Managing Staff

K09

Hi,
I am new to managing a small team. I already have one team member requesting a 40% pay rise! I have been told my my own boss that this is no where possible.

How best to manage this situation without disrupting the work environment and trying to ensure everyone is reasonably happy?

Any advice would be greatly received.
Thanks.

neckedit

K09 wrote: »

Hi,
I am new to managing a small team. I already have one team member requesting a 40% pay rise! I have been told my my own boss that this is no where possible.

How best to manage this situation without disrupting the work environment and trying to ensure everyone is reasonably happy?

Any advice would be greatly received.
Thanks.

40% seems a little unreasonable for any walk of life. Can you give us a little more info....

Zaph

K09 wrote: »

How best to manage this situation without disrupting the work environment and trying to ensure everyone is reasonably happy?

In all honesty, you're not going to be able to achieve this. If someone is looking for 40%, even if you managed to get 10% for them they won't be satisfied and will probably bugger off somewhere else. If they do get 40%, or even just 10% and the others get wind of it they'll be looking for something similar and there may be reasons why you can't or would rather not give them the same. I would suggest that you advise that person to speak directly to your manager as presumably setting salaries is not something that you have responsibility for. Then I'd start to prepare for recruiting a replacement.

dev100

Zaph wrote:

In all honesty, you're not going to be able to achieve this. If someone is looking for 40%, .

It takes balls to ask for 40 % no point in low balling yourself either .... fair play to them even if it's unrealistic he/she is setting bar high so more than likely the figure they want is between 10 to 25%

ted1

I'd advise them that a figure like that is not at all possible and that you understand if the want to move in to a different company.

Erik Shin

Perhaps this person is testing the water with you...Just seeing how you cope?
Perhaps the individual might have been up for the position you now have and is trying to get a reaction from you

Zaph

dev100 wrote: »

It takes balls to ask for 40 % no point in low balling yourself either .... fair play to them even if it's unrealistic he/she is setting bar high so more than likely the figure they want is between 10 to 25%

I totally agree that the actual figure they want is lower, but if you're starting at 40%, you're not going to settle for a 2-3% rate of inflation increase. I suspect that the figure they're really after is still going to be way more than is achievable.

Ben Gadot

Your team member seems to be living on another planet. I don't mean that in a bad way because he or she is probably getting underpaid, but there is just no way anyone is getting that sort of raise.

I find that to get paid what you're worth you have to move jobs. Your current employer understands that as well so will be more than happy to let take your chance in the open market if you think you're worth it.

Anyway, all you can do is tell them you'll ask for it to be reviewed but the increase is likely not possible. If you're told no chance at least you'll be able to say you tried. As for morale there's nothing you can do to try and placate someone unhappy with their salary. Only thing you can do is be as supportive as you can as a manager day to day.

dev100

Zaph wrote:

I totally agree that the actual figure they want is lower, but if you're starting at 40%, you're not going to settle for a 2-3% rate of inflation increase. I suspect that the figure they're really after is still going to be way more than is achievable.

Inflation pay rise s are a bit of insult really especially if the person is going above and beyond in their work .

I'd of loved to have been a fly on the wall when the 40 % was thrown out

duploelabs

Ask them to justify the pay rise and why they do 140% of the work of their colleagues

Hollister11

You have to ask yourself and your boss

How much will your teams work be affected if he leaves?
Will this set a precedent among the team?
Is he being underpaid,and will this increase bring him up to market value?
Is he worth it a day could you replace him with someone as good for the current wages or < then wage + 10, 20 or 30 %?
Is he a valued a well like team member?

jimmycrackcorm

neckedit wrote: »

40% seems a little unreasonable for any walk of life. Can you give us a little more info....

IIRC there was a poster on here who worked as software developer earning mid-20's who requested a small increase which was refused. He then left and got another job earning something like 50k.

An increase of any size is warranted by what the market will bear and what you have to pay to replace someone.

neckedit

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

IIRC there was a poster on here who worked as software developer earning mid-20's who requested a small increase which was refused. He then left and got another job earning something like 50k.

An increase of any size is warranted by what the market will bear and what you have to pay to replace someone.

Forgive me if I don't believe everypost on Boards. But also the story you are quoting is very different, the guy left his position and got a new job.... not the same at all as an employee getting a 40% raise in a current position.

jimmycrackcorm

neckedit wrote: »

Forgive me if I don't believe everypost on Boards. But also the story you are quoting is very different, the guy left his position and got a new job.... not the same at all as an employee getting a 40% raise in a current position.

