I might have been in this job for over a year, but I’m still not quite used to this whole corporate HR format. I can only appreciate why it’s in place now that I’m so far removed from the way things operated at the last place I was at.
Anyway it turns out that after you have been working at this place’s head office for more than a year, there’s an annual review around the time that the company’s financial year ends. It’s apparently a big deal because the whole office has been buzzing about it. We had to all make sure that we had filled in certain forms and had submitted details for review.
But it’s really weird. Basically – if you are performing your role well, you get a 2% pay rise. If you’re getting by, 1%. If there’s cause for concern, 0.5%. I get that part. The part I don’t understand is that it isn’t your manager who decides this.
So let’s look at the person I manage. Let’s say they are level 1. I’m level 2, leading a sub team (of 3). There’s a level 3, leading a whole team (of 8). There’s a level 4, leading a department (of 22). It’s the level 4 who decides who gets a pay rise or not. And she doesn’t even know the people I manage.
Basically, she decided that one of my team members doesn’t deserve 1% more than her current salary because on the two occasions that she’s asked her questions (in the past like 6 months) she didn’t know and had to ask someone else. That’s in spite of the fact that to me, she’s been a great asset.
It’s unfair and I’m so glad that her error when recording the pay levels meant that she actually ended up getting the 1%.
My personal review actually wasn’t great. I’ve really been taking the mick with some aspects of work. Because I can delegate so many tasks to other people, I have been. I’ve honestly just been trying to free up my time so that I can work on my side business while I’m at work.
I could easily convince my manager that the team has been effective, so there’s nothing to worry about, but he can tell that I’ve been coasting, instead of trying to innovate and do all the things I said I could in my interview. I still got 1% extra but said that the level 4 basically wants to see me do more.
Really – all that does it demotivate me.
To be honest, the more I’ve been working on my own little business at home, the more I’ve been thinking about the future. This job really feels like a temporary thing. I have no aspirations to climb the ladder at this place and definitely won’t do it elsewhere. This is going to be my last job. Certain aspects of corporate life have really put me off and I think I know how to avoid it completely. It’s just a matter of time.
