So, we got kind of epically f***ed at work today

This might be a little bit of an overshare. When this all first happened this morning I was more amused than anything else, because I saw it coming. The anger didn't really hit until I was on my way home talking to the guy I carpool with. Now that I have typed this all out I am back to amusement. Mostly at myself because I let myself get sucked in. Anyway enjoy my pain, and laugh with me.

[FONT=&amp]and I mean dry an*l with a sandpaper condom f***ed.
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]Ever since I started at my current position, and even before when I was a contractor, HR has been telling us that there were going to be salary adjustments. I started as an FTE in May of last year after a year as a contractor and myself and a co-worker who started at the same time were told that salary adjustments would be coming in late June. [/FONT][FONT=&amp]
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]June comes around and they tell us no we had to push it 'til September because we were so far off the range.
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]September comes and no adjustments because the Cybersecurity Director got fired and the CIO was retiring. [/FONT][FONT=&amp]

[/FONT][FONT=&amp]November comes around and we are supposed to get our 6 month completed probation raise and we don't because it's so close to year end evals but don't worry salary adjustments are coming up after the first of the year and they will be in the 20% range. They get bumped back to April but they will be in the 20%+ range (I know 20% sounds super high honestly I was think in the 5 to 6% range). In April everyone in IT starts seeing their adjustments except Cybersecurity, they are pushed again because we are way outside the envelope. Then this week they start giving our managers training on how to roll out the salary adjustments and new career architecture. Has anyone ever worked at a company where the train managers on how to break good news? I haven't.
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[/FONT][FONT=&amp]Today they told us no salary changes. To say people are upset would be an understatement. [/FONT][FONT=&amp]

[/FONT][FONT=&amp]I have to say I have been expecting this for quite awhile, and have been telling my co-workers since about last August that there weren't going to be any salary adjustments.

My reasoning - They have gone back and done the numbers a couple times. In my experience they only do that when they are trying to justify not bringing you up to the industry standard. Also they have continually pushed the adjustments off. Again I have only seen that happen when the company is trying to avoid pay raises. Finally the CIO has done nothing but talk about finances and the needed to cut personnel costs by about 20% since starting here. My bosses boss had a skip level with us the other day and assured us that this was just an exercise, but that's b*****it. You don't do s**t like that as "just an exercise". Finally like I said earlier this week they made my boss go to training on how to discuss they new career architecture and salary adjustments.
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]Right then I knew for sure that we were going to be bent over and humped within an inch of our lives. [/FONT][FONT=&amp]

[/FONT][FONT=&amp]Today we got confirmation. We had an all hands with the CSD and during the portion where he was discussing career architecture he told us "Salaries are not going to change" and when someone brought up that for almost 2 years HR has been promising salary adjustments his response was "Well, that's not going to happen". [/FONT][FONT=&amp]

[/FONT][FONT=&amp]It's not even the money. I mean for some of my co-workers the money is a much bigger deal. They have families and house payments and such. I don't. I mean, I wouldn't mind making more money, but it's not my driving factor. At this point it's about the blatant disrespect. I mean if a year ago they had just said we've looked at the numbers and we don't see the need for an adjustment, that would have been cool. Instead they have just continually strung this out, basically lying to us every step of the way.
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]
[/FONT][FONT=&amp]This comes two days after our meeting where they were trying to find out why our employee satisfaction survey scores were so low and 5 minutes after a big spiel on accountability, transparency and ethics. Anyone else see the disconnect?

(A couple co-workers come to this site and if I have messed up the timeline they can correct me but I am pretty confident in the overall narrative arc)

(Edit 2: Edit one was for a formatting error, this is an observation - Wow, I was really torqued a half hour ago. I'm re-reading this now and the repetition and lack of structure are really really bad. I apologize.)
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Comments

Blucodex

I would immediately look for another job. Your company doesn't care about you or your co-workers.

cshkuru

That is kind of the prevailing sentiment.

DZA_

Not sure if it is more prominent in a Managed Service Provider setting but it's your classical dangle a carrot in front of your face until you realize you're being screwed scenario. It happened at my old place with the same type of story till a bunch of us decided to leave (we were in our late 20s/early 30s) then they got screwed for having no one to do the work.

