So I manage a sizable business unit at a publicly traded corporation maybe you've heard of.
The last 2 years have been rough. I have amazing immediate bosses in my larger area of the company, and outstanding employees all around. But with The Great Resignation came more work for everyone. Employees temporarily keeping customers happy to fill gaps, and leadership constantly trying to fall on our swords while we take months to recruit and hire new staff.
We work in tech, so these are white collar jobs in super high demand. We have a good culture, no one has been asked to return to the office, it's not cutthroat, I approve timesheets and invoices so I know that most people are not working more than 40 hours. I and other managers have really relaxed time off and just let people do what they need to do as long as their customers stay happy. On anonymous company surveys, scores are consistently 4.5+/5 in various categories.
I've been here a decade and so have many others. It's not a bad place to work.
BUT
The C suite is focused on acquisitions and driving profit and the share price. As we've had to replace staff when they leave for companies that aren't squeezing to do those things, we're seeing people in $70K jobs go take $100K jobs, and $120K jobs go take $160K jobs. With the rush to grab talent in a worker's market and rising inflation, salaries are exploding and my company just hasn't kept up. I've begged all my leadership for a plan to deal with this. Even still as we backfill, HR sends me ranges for new hires based on their market data for midlevel roles making $180-200K which is more than I currently make as a senior role leading the business unit. Again these are very specialized tech jobs so thus the high salaries. I can't ask my managers to hire these people who make more than they do by huge margins. Then I'll really have a retention problem. But if that's what the market demands, why won't corporate take care of existing staff and give them raises? I am at my wit's end because no one will answer that question. And because customers are unhappy with the lack of delivery, but I can't hire anyone who meets the requirements (which due to pre-existing customer contracts I can't lower) with the money they (and my current staff) deserve because corporate won't pony up. I even had a meeting with HR to ask why they are using these market data ranges (which clearly do reflect reality) if corporate won't actually pay anyone that. They couldn't answer and said they'd ask. OK.
I also had a boomer in corporate tell me this week they think it's unprofessional for job candidates to counter offer and for legacy staff to ask for raises .
The latest straw that really broke my back is HR and corporate reached out to me about one of my employees recently. Said they were concerned this person's demeanor was not appropriate due to posts on a company message sharing system. What they wrote was basically:
I can't pay my bills with thank yous.
Corporate makes managers train on how to tell people why they don't get more money and managers are actually powerless.
Less than inflation raises are a paycut.
It's illegal in our country to keep people from talking about salary.
Personally I'm not even sure how to begin the conversation with HR because I agree with the employee and don't believe they said anything out of line. I just can't anymore, but I also haven't found a better place to go to yet.