I work in a Human Resources department for a factory in Michigan. I originally got into Human Resources for idealistic reasons. I wanted to match people who wanted to work with jobs that paid them well and work to get employees the pay they deserve.
The reality of the role I’ve played in business is more like helping boomer managers understand Human Resources information systems (HRIS) and excel.
The important bit of this story is that a few weeks ago we were promoting an employee to a manager position. We offered them 60k for the position, but they asked for 65k. My HRM asked me put an offer letter together for 62k in the new system, because he didn’t know how to do it. I submitted the request for an offer letter only to get a message back that, before we could do the offer letter, we had to submit a ticket for a compensation analysis per corporate policy. I submitted the ticket for the compensation analysis and the next day received a response.
The corporate compensation specialist responded back that, for the position and experience, the recommended compensation was 70k. I forwarded this email to my manager who responded back “Wait…so does this mean we have to pay him 70k? Or can we still go with the 62k. Respond back to their email and ask them”
Like a good middle man acting as an unnecessary telephone for my manager, I responded back to the email and asked that. The corporate comp person responded back “Well, it’s not a requirement, rather a recommendation. Still, we would strongly advise against anything below 66k.”
Again, I forward this email to my manager. They tell me “Well, we don’t want to disrupt our compensation for the rest of the supervisors who make 62k, so let’s stay with that offer.”
The shitty thing is that he acts like such good friends with the managers. HR and operations managers work closely with one another especially on employee issues. He manipulated this manager into thinking he was trying his best to get him as much money as the company would let him while actively working against his best interests.
Fortunately I’ll be leaving this company before the end of the month for many more reasons.