I stumbled across a Linkedin post from 2 weeks ago from the head of people at my previous company that linked to a blog post titled “Why We Don't Reward Performance Through Compensation”. Since they were the 2nd most toxic work environment in my career, it's needless to say that my blood started boiling and that I rage-clicked the link.
Now before diving into the specifics, please have in mind that their work environment is the literal definition of everything that's wrong in the current corporate environment and that they're genuinely expecting every single employee to put their work above anything else (ranging from calling people from maternity leaves back into the office prematurely, to expecting people to hit their monthly quotas even while sick and/or on vacation).
So, TLDR here are some quotes from the blog that triggered me:
We pay well
They don't, at best their compensation model is above average, and yet they're using every chance they get to both internally and externally flex how good their compensation package is.
“But you don't pay based on performance,” you say. “How is it fair that a high performer makes the same as an average performer?” My answer is simple: As a human resources leader or a Manager, you must work tirelessly to avoid having average team players. You don't want average; you want excellence. A+ players only, period.
This one lands the nail, as it pretty much shows that they feel entitled to unpaid excellence and they continue on this topic:
If you set high expectations and transparently communicate this at a company level, there are no surprises. If someone misses their performance goals too many quarters in a row and becomes a low performer, we trigger a performance improvement plan (PIP).
What made me go out of my way and even bother writing a long post many of you won't even read is the fact that this Linkedin post is getting showered with comments like “Great read!” etc. and literally no pushback and I find this problematic considering the fact that they're currently catering and tutoring a lot of small-time entrepreneurs, since their platform is generally made for small to mid-sized businesses. So in a nutshell, I wanted to check whether or not I'm the crazy one for thinking that this stance is borderline employee abuse by normalizing and encouraging underpayment of top-quality employees?
If anyone wants to know more, you can find the link to the blogpost here: Why We Don’t Reward Performance Through Compensation (gorgias.com)