Pay Raises and Salary Increases

I was talking with a man the other day when I was on a job.  This guy had been working with the company for about 18 years.  You could tell that the guy was genuine.  He wasn’t a beat around the bush kind of guy.  He just told it like it was.  You could tell this guy was pretty successful.  I got to see his home.  He lives in pretty large home in the suburbs tucked away a little bit from the hustle and bustle.

He lives in a pretty big split level home much bigger than the average split level.  He has an attached four car garage with an apartment sized space above the garage.  There was a huge fifth wheel camper parked out in his asphalt driveway.  You could tell this guy had sunk some coin into that home and was proud of it. 

He was telling me about how successful all of his sons were.  He was proud that one of them owned a restaurant.  Another was a male nurse.  We got to talking about his family history and even his work history.

He told me that he liked working for his company and that he was the kind of guy that his boss could depend on.  He said that he never really took a lot of time off of work.  His boss calls him from time to time and needs someone who can go represent the company on out of town business functions.  He gets asked to go out of state for a couple days to attend a trade show or something of that sort.

He told me that he has never once turned down his boss when he was asked to go to one of these trade shows.  Not once.  Apparently there have been a couple of times when he was notified of the show only one day ahead of time.  Wow.  Most people would throw a giant shit fit, but not this guy.

This guy looked at me and said “Listen, I make big money for the boss and he knows it.  I am really dependable.  He knows that whenever he needs me, I’ll come through for him.”  I thought to myself, “No wonder this guy is making great money.  Look at his attitude.”  People like this are extremely rare.  I knew immediately that this guy was super tight with his boss.  There is no way his boss would ever let him leave the company.

Low and behold, the man told me that he would be retiring in a couple years.  His boss has already talked with him about the subject.  The boss has agreed to let him reduce the number of days he works each week to three.  That’s right.  The guy is only working three days a week now.  To top that off, he is still getting his regular paycheck. What the?  This guy doesn’t have to ask for a raise.  He gets rewarded in paid time off because he is so valuable.

This guy has been so dependable over the years that his boss will bend over backwards and give him anything he wants to keep him working there.  That is how valuable he is in his boss’ eyes.  This is one happy man.  It’s no wonder his sons are successful also.  Look at the example this guy set for them.

If you work for a decent sized company you will get enough variety among the employees to get to meet and see all different types of people and their habits.  You probably experience what happens in a lot of companies across America.  A typical company policy prohibits too many people from one department taking the same days off for vacation or personal time.  This causes a bit of a scramble among workers to position for time off around holidays and certain weekends.

The funny thing about this big scramble to get time off before certain weekends or holidays makes me giggle a little bit.  For starters, if people in your company are trying to get those days off, what do you think people in other companies are doing?  Some of those other companies are probably your customers, unless you work in consumer retail.  If everyone is trying to get off that should tell you that work is going to be slow on those days.

Everybody and her brother is going to be thinking about what their plans are for the upcoming holiday.  They aren’t going to be focused on work.  They’re only going to get done the things that absolutely need to get done.  The end result is you get a workday with a light work load.  You coast through the day easily when compared to a normal Friday. 

For certain holidays, many companies contribute to the lazy light work load atmosphere.  Lots of times they will have lunch brought into the office.  Sometimes employees will bring a dish to pass and take an extra long lunch break.  These are the days when you want to be at work.

What if you could be known around the office as the person who is always willing to work the days surrounding a holiday?  Don’t you think the boss will hold a high regard for that type of behavior?  How many times does the owner of the company or your boss take off right before a holiday?  If the company is well run, he probably does it very rarely.  That should tell you something.

If you are one of those people who must always have the day off before Memorial Day weekend or the Fourth of July or Labor Day, you’re behavior will get noticed.  That behavior could get you labeled as a person who isn’t concerned about their job and is only there to collect a paycheck.  You might very well have that attitude.  I bet you do.  Just remember, that attitude isn’t going to help you ask for a pay raise or more benefits and perks.  It certainly isn’t going to help the company earn any more money than they would if any other drone was plugged into your position.  Remember that when times get tough and you are worried about losing your job.

One thing that really bothers me in this modern world is how easy it has become to lose your focus.  With all this modern technology, specifically cell phones, people have an unprecedented ability to interrupt you when you are in the middle of doing something important.

In my case for example, I have to carry a cell phone with me throughout the workday.  I get calls from my employees if there is an issue as well as from my best clients whenever they have something that requires immediate attention.  This really handicaps my ability to get projects done that require substantial concentration.

I find that I get the most work done very early in the morning or very late at night.  If I get to work at 5 or 6AM I can manage to get a significant amount of real work done before the interruptions begin.  Once the clock gets to around 8:30AM forget it.  The phone calls and emails start coming in from everywhere.  It becomes impossible for me to complete anything of quality that requires serious thought.  I am stuck in that mode until about 5PM.  After five, most of my clients are done for the day as are my employees.  Once again I have the ability to work on a project uninterrupted for a couple of hours.

Fortunately, I have staff that can screen the majority of calls I get in the office.  This helps immensely.  Yet, I still search for a better system to somehow delegate or better organize the way I do things so that I can be more efficient with customers and employees alike.  This system still eludes me.

It bothers me to no end how much these unexpected interruptions reduce my productivity.  I have taken a look around the office to see how many things are around to interrupt my employees when they are focused on a task.  I advise you to look around your work environment to find ways of reducing interruptions.  You probably don’t realize how much it really affects your productivity.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Back when I was an employee working for somebody else, one of the guys I worked with was a big thinker.  He was always thinking about things that we should be doing to make the company better and improve our customer service.

 He told me about this idea that he had for the company that could really be a financial winner.  He was convinced that this idea would add a new source of revenue that would dwarf what we were currently doing in business.  He was convinced that his idea would be so successful that the company would have to hire another couple production guys to be able to handle the extra work.

 The guy explained his idea to me on the ride home from work one day.  I agreed with him.  This was a great idea.  This was one of those things that makes you stand out in your industry.  It makes you stand out in your company as well.

 What is the catch?

 He couldn’t muster up the courage to have a meeting with the boss to discuss his views.  He didn’t want to talk to his immediate boss about it because he was afraid that his boss would try to take credit for his idea when it was explained to the company president.  If you knew the boss in this instance, you would agree.  I told him that he would be better off going straight to the president with his information.  He thought about it but never actually said anything.

 I left that company for another position a short while after that.  About five years went by before I ran into this friend of mine again.  When I asked him about it, he informed me that the company was not doing so well.  There were some layoffs and business was really suffering.  I inquired about the president’s response to his proposal.  He informed me that he never actually made the proposal.  He was too afraid.

 I can’t help but wonder where that company may have ended up had it not been for his shyness.   I wonder if business would have been different.  I wonder if anyone would have lost their jobs.  I wonder if this employee may have gotten a promotion out of it.  The idea was that good.  We’ll never know though.  Don’t put yourself in this position.  Never be afraid to make a suggestion that can improve your company.  If your immediate boss steals your idea, your coworkers will know about it.  His true nature and yours will be revealed eventually.