tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602622501663834998.post6279262487120738981..comments2023-10-23T09:18:59.040-05:00Comments on Empirical Question: That's Some Weird Idea of FairnessSallyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15376389949707679077noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602622501663834998.post-9825474571382726912007-07-01T15:37:00.000-05:002007-07-01T15:37:00.000-05:00I bet each employee would be happy to do this rese...I bet each employee would be happy to do this research on their own time and just hand over their results to HR. HR could then just double-check the ones that didn't make sense.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602622501663834998.post-10963484806420416152007-07-01T12:00:00.000-05:002007-07-01T12:00:00.000-05:00Monster.com also has a salary calculator, both a '...Monster.com also has a salary calculator, both a 'general' one and a calculator which determines some sort of 'personalized' salary based on your experience and credentials. The former is free, but the latter apparently (I didn't try it) has a fee.<BR/><BR/>If TPWD's honchos decided to, they could do the salary research, and do a vast reorg, making sure everyone who was underpaid gets 'reclassified' - all the planners are now program specialists, etc. The money is there, at least right now it is. They just don't want to do that. (I don't blame them, it is a lot of work, and takes money away from what they really want to, and arguably should, be doing, like fixing sewers, building cabins, and raising fish.)rvmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13956207771311921934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602622501663834998.post-84446742866388713762007-06-30T18:49:00.000-05:002007-06-30T18:49:00.000-05:00It's a very good point that having the data on sal...It's a very good point that having the data on salary comparisons between my agency and other employers may not do much good if the money isn't there to match the market rate. If anything, given how highly (ahem) the director appears to value the work of my division (a "support" division, not a "resource" division which does the "real" work of the agency), they may use this as an excuse to cut positions that are viewed as expensive luxuries rather than find a way to pay more adequately. <BR/><BR/>But to the extent that the organization wants to recruit and hold on to talent in these (in my opinion, increasingly important as the values of the agency continues to diverge from those of the citizens) positions, they need to understand the situation and come up with some plan for solving the problem. Basically, I think the agency has been able to skate by all this time paying less across the board for those in "support" positions because we have a mission that many people strongly believe in and people (perhaps wrongly) assume that working in the organization will be more "fun" than working somewhere else. But morale has taken a major nosedive such that even many of the hardcore types in the department are getting sick of the bullshit and the sense that they are not being allowed to do their jobs.<BR/><BR/>And I agree that similar problems exist in the private sector, but perhaps not to the same degree. In many firms, it is at least possible to ask for and successfully get a raise or negotiate a new position/salary after getting an offer from another company. If they want to keep you, there is somebody in the firm who has the authority to make that happen, even if it requires making up a new job for you. In state government, we have the bureaucracy that makes things a lot harder. I am not actually sure whether making me "Curmudgeon-in-Chief" would require an act of Congress or not. (It's not obvious that it would sit well within any of the defined job titles in the state classification system.) <BR/><BR/>And when raises are tied to promotions in the private sector, there is generally more room for promotion. In my case, I was already, at the age of 29, at the very highest position I could hope to aspire to in my agency, which would not be the case in a typical organization of 3000 employees. (Even working the client side, rather than for a research firm, there is a much larger scope for market research people in a company of any decent size.) So I knew I wasn't going to stay there for the next 35 years of my professional career the way people on the resource side might.<BR/><BR/>At least D is not planning to replace me with two people making a higher salary than I am. In fact, I was pretty pissed off when she told me that none of the $180 million the agency is getting in the 08-09 budget is going toward research staff. That was a good indication, even if I'd had my head in the sand prior to that point, that research work was not valued by my agency unless it involves how to grow bigger deer.Sallyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15376389949707679077noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602622501663834998.post-2083562191173063152007-06-29T20:50:00.000-05:002007-06-29T20:50:00.000-05:00Wow, that sucks.And so many things you wrote feel ...Wow, that sucks.<BR/><BR/>And so many things you wrote feel oddly familiar. Either I have felt them, or I feel sure I would have felt them in your place.<BR/><BR/>When I left one job after ten years, they replaced me with one and a half new people, both of whom had the next-higher job title. Worse than that, they reformatted the hard drives on my computers, thus losing all the documents of professors who don't type. I did once get a 3% "added duties" raise in addition to my regular 3% raise.<BR/><BR/>That's why I didn't complain too much when my current title was changed to something nonsensical in order to give me a more reasonable raise.<BR/><BR/>Sadly, stupid practices concerning raises exist in the private sector, too, where you might never get a raise unless and until you get a higher-paying job offer. R has the philosphy that you should start looking for the next thing every three years.<BR/><BR/>"So we discussed how fucked up the system is that just about the only time you can get a position upgraded in salary is when an experienced person leaves the job and you hire in a clueless one at a higher salary." I never quite thought it out that far. Depressing.<BR/><BR/>And even if HR did do some kind of salary survey, what could they possibly do with the information? The extra money will not come out of nowhere. Or do I just think that because I am too gullible?<BR/><BR/>And here's another ranking example for you: When I worked for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, my boss told me that the only employer she could outbid was UT. (I know that's a simplification because UT can outbid the other colleges in town.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com