PCTechLinc

What irritates me about your entire story is "[FONT=&amp]In April everyone in IT starts seeing their adjustments except Cybersecurity, they are pushed again because we are way outside the envelope". I would get out of there so fast and never look back.[/FONT]

DPG

"I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee that says, 'Fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again!'"

cshkuru

Thanks for the responses. The frustrating thing is I don't think they even realize how badly they damaged morale and trust. I'm kind of stuck here for a couple months but after that I will be looking

Brill

Can confirm. I am the co-worker cshkuru is referring to in the original post. Everything that was written is true... zero exaggerations.

NOC-Ninja

Never kill yourself for a company. I would bounce as soon as I dont see any raise in a year.

UnixGuy

Clear sign of an immature management. Update your cv and apply for jobs. Immature management get rewarded quickly for their incompetency.

I know you are angry now, but I recommend you edit your post and hide out some details, it won't do you any good to leave a lot of identifiable details. You never know.

Enjoy your weekend for now and try not to think about it

EANx

I would be less concerned about the lack of a raise over the course of a year than I would be the broken promises. The following holds true for both people and companies, when they say one thing and do the other, expect their actions to be the way they want to do business.

Todd Bonzales

cshkuru wrote: »

[FONT=&amp]Today we got confirmation. We had an all hands with the CSD and during the portion where he was discussing career architecture he told us "Salaries are not going to change" and when someone brought up that for almost 2 years HR has been promising salary adjustments his response was "Well, that's not going to happen". [/FONT]

Get your resume up to date and start looking for a new job...

Mooseboost

Autobots, roll out!

You shouldn't feel any guilt when you walk out of there. Polish that resume up and head out the door.

tedjames

That happened to me at a previous job. I finally told the boss not to tell me, "It's about to happen!" until he has paperwork in hand. My solution was just to bide my time and continue to skill up on my own until I could find a better job. When I did get an offer, suddenly they begged me to stay and matched the offer. I ended up leaving a couple of months after that, anyway. I couldn't work for such a fickle employer any longer. I'm much happier where I am now.

Do what it takes to find a new job and get out of that environment. You can do better.

jdancer

Whatever you do, never accept a counter-offer. Just give your weeks notice and don't burn bridges. It's a small IT world.

Counter-offers are nothing more than a belated recognition of your valuable contributions.

636-555-3226

This makes me laugh. In my area cybersecurity is the hot stuff. We're treated with kid gloves and get our run of the kingdom. If you were in my area I could get you 5 interviews in the next few days and, if you have actual hands-on cybersecurity experience, you'd get offers from all 5 places with great salaries that same day since there are NO experienced cybersecurity people looking for jobs. Literally, when talking to recruiters & HR people around me, for every 20 jobs posted in my area there is one person who qualifies. Any employer who treated cybersecurity people like that in my area would have 0 people still working in the department 2 weeks later..... Such a total disconnect with reality in some places.....

Blucodex

636-555-3226 wrote: »

This makes me laugh. In my area cybersecurity is the hot stuff. We're treated with kid gloves and get our run of the kingdom. If you were in my area I could get you 5 interviews in the next few days and, if you have actual hands-on cybersecurity experience, you'd get offers from all 5 places with great salaries that same day since there are NO experienced cybersecurity people looking for jobs. Literally, when talking to recruiters & HR people around me, for every 20 jobs posted in my area there is one person who qualifies. Any employer who treated cybersecurity people like that in my area would have 0 people still working in the department 2 weeks later..... Such a total disconnect with reality in some places.....

Pretty tough to find talent here in Phoenix and a ton of Cyber jobs. L1 analysts starting at 90k!

UnixGuy

636-555-3226 wrote: »

This makes me laugh. In my area cybersecurity is the hot stuff. We're treated with kid gloves and get our run of the kingdom. If you were in my area I could get you 5 interviews in the next few days and, if you have actual hands-on cybersecurity experience, you'd get offers from all 5 places with great salaries that same day since there are NO experienced cybersecurity people looking for jobs. Literally, when talking to recruiters & HR people around me, for every 20 jobs posted in my area there is one person who qualifies. Any employer who treated cybersecurity people like that in my area would have 0 people still working in the department 2 weeks later..... Such a total disconnect with reality in some places.....