I work in IT so I know what it's like, I once went to leave a job and was made a counter offer of a 35% raise. I hadn't actually asked for a raise in the first place and left anyway for contracting which was effectively a 250% increase (Like that poster I was on an abnormally low wage).

Maybe as a poster suggests, the employee is trying it on, maybe he has another offer lined up but likes where he is and is chancing it.

I do agree with you that getting such a raise in the same job is unlikely, perhaps it's the Luas worker tactic, ask for an extreme raise in the blind hope that a counter offer will be 20% instead of 2%. I'd have to speculate that the OP works in IT because I too don't know of any other job where someone can suddenly ask for such a raise.

Masala

Hollister11 wrote: »

You have to ask yourself and your boss

How much will your teams work be affected if he leaves?
Will this set a precedent among the team?
Is he being underpaid,and will this increase bring him up to market value?
Is he worth it a day could you replace him with someone as good for the current wages or < then wage + 10, 20 or 30 %?
Is he a valued a well like team member?

I once was told by a manager"everyone is replaceable".... that was he end of my discussion on 'I gonna leave if I don't get a pay rise'

Ben Gadot

neckedit wrote: »

Forgive me if I don't believe everypost on Boards. But also the story you are quoting is very different, the guy left his position and got a new job.... not the same at all as an employee getting a 40% raise in a current position.

It's possible to get a significant bump for doing the same job by moving.

It depends on the philosophy of the company. Some companies like to hire juniors on poor salaries and develop them. The problem is that once that junior can no longer be called such (let's say 4 years in the job) the company is less inclined to pay that person the market value and in fairness, they don't have to.

Another comany could have a different philosophy towards juniors and hire them on better money than the first company. Let's say once that junior earns himself some experience he then decides to jump ship to the first company.

Of course, no-one is going to jump ship for the same or less money, so you're left with a messed up situation where while two people are doing essentially the same job, one is getting paid far more than the other.

But as I said that's the market and people are welcome to play it to get what they think they're worth. It seems like an awful attitude to have for a company towards people but I think sometimes people forget how small they are in the grand scheme of things, especially in a multinational. I don't mean that to be harsh, but to put it simply: we're all (mostly) replaceable no matter how good we think we are.

It may sound otherwise but I'm on the side of the front line staff as I'm one of them, and I love seeing companies with a feckless attitude get shafted by people leaving (in droves is particularly amusing). But make no mistake, that is what you have to do to get paid what you're worth: leave.

Teyla Emmagan

duploelabs wrote:

Ask them to justify the pay rise and why they do 140% of the work of their colleagues

That argument only works if everyone is doing the same job and has the same skill set. If you have one person doing a particular job and the market will pay 40% for their skill set then it doesn't really matter what everyone else is on or how hard they are working. The problem now is we are post recession and people are looking around and seeing that the market rate for their job has gone up. So of course there are going to be wage demands. But normally the best way to get a big pay hike is to move companies!

tomwaits48

in a similar position and I threw it back at them, ask them to write you a formal letter justifying the request and then spend your time coming up with rebuttals on every point. I have yet to receive the letter a few weeks on. chancer.

Ben Gadot

That does sound pretty aggressive to be fair, can't imagine the atmosphere between you is great.

evolving_doors

Not enough history known.

Person may have been brought in a junior and ' promised' a senior position after x years. (Maybe the manager who promised left! ).

Junior starting position on €35k with no pay rises for 8 odd years
Senior position in the company on €50k (maybe the employee caught wind of a new employee brought in on senior salary! )

40% seems a lot but it's all relative.

Either way OP the decision is above your pay grade but have a look around at the market and see what's on offer. At least you can go to your boss with that info if the employee suddenly plays the Leaving card.

Also keep an eye on what they actually do and to what level rather than assuming they are working away.

Ben Gadot

Sort me out with the junior position that starts at 35k. Doesn't matter if it's admin or IT I'd be surprised any junior position offers that.

evolving_doors

Ben Gadot wrote: »

Sort me out with the junior position that starts at 35k. Doesn't matter if it's admin or IT I'd be surprised any junior position offers that.

That was just an example for the purposes of demonstrating relativity.

But out of interest, what would a senior position in IT be getting?

Ben Gadot

Gebgbegb wrote: »

That was just an example for the purposes of demonstrating relativity.

But out of interest, what would a senior position in IT be getting?

I don't know as I'm admin but my brother just recently entered a junior IT position at 25,000. Whether he's getting ripped off I don't know.