Does your employer deserve you?

Hi, Mike — Annie here. As a rule, it’s better to be overdressed than underdressed. So wear a suit and tie to the interview. If need be — that is, if people seem to be looking askance at your attire; or if you end up feeling conspicuous as the only person in the restaurant who’s wearing a suit… — you can always take off your jacket and tie, loosen your collar, and roll up your sleeves.

Tina — I’m struggling with your point. As a technology company, Microsoft (a company where Bill Gates is no longer the CEO) values math and science skills. As is widely documented, there is a greater value placed on math and science education in foreign cultures than there is in the US. So if Microsoft can bring in foreign engineers who are as well-educated as American engineers, work harder and cost less, why wouldn’t they?

As for Bill Gates, he does a lot for eduation with the money he’s made so far. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation focuses on improving inner-city public education and working to eradiate AIDS in the third-world. For all the complaining that people do about the rich not contributing to solving the world’s problems, I think Gates has proven himself an noteworthy exception.

I work for an office supply company with a red logo. This article made me realize how bad my job is and why I need to look around and branch out a bit. No chance for advancement without selling your soul, no feedback at all, positive or negative. We can’t even fire an employee caught stealing thanks to the red tape. The closest I got to positive reinforcement was when my boss paid me cash out of his own pocket for meeting the numbers he needed, nothing from the company. I need a new job. Thank you!

I worked for Verizon Business aka MCI. It claims it is a talent-driven company but in reality it is far from being one. Once you are stuck in a certain position, you are basically locked in that position (unless let go) since moving up the ladder or laterally is particularly hard no matter how much your skill sets fit you better for another position.

Corporate greed!
Isn’t that what its all about?

In the past 8 years I’ve worked for AT&T, ATT Wireless, Cingular Wireless and now “the new at&t” … all without every leaving the company.

We grew from about 70k people to ~150k and with the last merger, up to close to 300k employees.

With each step; benefits were cut, medical costs were increased, salaries were frozen, as well as promotions.

And new management was brought in to “crack the whip” and further try to push up productivity … all the while doing more with less people.

I’m so sick of this corporate mentality, its so plainly obvious that there is only (1) over-all theme happening. Meeting the “bottom line”, aka making the few people in upper management very rich at the expense of everyone below them.

I watched them lay off nearly 300 people in the course of a week … and then a month later, approve huge bonuses for the few elites running the company.

Rumors suggest that the benefit of a corporation is that you’ll get paid more salary … but I’ll take less pay to be treated like a person again.

I used to work for BAE Systems. After a few years I got sick of doing better work than people a few salary grades above me. After a 3 percent raise and a refusal to promote me to a higher grade, I quit even before finding another job. I got another job in 2 weeks with a 20 percent increase in salary. Not a talent driven company for sure.

The company I am at now simply doesn’t know how to find talent, if though they are willing to pay largs sums for it.

It was a bad joke: I was hired with the promise we will be the number 1 company in my country as we are in USA and all around the world in our bussiness (We are in Fortunes 500´s list). Yes, we growth very fast but as our first director leaves the company, all runs down. Forget the trainnings, the good practices (and the reason is the same coost control). Now we live a very different (and less good) company. The people who rules the company today does not tolerate the workers claims and one is the speech, other the reality all the time: they say you are the main asset but they don´t worry to fire you if you don´t think as your boss (yes, the dictator, not the leader), even if you are right or has very good ideas for the health and growth of the company. I don´t want to mention the name of my company but it´s a pity the actual situation we are experiencing at least in my country. As somebody say: I felt enlove with my company by the history and I want to leave for the boss.

For all of the employers who say that there isn’t a strong enough work force take note:
Mr. Bill Gates got his 65,000 visas from the government to bring in college graduates of science, technology, engineering, and math…
Let’s do some math on this…
Average tuition cost of a public university per year: <$6000
Average room and board: <$7000
Per Year:
Freshman(06-07): <$13,000
Sophomore(07-08;+6%): $13,780
Junior (08-09): $14,607
Senior (09-10): $15,483
Total for bachelors in only 4 years: $56,870

Bill Gates’ SALARY: $970,000
(note this number is based on wikipedia…I couldn’t find a better source)

His salary from one year could send 17 people to public college for a bachelors degree or 70 people for one year (08-09).

His total income is 2.2 Billion per year. So…He could send 38,684 people to college to receive their 4 year degree or 159,651 people through public college for the 08-09 school year. He would have to use some of his net worth to live off of, but then he wouldn’t have to bother congress to get more H1B Visas.
Then again, maybe the problem is that Mr. Gates hasn’t run the numbers like I just did. Maybe he should have stayed in Harvard and gotten his degree like he demands of the people he hires. Oh, wait! I don’t have a degree either and I can run the numbers…
When you go into a company know your worth and stand for nothing less. Leave if they don’t value you. If everyone did this the companies would finally have to treat their employess less like serfs.

