Heya all,
whoever reads this, thank you for taking time to read my mindless ranting/venting. Here is what triggered this tirade.
Cost of Living and yearly remuneration planning. Over the past 4 months i have spent hundreds of hours together with Accounting, Finance, HR, People Partners etc. Coming up with a financial proposal that will allow me to give a flat CoL increase on TOP of the performance increases for the people in the department I run.
Some pertinent information: I work in an industry and my specific vertical that absolutely THRIVED during covid. We are talking about something like 3x actual revenue versus projected. With EBITDA in the teen billions and actual NET PROFIT in the billions. Even now we are still overperforming and are a net revenue generator in the realm of 6x our total expenditure on staff and staff related expenses ( I am discounting fixed costs like buildings rents etc.) and around 3x if we take our fixed costs. ( we are fixed cost intensive)
The plan: I will forgo my personal increase, bonus for performance, stock awards and basically take 0 renumeration increase in the next 5 years or if i leave i will forgo all accumulated shares in favour of the company ( I have contract confirmed with legal and fiannce i can do that and i am ready to sign). Together with that and with our performance numbers ( which are extraordinary), I just left a meeting with our ELT I wanted to have a department wide flat 11.5% increase added across the board on top of any BaU yearly performance based salary increases to account for the CoL crisis in the UK and wanting to do right by my people.
The response: Coming from one of our board members “But inflation is temporary while the salary increases are permanent” … I just couldn't do it, this was the culmination of 4 months of stress and i just froze… i just couldn't find it in me to start arguing and explaining to a board member WHY what they just said makes absolutely zero sense in the real world. How our revenue, profit and net profit would be down by 9% in total if they agreed to the plan while retaining highly motivated and happy staff. How we are the top 3 departments globally in the company in terms of profit per employee and size vs revenue we generate. I just couldn't do it.
The fallout: I just left, drafted, printed and signed a resignation letter and submitted it to HR. Packed my shit and went home … ( That was 3 hours ago)…
Now my phone is blowing up with some of my senior leaders telling me that Mr. Dick McPowerTrippy McAssface is being pegged as temporary manager with probably taking the position permanently in the next months if i don't return… I had one of my SMs crying over the phone that Mr. Dickster is already sending emails that the long standing policy of working from home/wherever policy ( I put that in place 12 years ago) is rescinded and people have 14 days to sort out a reliable way to be in the office 5 days a week or be fired. Benefits like, home broadband and other little home related benefits are also being looked at-being cut so the guy can show how good at cost-cutting he is and saving money for the company…
I know these people, i know their families, i know their kids … ( obviously not the entire department but a good percentage of it) i have known some of them for 10+ years and it breaks my heart but i just can't i really can't. WE ARE MAKING BILLIONS in net profits and a CoL increase is frowned upon because “inflation will go down while the salary increase is permanent” … as if prices will go down when that happens… I just don't know what to do anymore. I feel tremendous responsibility towards my people as they are the reason it has been a relatively quiet gig with little issues and we all just did our job and looked after each other… But then how do I go in front of them and tell them “sorry folk i know you are getting mails from management boasting how this is one of our best year EVER but there isn't money for CoL increases. Tough”
The sad reality is as i write this and as I digest the morning, I feel that at the end of the day I will break up under the pressure of my friends and personal financial commitments ( 2 kids, mortgage etc) to go back commitments as I don't have enough to sustain us for more than 3 months and i have NO guarantee in this markter i will find a new job quick enough…