It's so important to be transparent as much as possible with your employees and I believe that it applies to any close partnership.
The more open you are with your partner, be it a romantic partner or a business one, the better the relationship is and the higher the chances are to grow and thrive.
I have a rule:
If I consider whether I need to discuss it or not - I discuss it.
It was important enough to bother me, so it's probably important enough to talk about.
Your focus on salary is just - this the place where most people feel the unfairness. It's a very tough situation to be in as a manager.
For example, in 2021, the salaries of new comers were much higher, because it was a very competitive market. Now, people will agree to much lower offers, and the budget for hiring is lower.
This creates a lot of people in the same situation as you - earning less than there peers. But the question then becomes - do they learn less than they deserve, or the 2021-hires earn more than they deserve?
I only recently started to be a part of those conversations as a director, and it's much more complicated than I thought - as you wrote, fair is very subjective.
"It's a very tough situation to be in as a manager." — Well said. The more and bigger decisions you make, the more cases you are judged on.
It all depends on the definitions of “deserve” and “fair” — There are companies that value tenure over skill and current contribution. Industries with periods of extremely high or extremely low demand make their compensation distribution much more complicated than steady industries.
Transparency and authenticity builds the foundation of fairness, it makes many things easier for a leader. This post was a great continuance to our conversation yesterday, Michal.
I loved the pre-reveal message.
It's so important to be transparent as much as possible with your employees and I believe that it applies to any close partnership.
The more open you are with your partner, be it a romantic partner or a business one, the better the relationship is and the higher the chances are to grow and thrive.
I have a rule:
If I consider whether I need to discuss it or not - I discuss it.
It was important enough to bother me, so it's probably important enough to talk about.
Thanks for the article Michal! Great job :)
Thank you for the kind words, Orel. The pre-reveal message was something I iterated on many times while using it.
Your rule is great — it serves as a great reminder to bring topics up.
I loved this one Michal!
Your focus on salary is just - this the place where most people feel the unfairness. It's a very tough situation to be in as a manager.
For example, in 2021, the salaries of new comers were much higher, because it was a very competitive market. Now, people will agree to much lower offers, and the budget for hiring is lower.
This creates a lot of people in the same situation as you - earning less than there peers. But the question then becomes - do they learn less than they deserve, or the 2021-hires earn more than they deserve?
I only recently started to be a part of those conversations as a director, and it's much more complicated than I thought - as you wrote, fair is very subjective.
"It's a very tough situation to be in as a manager." — Well said. The more and bigger decisions you make, the more cases you are judged on.
It all depends on the definitions of “deserve” and “fair” — There are companies that value tenure over skill and current contribution. Industries with periods of extremely high or extremely low demand make their compensation distribution much more complicated than steady industries.
Thank you, Anton, for sharing your perspective!
Transparency and authenticity builds the foundation of fairness, it makes many things easier for a leader. This post was a great continuance to our conversation yesterday, Michal.
Also, thanks for mentioning Leadership Letters.
Thank you, Akash. I agree that authenticity is important as well. I’m glad we had the opportunity to talk about it.
Well deserved for the Leadership Letters, that is an important article.