How not to win your boss over for a raise, 101-101.001 A Nasty Rant

[modern_pioneer]

I don't mind hitting pay dirt, yuns don't know how much work goes into doing a show.

It often means I have to take time to get ready, and still meet clients orders. Often it means I am paying OT to get ready for the show, helps for nice things in life over top of paying basic needs. I don't think my pay scale is off, its higher than what the state says it should be. And at the end of the day, if you haven't worked a forty hour week, that's your problem.

I offer forty hour weeks, paid, some should be so lucky. 2/3 of folks are out of work and wish they had a job, let alone a good one in A/C in the summer and heat in the winter.

Lets talk about that raise, that is foolish. Lets talk about why you only work 30-34 hours a week and were hired to work forty plus hours a week? At $12 an hour, hired on to work at least forty hours a week. You can't seem to give your employer 40 hours a week and want a raise?

Somebody got fired today, not for lack of work mind you, but poor donkey work ethics. What? Give some halfanasser a raise for working less hours? and demands a raise? What life is he living in?

Look folks, if you wanna raise, show and prove yourself. Work hard, not just this week, bosses look at these things, but give what your boss expects over time. Go the extra mile, don't sit about and whine.

You'll get fired for that.

I took no pleasure in firing the said employee, he doesn't understand or care how this will affect his family.

I am sure it will hit him at some point, he should have considered that today.

Before I end my rant, if you can't do what is expected of you, than you shouldn't expect a raise.

If you are doing all you can and extra, than you should be given a raise.

That's the way I see it, end of rant.

 

[eggs4sale]

I believe I heard this a few months ago from Glenn Beck. He said to be a good worker, don't be the one who can be laid off or fired. Do your job and do it well. Sounds simple. Don't know why there are SO MANY people who expect pay for doing nothing.

 

[FarmerChick]

yea you have to prove your worth...and go above and beyond.

times are hard. if you can't suck it up and prove yourself, someone else will want that job and do it better!

I would fire him. I wouldn't have a problem with it at all. If an employee can't follow a basic work ethic of 'your hours are 40 per week"--be here!--then get rid of them.

after all, they take down a company, and the company employs many, so for the good of the company and others, ditch the bad employee!!

that wasn't a rant, that is real life!

 

[modern_pioneer]

Yes I ditched the guy yesterday, of course his side is that he only brings home 283.00 a week and isn't enough to support his two kids and wife. Now, maybe $12 bucks an hour isn't a life changing amount, but for unskilled work, hmmm.... you gotta ask yourself.

So back to the paycheck issue, I told him that because he was paying out child support to a child he has never seen or is an active part of his life is his problem, not the companys. So if he wasn't paying that money out his family now would have $400 dollars a month more. I didn't mention the child support, he did, I just followed up on it is all.

Some months ago, I had another employee who came in after a days work and wanted to talk to me about a raise. It had been almost a year since their last one. We sat in my office, they pulled out a piece of paper and as we talked would look at the paper for notes they had taken prior to our conversation.

We talked about jobs completed, I pulled up their weekly hours worked for the last six months. Other than one sick day, three vacations days, it was 40 plus hours a week. I always cover skill levels before giving a raise, they were armed and ready. They gave me certain skills they had achieved during the period since their last raise. As we wrapped our conversation up, I said I would consider their request and give them an answer in a week.

So the following day, I gave them a job that would push and test their skill level. I wanted to see if they would choke or push forward. I was surprised at how they planned the job and finished it in a timely manner. I had 20 hours on the job, it was completed in 18 hours. But it had to pass QA standards before I decided if a raise had been earned or not. So I personally looked over the job after work hours that day. It was done correct, and the quality was good-very good.

On day four after our first conversation, pulled the employee in and gave them a $1.50 an hour raise. However I also followed up with what my expectations were for the amount of pay per hour.

 

[FarmerChick]

If he needs more money to live on, go get an education or skills needed to earn that wage he thinks he must have.

Their lives and their money problems are never the employers.

They try to make it that way, but it isn't at all!

And good that you acknowledged the ones that truly could justify a raise!

sounds like you are controlling your company well!

 

[TanksHill]

I think actually working a 40 hour week would have been the easiest raise to obtain in this situation. The employee did not see the obvious solution.

Bummer for him.

 

[Blackbird]

I agree.. Up here even most skilled work gets no where near that amount of pay. Whoever it was, wasn't very smart.

 

[ORChick]

Yes I ditched the guy yesterday, of course his side is that he only brings home 283.00 a week and isn't enough to support his two kids and wife. Now, maybe $12 bucks an hour isn't a life changing amount, but for unskilled work, hmmm.... you gotta ask yourself.

My DH was a manager in a large company in Silicon Valley - a rather expensive part of the world to live in. Years ago one of those he managed applied to him for a raise, saying that the money received each month wasn't sufficient to afford to live in **** city, which was the preferred place to live. DH's response was that salaries were not based on living preferances, and perhaps the employee should either lower expectations, or increase skills.

 

[cjparker]

That's why I moved out of Santa Barbara 20 years ago. There's no one left their now but the very well off, and the people who wait on them in one fashion or another. When I had to work two full time jobs just to pay the mortgage on a modest home, I knew that the Santa Barbara "lifestyle" was not worth it.

As for lousy employees, I had one once who disappeared for a couple hours. When he got back, he let it slip to another employee that he had gone to a movie! On company time! He was shocked when I fired him, figured since he wasn't making much more than minimum wage, that he shouldn't have to work all his scheduled hours. The sad part was, in that company he would have gotten about $2 raise in the first year alone, and could have moved up into store management with ease, if only he had applied himself a little.

 

[Ldychef2k]

CJ, I lived for three years in Santa Maria, not quite the SB lifestyle, mostly agricultural, but when the rent on a two bedroom apartment went from $750 to $1100, it was time to leave.

Wonderful weather, but when you have to work 80 hours a week to pay for being in it, there's just no reason to be there.

That's why I moved out of Santa Barbara 20 years ago. There's no one left their now but the very well off, and the people who wait on them in one fashion or another. When I had to work two full time jobs just to pay the mortgage on a modest home, I knew that the Santa Barbara "lifestyle" was not worth it.

As for lousy employees, I had one once who disappeared for a couple hours. When he got back, he let it slip to another employee that he had gone to a movie! On company time! He was shocked when I fired him, figured since he wasn't making much more than minimum wage, that he shouldn't have to work all his scheduled hours. The sad part was, in that company he would have gotten about $2 raise in the first year alone, and could have moved up into store management with ease, if only he had applied himself a little.