Monday, April 18, 2005

Why???

A company hires you at a rate of X, assigns you P&L responsibilty, and makes you in charge of a the division. Five weeks later you go to corporate HQ for training and the VERY first thing they tell you is that your position is now going away, you can decide between being a receptionist or a tech. And Oh, by the way, you are going to take a 36% pay cut.

1. WHY would they even hire you to begin with when they KNEW this was happening within the next three months?
2. How many do they expect to NOT leave with a 36% (on average) pay cut, and a major down grade of title and position? (There are 400 or so such people that are so effected.)

Would you stay if this was you? What are your thoughts on something like this happening?

1 comment:

Ron Amundson said...

Something fishy.....

Either a divisional manager with P&L responsibility has a very tiny division, or techs and recpetionists are paid very highly. With that type of salary structure, something is seriously wrong with the organization.

Either A, they are a visionary outfit in rapid growth, and experiencing severe growing pains. They may well have decided to kill off a division, can't afford proper salary levels, and are hoping the exec will stay around such that they can get a good position for him in short order. They also cannot afford to pay him a decent rate in the meantime.

Or B, the outfit has been around a while, went through a corp reshuffle, and the decision makers are totally clueless while they get their feet on the ground, yet have to cut costs. Or C, the upper management levels are totally inept, and the company is going down the tubes.

If it were A, I'd stick around, but ask for stock options as a concession, depending on how big the vision was.

B, is questionable, it really depends on ones knowledge of the reshuffle. It seems to happen a lot during those changes. Might be time to bail.

C. Time to go do something else, unless of course there are other unknowns. It can be a time just prior to a major exodus of management staff.... Might be time to play the cards to replace someone higher on the pole. Or personal reasons may lock one into a location, thats a tough call. All one is doing is buying time for the next position.