Okay, folks, here’s a challenge: What should people know about being in the first level of management that you would NEVER admit to your direct reports?
My example is allocating money for raises.
I would get a dollar budget for the people in my department based on a percentage of wages. The problem is that annual raises were often about 1% above inflation. So, on average that’s what people got. If the budget was 5%, then if I gave a star employee 6%, I would have to give someone else 4% (assuming the same wage.)
When inflation is low, the manager has to say something obviously stupid like “Hey, you’re doing a great job! Here’s a 2.3% raise.” “Hey, you’re doing okay, but you need to learn some aspects of the job. So, I could only give you a 1.4% raise.”
In the meantime the local newspaper would report the company had a great year. Thus, the CEO’s compensation went up 30%.