Why are cybersecurity skills so rare in your area? what kind of skills are we talking about here?

cshkuru

636-555-3226 wrote: »

This makes me laugh. In my area cybersecurity is the hot stuff. We're treated with kid gloves and get our run of the kingdom. If you were in my area I could get you 5 interviews in the next few days and, if you have actual hands-on cybersecurity experience, you'd get offers from all 5 places with great salaries that same day since there are NO experienced cybersecurity people looking for jobs. Literally, when talking to recruiters & HR people around me, for every 20 jobs posted in my area there is one person who qualifies. Any employer who treated cybersecurity people like that in my area would have 0 people still working in the department 2 weeks later..... Such a total disconnect with reality in some places.....

It's not quite that tight here, but none of us are hurting for opportunities. Like I said I am kind of stuck here for a bit but not for an exceptionally long time. One of our prevailing theories is that because they are having trouble filling positions, money that was supposed to go to our salary adjutsments has been shifted to bump salaries for new people.

soccarplayer29

So the thought is that they are going to use those salary adjustment savings and increase salaries for cybersecurity new hires? So then the new hires coming in get paid more than the more senior people--that'll go over well.

ITHokie

A word to the wise - be careful in thinking any future promises or commitments will be honored unless they are in writing. It's easy to think of companies as monolithic. They're not. They're comprised of people with competing interests who can be made to change their minds. Sometimes managers don't keep promises because a VP or Director changed their mind. Or left the company. Or money was taken from their budget. Other times it's for less palatable reasons.

If things get shady, by all means leave. My point is that unless a commitment is in writing (as in an offer letter), don't plan on it or become emotionally invested in it. Instead, plan an exit strategy for if they don't come through. It's much easier to deal with that way.

Nyblizzard

Is Phoenix really like that?

markulous

ITHokie wrote: »

A word to the wise - be careful in thinking any future promises or commitments will be honored unless they are in writing. It's easy to think of companies as monolithic. They're not. They're comprised of people with competing interests who can be made to change their minds. Sometimes managers don't keep promises because a VP or Director changed their mind. Or left the company. Or money was taken from their budget. Other times it's for less palatable reasons.

If things get shady, by all means leave. My point is that unless a commitment is in writing (as in an offer letter), don't plan on it or become emotionally invested in it. Instead, plan an exit strategy for if they don't come through. It's much easier to deal with that way.

Heck, I worked for a company that produces a very popular security product and had it in writing I would get raises, and that didn't even have any weight.

EANx

I knew someone who had gotten a job offer and had written into the employment agreement that he would cert specific raises after passing certain exams. The company benefited by having someone pass specific exams, they weren't a reseller but were a partner. He did well but after a management change, the new boss refused to give him the raise. He went to HR and they agreed he was due and forced the manager to give him the raise. A couple of months later he was "laid off".

TechGromit

cshkuru wrote: »

Thanks for the responses. The frustrating thing is I don't think they even realize how badly they damaged morale and trust. I'm kind of stuck here for a couple months but after that I will be looking

Well the obvious short term solution is cut your productivity by 20%. If your employer doesn't value their employees, why should the employees value the work they do?

ITHokie

markulous wrote: »

Heck, I worked for a company that produces a very popular security product and had it in writing I would get raises, and that didn't even have any weight.

Sure, I've heard of this happening. It's tough not to be invested a commitment when it's in writing, though. We deal with that it comes, I guess. I just don't like to put any weight in verbal promises because they often don't come to fruition. It's easy for management to use them to manipulate employees into staying where they are.

NotHackingYou

I hate to see people get jerked around. Sounds like you and your colleagues have a decision to make.

ITHokie

EANx wrote: »

I knew someone who had gotten a job offer and had written into the employment agreement that he would cert specific raises after passing certain exams. The company benefited by having someone pass specific exams, they weren't a reseller but were a partner. He did well but after a management change, the new boss refused to give him the raise. He went to HR and they agreed he was due and forced the manager to give him the raise. A couple of months later he was "laid off".

What's the moral of the story?

ITSec14

Always be looking out for #1. Talk is cheap.

EANx

ITHokie wrote: »

What's the moral of the story?

Don't trust an agreement, even if it's in writing. A contract is one thing but an agreement, and most US employment agreements have holes you could drive a truck through.

yoba222

If I were you I'd get those resumes out sooner rather than later. In my experience it has always taken several weeks longer than I thought it would to go from sending resumes out to having a written offer in hand.