I read a post today on LinkedIn that started out like this:
“Your salary increase will be 2%,” I told her. It was one of my worst moments as a people leader.
She was my star performer, my right hand person.
1000% business critical to our team. Yet 2% was the best our company would give her.
It was far beneath her value, and we both knew it, and I couldn’t do better for her.
The author goes on to say that he advised her to look for a new job that would pay what she’s worth, which she did. And the moral of the story is that you can’t complain when employees leave if you don’t give them reasons to stay.
Surprisingly to me, the poster got a lot of recognition and praise for his handling of this tale of woe.
I don’t like the story myself.
As I understand it, he offered his most valuable team member a 2% raise, knowing it was far below her value, placed the blame on “our company,” and advised her to find another job. I’m going to assume since he didn’t leave that he got more than 2%. It sounds like he got his raise and offered her 2%.
And he didn’t, as a people leader, say to whoever these things are said to, “If you make me offer my most valuable team member a 2% raise, I’m going back to my desk and start typing my resignation letter.”
If you see a problem, you own it. If you ignore a problem, you’ll see more of it.