and it may not be the best of company but it is definitely not the worst either. There are a lot more people out there doing the same or even more work than they are but drawing pathetic pay with a lot worse benefits (and perhaps bad bosses too).

Now, whenever they complain about things, i would be telling them in my mind, "If you can get into the best of companies out there that pay you higher with the best of benefits, then by all means please go ahead and join them. I would not stop people from progressing anyway. If you can't find a better place outside, then do realise that you are already in a very good situation and do be grateful for what you have now instead of keep on complaining and complaining and complaining!"

Of course, i can never say that right in their faces, and so this was only spoken in my head.

And somehow, this effect spills over to a recent incident, which also made me start examining myself as a manager.

Labels: rant, work