“When companies say there’s a labor shortage it just means they’re not willing to train anyone and they won’t pay the market rate for the work they need done.”

This is very true. For some reason companies think they can get the best people for low wages. Outsourcing has convinced them that all employees are interchangeable. Fire a dozen in NYC and hire a dozen in Mumbai. There’s no difference.

At the same time, CEO’s demand top dollar for mediocre performance.

Vladimir, have you checked out Fortune’s annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For? They’re elected to the list by contented employees. Granted, 100 companies isn’t many, but… it’s better than zero.

There is no talent shortage at all. There is a shortage of talent willing to work for what these companies offer. And these days they don’t offer much. My message to employers - quit wining, and start treating your “most valuable asset” half-way decent. My message to employees - start your own shop. Working for somebody else is a waste, and being treated like a commodity is an insult. My message to authors and all readers here - I challenge you to post ONE name of an employer with solid history of promotion from within, good ethics, and absence of corporate politics, nepotism and “kiss up - kick down” culture. I mean just ONE. Make my day. Note, Accenture does not cut it. It is because of Arthur Andersen we now have SOX, doesn’t it ?

“When companies say there’s a labor shortage it just means they’re not willing to train anyone and they won’t pay the market rate for the work they need done.”

Hear hear! Paul in Seattle is speaking the truth!

It’s just like “jobs Americans won’t do,” which everyone knows really means “jobs Americans won’t do in sh**y conditions for slave wages.”

I used to work for a big investment bank in new York. The experience was awesome but at the end of two years things just started falling apart. False promises for promotions, tedious and boring work, and a manager who had no clue what he was doing. I couldn’t take it anymore so decided to leave and that’s when they offered the salary increase, the promotion yadi yada. It sux that most companies dont realize how to treat their best employees until they give their 2 weeks. I hate corporate politics.

I’m now with a small startup where people enjoy coming to work, the work is challenging and fun and everyone from the CEO down is awesome to work with.

Every argument is true here But with reference to its context.

There are jobs which most can learn in few weeks.

If you need a surgeon, few weeks may not be enough.

Similar case for a Pilot. Can any be trained to become next President of USA.

“Hmmm… Anyone can learn any job within a few weeks? Sorry, but I beg to differ. The U.S. is falling way behind the rest of the developed (and developing) world in engineering degrees and computer science degrees. Am I wrong to think that some jobs actually require that intense 4-year “

Companies outsource jobs overseas at the drop of a hat for cheaper, less qualified, engineering and computer science applicants. That’s why enrollment is down in US colleges for these subjects. Its all about short term profits.

My own company won’t allow me to hire programmers for more then $40k in a high cost of living area because they think they are too expensive compared to their Indian counterparts (who cost a lot more when you factor in the required micro-mgmt of those resources). Ridiculous.

Ha! I am a programmer and I did teach myself within less than one year. I have no degree so I went back to school to try to get one. Guess what? They wanted me to take more math classes (8 past calculus 1) than computer classes! Engineering and Science Degrees have value? Not really…unless you want to work for NASA the regimen for Computer Science is ridiculous. And trust me the idiot CEO from AT&T who said he couldn’t find anybody here in the U.S. doesn’t need someone with a minor in math. The reason all the companies squack has already been said…they don’t want to pay the money that people deserve. Instead they whine they can’t find anybody and get the government to issue more visas so that Apu can work 80 hours a week for peanuts. If you think anything else…than you must be a beauracrat, greedy, or simply deluded.

Hmmm… Anyone can learn any job within a few weeks? Sorry, but I beg to differ. The U.S. is falling way behind the rest of the developed (and developing) world in engineering degrees and computer science degrees. Am I wrong to think that some jobs actually require that intense 4-year (at least, just for undergrad) training? The employers who complain of a skills shortage are talking about hard skills in math and the sciences. The numbers bear them out.

I laugh every time I hear about companies bitching about “labor shortages”. There’s no such thing. You can train almost anyone to do most jobs within a few weeks, especially if they have education or work experience that’s even remotely relevant.

When companies say there’s a labor shortage it just means they’re not willing to train anyone and they won’t pay the market rate for the work they need done. The executives in charge deserve to be fired immediately for incompetence.

I was losing sleep over this exact issue last night. A few years back I took a job as a marketing manager at a start up.

It’s not a bad company, but there is virtually no upward movement within the company. There have been a total of six promotions handed out to employees over the past two years (two of them last week to two members of the executive team). In that time the company has grown from 67 employees to over 170 today. The reward those have obtained for being here since the beginning is nothing more than being locked in the same position as when we started. With pay raises that lag behind inflation, no increased benefits, and tons more responsibility.

To make matters even more dismal for my hope of ever moving up, my current boss was one of the six a year and half ago. He was promoted to the Vice President position, and after four months on the job asked for a demotion. So he is permanently stuck at the director level. Our corporate structure doesn’t allow directors to report to directors, so as a manager I am also permanently stuck.

