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HRinGA
412 Posts
We had one of our admin assts apply for and accept another admin position within the company. Manager gets upset b/c he wasn't notified prior to interview or job offer. We don't require EE's to get permission to apply, but managers usually call pre-offer as a courtesy. BTW, these two managers don't particularly care for one another. Lo & behold, employee renigs on offer. I now discover they offered her a 20% pay increase to stay! We have frozen merit increases this year for all EE's. This employee has only been here 8 mos and will now be making more than a 10 yr employee. I was floored that this manager would have the gall to send this thru. My boss (Pres) wouldn't sign it and told me to deal with it. EE has already been told about the money. This manager has a habit of acting first and asking for forgiveness later. I feel this is a slap in the face to the rest of the staff. This employee hasn't done anything to warrant such a pay increase. How is this justified? Arrggh! Part of me wants to tell him to suck it up. The raise will not be approved and he'll have to deal with the consequences. Then I started to think outside the box. If these "positions" (we have several in this dept) are so valuable, then he should raise the pay scale for all. In fact, he would raise everyone's salary and it will cost him more. He is under budget for salaries and could afford to do this. He would then have limited funds to pull this stunt again. I am confident he only gave her the raise to anger the other manager...and it worked. I cannot help but get angry over this. I know I need to step back and get a grip, but it's hard.
Comments
JMO,
Lisa
Why should everyone in one dept get a raise because the manager messed up? Do employees who work for competent managers then miss out on the benefits? I would go back to the manager and let him know it was not approved. The ball is in his court and he has to explain it to the employee. What he did was a bad business move and very unprofessional. He should not be able to escape the consequences by giving his other employees a raise and having them all happy with him.
I would also make sure this little incident was remembered when it comes time for his review.
Now, if the manager is under budget because he is not paying his employees like he should I would reconsider my position. But I would again mark up points against this guy.
He should remember (and so should the competing manager) that you all work for the good of the company, and little petty issues like one-upmanship with other managers do not belong in the workplace.
Finally, the competing manager should be taken to task for not following normal procedures when hiring from another manager. So should the employee (who, in my opinion, does not deserve a raise at all, much less a 20% one).
Good luck!
Nae
As to him being under budget, that by itself does not warrant a market adjustment. By the way, in our shop, we will not ordinarily market adjust for just a single position, it is part of our overall market analysis company wide, and it is done on a recurring schedule. So unless the ocmpany is experiencing higher than normal turnover, or you have some other reason to believe a non-schedule adjustment is necessary, don't even suggest you can isolate a certain group of EEs for a raise.
You are right that they all talk about this stuff, however inaccurately. It won't be long before news of this adjustment, if you allow it, is spread company wide. If that happens, batten down the hatches because a storm is going to blow.
I understand the 'begging for forgiveness' strategy. It has it's place. This is not it.
As for the manager's behaviour, he should be sat down by HIS boss and have the facts of good business sense explained to him for the last time.
I agree with the other posters that this manager needs to be taken to task for his reckless behavior.
How you handle it could depend on how big a deal this is in your organizational culture but I can tell you that here it would be a BIG deal.
The message is being sent to employees "If you look around for another position and apply for it. You might get a 20 percent raise!"
Twenty percent? I am flabbergasted. Whatever you do, hold this manager responsible.
Sounds to me like your operation needs to review this process and procedure pronto so this will never happen again.
To address your current question, I would just sit the releasing manager down and just say that the President will not approve the increase, what does he want to do now? Let him "dig himself" out of his own mess, but make sure he does it "correctly" and tactfully. It isn't "Your" problem and you shouldn't have to correct it, but police it. May be if you make him do the correction, he will think twice before doing this again.
I just feel sorry for the Admin. Assistant that is in the middle of all of this.
Have fun.
E Wart
We do have some of the procedures in place that you suggest, but we do not notify the EEs current supervisor until well into the process. The EE desiring the transfer must be in good standing and must have held his/her current position for one year before a transfer can even be considered.
Once the determination is made by the hiring supervisor that they would like to transfer the EE to them, then the releasing supervisor is notified. This releasing supervisor has a chance to appeal to our Exec Dir who will make a discretionary call based on 'business necessity.' Understand that this decision can go with either supervisor about who has the most compelling case.
We have denied transfers based on standing or term of service. No releasing supervisor has challenged the transfer yet.
1) we do have a formal internal application process. In this particular instance, there was a miscommunication and the supervisor made the offer thinking her director had already called the current manager. That did not happen, but she immediately called when she realized what had happened and she also called me.
2) I talked to my CFO who suggested we cancel the raise and allow her to go to the other position, if she so chooses. Can't do that b/c the other division has already hired someone.
In a nutshell, we will allow the increase in quarterly phases. The manager will be formally reprimanded. I've already expressed my extreme frustration with his actions. I fully expect uprising when words leaks out. There is only 1 employee within this job category who has been here over a year. We have serious issues with workload, morale, etc. I could start 3 posts about that area alone.
While I don't necessarily agree with this outcome, it's the best compromise I can come up with. This is due to my boss' philosophy, company culture, etc. I've showed my a@# so much this week, they are avoiding my like the plague.
Take a deep breath...this too shall pass.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I appreciate it.