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GE Considers Scrapping The Annual Raise (bloomberg.com)
A user shares a report that details General Electric's rethinking of the annual raise. Bloomberg reports: "GE executives are reviewing whether annual updates to compensation are the best response to the achievements and needs of employees. The company may also scrap the longstanding and much-imitated system of rating staff on a five-point scale. Decisions on both issues may come within the next several months, spokesperson Valerie Van den Keybus said by phone." "We uncovered an opportunity to improve the way we reward people for their contributions," GE's head of executive development, Janice Semper, said in an e-mailed response to questions. It will involve "being flexible and re-thinking how we define rewards, acknowledging that employees and managers are already thinking beyond annual compensation in this space." In response to this news, ErichTheRed writes: First it was "stack ranking," the process where GE fires the bottom-rated 20% of the workforce every year. Now, a new HR trend may be brewing at GE that is destined to be copied by MBAs everywhere if it takes hold. Personally, in terms of cargo-cult HR trends, I'd take Google's open office nightmare over this one. What do you think this would do to employment stability if widely enacted? I can definitely see banks rethinking 30 year mortgages, for example...
We let employees reduce their salary by 1/52 to purchase an additional 40 hours of vacation.
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About 10,000 years ago, in Honors US History in High School, in scenic New Jersey . . . I had a teacher who we called "Smiling Jane". The 1800's in the US were full of nasty stuff, like children losing arms while trying to couple trains, the US Calvary giving smallpox infected blankets to Indians ("Casino Indians", not "Out-Sourcing Indians") . . . and if you get hungry for a hamburger during class . . . "The Jungle", from Upton Sinclair will transform your ideal of a Big Mac into a pile of weevils and maggots. At any rate, good old "Smiling Jane" would flash a rack of teeth during these lectures, that would put most of Hollywood to shame.
Put the absolute epitome, was her description of the "Molly Maquires":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
In case you are too lazy to read the article, or didn't have Honors US History in goddamned New Jersey, the big mining monopolies created "mining towns" for poor immigrants (H1Bs?). They were not paid in US cash, but in "script" that could only be used in the stores . . . owned by the monopoly. Sound like Microsoft, anyone?
Smiling Jane flashed her rack during all of this.
At any rate, some of the enslaved created a group called the "Molly Maquires . . . they would relieve a foreman or a manager from his head, and dump it somewhere. A lot of these heads ended up in jars in the windows of funeral parlors, with the note, "Do you know whose head this is?"
Back to "Smiling Jane" . . . she went to a funeral in Eastern Pennsylvania, and told the funeral director her tale. The Director answered:
"Oh, yes, we still have some unclaimed heads in the cellar . . . would you like to see them . . . ?"
A fellow student suggested to me that we should beg, borrow or steal a black Cadillac, drive to the town, and scream, "Show us your heads!"
Getting back on topic, GE executives who rake in millions, while producing nothing of value . . . could in my opinion end up in a funeral parlor in Eastern Pennsylvania.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
"We uncovered an opportunity to improve the way we reward people for their contributions," GE's head of executive development, Janice Semper said. "It will involve being flexible and re-thinking how we define rewards, "
Translation: We're always looking for new ways to screw our employees.
No. I thought so at first, but further digging, this makes a lot of sense and is something many companies and contractors have been doing for quite some time.
Typical negotiation with a potential employer (small/mid size company) goes like this. If the company cannot or does not want to give the salary being asked by the applicant, something can be negotiated, such as additional vacation time, or a larger 401K contribution.
I for one could be happier with an additional week of vacation over a 2-3% increase, every per year. Or additional personal holidays, or the ability to take every other Friday off (like the 9/80 programs many government contractors have.)
For single people I wouldn't recommend such a trade-off. You want to earn and save as much as you can when you do not have kids. Once you have kids (like myself), or have to travel abroad to see in-laws (again, like myself), or many other reasons, you might want to have additional vacation time. Not everything has to be a nefarious plot, even in cut-throat corporate America.