I love my job, and completely believe in the company. Is there anything I can do? If not, is it worth it to stay at job that I enjoy, at a company I believe in, even if it means I am intentionally stalling my career?

It seems mildly self-centered to me to quit just because I can never have a promotion. At the same time, at 25 I am definitely not in a phase of my career where I should be knowingly stalling any advancement.

Any advice would be paramount.

Thanks.

Are you kidding? The prevailing attitude in every full-time job I’ve ever worked was “We’ll fire you at any second for any reason, but you ought to thank us for the privilege of working here, ungrateful scum.” And it seems higher-ups generally care more about obedience than knowledge or skill, so talent is typically developed by making talented people’s lives a living hell until they quit.

My experience with 2 seperate large corporations has been that the quickest way to move up the ladder is to hop companies every 3 to 5 years. Without pensions or any promises of job security these days, what is the point of sticking out the hard times? The other issue specific to compensation is that I’ve seen very talented and productive employees recieve salary actions within 1% of their very average conterparts. Is it worth working an extra 10 to 20hrs a week for 0.5%? Needless to say I have a 4:30 tee time this afternoon. I’ll be job hunting again this spring unless I see a real salary action. Cheers!

I was the first employee / engineer with a small startup 17 years ago. Now that the partners are very sucessful, they treat the employees poorly. Yes, we still get a paycheck but the lack of communication or condescending attitude when they do speak with one of us, no raises in years, I was personally cut from salary to hourly which resulted in a 25% pay cut, all because they know they are in the drivers seat in the current economy. Now, at 45, I see how worker complacency sets in. What a shame. I feel I have so much to offer and have been a SPECTACULAR employee. I can’t at least thank them for forcing me to work 20 hours a day to start my own side business 2-1/2 years ago and hope to go full time within a couple years. Wish me luck. I teach my 3 kids, “Don’t work for the man!”. My new gig, http://www.detroitmuscletechnologies.com

The majority of companies have absolutely nothing to complain about when it comes to a talent shortage. If most companies took the time to open their eyes, then they would see that there is much more to their employees. Most employers focus too much on job tasks and don’t have the vision to foresee how their current employees can grow. The companies tend to lock people into jobs which can create frustration for both employer and employee. Another huge disadvantage for most companies is that they do not hire and promote people who demonstrate potential to do the best work. Most companies are too focused on maintaining diversity and lose talent in the process because they ignore the most qualified candidates for hiring and promotions; trusting workhorses go unrecognized so that less qualified employees who look the part can be promoted. Another phenomenon of corporate culture is that most companies tend to promote the employees who support dishonest and unethical practices that pad the companies’ bottom line. If you are stuck in a going-nowhere job, then stay optimistic. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Instead, feel sorry for the majority of companies whose practices are undermining their overall effectiveness; they’re getting exactly what they deserve and we read about it almost everyday in the news headlines. Look for the few companies that have vision (indicates strong leadership) and steady, not unrealistic, growth. Go with your gut; if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Lastly, ask as many questions as it takes to feel comfortable with your choices. Don’t hold back; you can interview them just like they are interviewing you.

Reading this column, with Mr. Cheese’s comments, I can agree whole-heartedly with his points. I worked for Accenture for almost eight years, and they walk the walk. Since leaving Accenture and working for a smaller consulting company and interviewing at other companies, I’ve noticed how rare this is. Feedback is culturally, though unofficially, verboten at many companies. Actual career paths seem foreign, as many companies do not want to lay out potential options for fear they will be held to them. Many places seem fearful of growing talent and promoting opportunities for advancement, instead seeing it as subversive, potentially trouble-making, and a threat to the hiring managers. I have also seen clients and potential employers who are so tied to existing employees (even those with consistently mediocre performance) that they make it extremely difficult to look outside for a new influx of talent. Talent management needs to be ingrained culturally in an organization, not just talked about in marketing materials.

Lots of companies, alas, talk a good game about promoting from within — but don’t do it. Too bad the job market on Wall Street is so crummy right now — not a good time to jump ship! Hang in there! Annie.

It’s a shames because when I started with the company I am currently with 5 years ago they were the best I had ever seen in taking care of their employees and giving them opportunity to advance, But ever since we became very profitable we be came a company of who you know, not what you know….. its a shame they got derailed somewhere but I guess that’s what happens when a company gets big.

I work for JPMorgan Chase and this company claims that they are a talent-powered company, but they are not. i have been with this company for 8yrs and have made it a living hell to move up. they put up so many walls once you mention you want to move up the ladder. many of my friends that use to work for the company had to leave to other companies in order to progress. Chase would rather hire an outside person, pay to train them and give then a top job than to give it to a current employee that knows the ropes and is well deserving of the position.