I moved out of TMobile a few year ago and took a EM role in a mid year company. Well, I hired, fired and trained people to grow into senior engineer positions. Three years into it, one of the engineer (SDE-2) did really well for the last two years. This year after hiring other SDE-2s, we had an inequality of performance vs TC. The story begins when I started talking to HR and Manager to get this person a raise. About 8% to get them to make them the top earner(205k base). Well, it was declined as this person is already motivated and not a flight risk. I kept requesting it for two months. But then gave up fighting for it. I got so demotivated, that I had to take a week off. Story did not ends here, after I came back from PTOs, I made a plan and talked to the engineer and convinced him to fake quit his job, I promised him that I will make sure that he doesn't leave. He trusted me and did it..I reached back out to management and HR, I was asked to get the numbers from them and where they are going, we used levela.fyi numbers from similar level company and got him 15% raise and 20k one time bonus. This happened mid 2021, he is inline to get promoted to SDE-3 in 2 months and possibly will get 10-15% raise again and equity grant. But I am frustrated with playing these games and thinking to change job to a company where managers have leverage to give more money to their people if they deserve within reason. I have played other shitty games to get what my team deserves. But I understand why most SDMs don't want to fight this fight. I might not anymore too. TC: 350K. #tech #sdmLife #processea
I’d kill for a manager who would give 2 shits about me here. Your team is lucky to have you
I have had people from other teams reach out to me to get in my team. I know they deserve better coaching and growth.but their managers care for them, but don't have what it takes to grow their people. These managers still works in IC role and makes everything about them. Their teams geta nothing and they themselves grow and change teams.
I am glad you cared for employee enough yo play this charade but you can play this once or twice. This is not sustainable. And like others shared there are reasons of bias due to which this is not encouraged. However, I completely agree that companies tend to care less for top performers. They care way too late when employee has already put down papers. Its exploitation of the passionate and motivated. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
I disagree with the bias part. There can be a process around it to get it approved, like we have promotion processes. Or some kind of budget for it. Also, companies don't exploit people. People do, incompetent or demotivated managers etc are the reason. Like myself, I was so motivated and passionate about my job and company, but this whole exercise left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was leading 2 projects and was advisor in SME for SDM. I took a step back this month and going to just do bare minimum and take care of my team instead of raising the bar cross org or company wide.
Op you are blessed if you have not witnessed exploitation. At least in some companies, pay disparity is high. There could be high performer earning much less someone who is poor or medicore performer. Sometimes even earning less than junior engineers. This is pretty common where pay is based on last job pay and not based on skill, talent. You may paint it however you want but it is cheating the ignorant who don't their true market value at that point of time.
You my friend sound like a good manager. Unfortunately this is very rare. Keep it up buddy.
I wish I had a manager like you! I’d stay even without a pay increase 😃 (for a while)
Pay increase and promotions are just milestones, building trust, respecting their goals, growing them by coaching are more rewarding in long term, which brings money anyway.
I wish my manager was like this…..but I feel more betrayed that he’s leading me on instead of being honest. I requested more money (out of cycle) and he said he agrees and will “fight for me”. For the past year, its always been the promise of “i’m still asking and pushing for it but no updates yet”. Meanwhile I hear of other colleagues getting promoted/raises out of cycle which demotivates me….I have a feeling that they told him no but he’s lying to keep me here. Because I’ve also had other colleagues go through same thing and their manager told them no just after a few months from initial conversation. Welp, its too late- I’m on my way out for better.
I just acquired a dev from my peer team. He was promised a promotion for 1.5 years, quarter by quarter, during my first 1:1 , I told him he is not even 50% there, set up goals with him, shared his growth areas from my past experience with him. Shared the entire promotion process with him. He agreed he is not ready, but we will work towards it and check in every quarter. It is easier to lie and say you are doing great, vs being transparent and giving constructive feedback.
OP, I wasn’t out for a promotion. For more context, Jan of 2021 I got promoted. But I was not happy with the raise they gave me, it felt very low for what I was now expected to do with more responsibilities. So I asked my manager for a higher raise. He agreed but by then it was already too late/past the deadlines of using the annual budget/yearly performance. So my next hope was to get it come mid year cycle. Mid year comes around and nothing happens….then before you know it, a whole year has passed and only just now did they offer a raise but too late. I wouldve appreciated my manager told me truth instead of stringing me along. Just say “I was told no because we have no budget right now, wait til new year”. Instead he stringed me along because I’m sure he knew I would start interviewing if he told me no.
Only if my manager thought this way
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Transparency is better than Managers having the power. It can go down south quick! It ends up with playing favorites and actually demotivating good performing individuals. It's just one of those side effects of the situation.
There need to be a process around it, like promotion. You have backup data on why this person deserves a little raise or bonus out of cycle. I know some companies have budgets for managers for this specific part.
I know ppl will come at me. But Amazon has a great thing called promo doc. Which basically outlines on why you need to get a promotion. It's a list of things a L4 has does which is above his/her pay grade(L5) And thus deserves the raise!