One of the biggest taboos while working for people is to talk bad about your boss about your salary publicly especially when your colleagues are around. However, there will be times when something as confidential as salary, is being broadcast or informed to the wrong parties. The result? Dissatisfaction among employees.

Let’s be honest, most people are not content with what they have and that includes their salary. And most people also think that they are the one working harder than most of the people in the team. So when the news of a peer/colleague receiving a promotion or a higher salary than themselves, all sorts of negative feelings will appear.

“Why is that idiot getting higher salary than me when all he does is talk talk talk?”

“Why is the new guy getting the promotion ahead of old employees like us?”

“Why is he getting a higher increment when our job role is the same?”

Questions like these will keep popping up in the head all the time. It’s normal. After all, we’ve put in so much hard work for the company and it seems like we’re not being appreciated (funnily, some people who always spend their office hours chatting and Facebook-ing also think they’re not being appreciated enough). I’ve been through that before on a couple of occasions and man, I was pretty pissed back then.

But things have changed, and I believe I’ve changed.

Over the years, I’ve given much thought on this issue and I can tell you it’s a very common issue which exists in every organization. But rather than making my life miserable by asking myself questions which I could not answer, I prefer to ask myself a few questions and also try my best to answer them HONESTLY (without any discrimination and with extreme fairness + calmness). It wouldn’t help if you answer these questions when you’re jealous of some people.

• Is the guy really better than me? Or perhaps my performance is actually not-so-good?
• Is there anything I can do to match him or even better than him?
• How much time do I have left until the next performance evaluation? I need to use those time to improve myself.
• Is there a need to talk to my supervisor regarding this? Maybe my supervisor is not happy with something I did which I’m not aware of? Remember, this is to have an honest heart-to-heart talk with your supervisor and not a confrontation.
• Maybe your supervisor has some ideas on how you can perform better in the future?
• Perhaps there are something which this guy has to do, without your knowledge? Maybe he really did go that extra mile?
• Will you be happy after the promotion or the increment? Will you be happy with your new job role or you rather stay where you are now? After all, money is not everything.
• How much is this affecting your mood and overall well-being? Do you think you’re wasting too much time thinking about something you have no answer of?
• And most importantly, do you think there is something that you can really do to change the situation?

Among those questions above, I find the last 2 to be the most important question. If there is really nothing you can do to change the situation, then why do you even bother to think about it? If there IS indeed something that you can do, then do it and change the situation. Get out from that emotional hell you’ve put yourselves into.

For me, even though I know there are people who earn more than me, I don’t really think much about it. Perhaps they are indeed better than me in certain aspects of things. All I can do is to commit myself to do my work, and to get the expected reward from my company. The important thing is that the company or my supervisor should appreciate what I do, and I myself must like what I do.

Whether the company appreciate that guy’s work more than mine, is not really something I can control.

And when I think there’s really no other option for me…..then I might just go find another job and find someone who I think will really appreciate me.

Remember, it’s not worth torturing yourselves by feeling lousy or bad especially on things that you have no answer to. If it’s within your control, then change it. If not, then just ignore it.

DISCLAIMER — i don’t Facebook that much in office. Nothing much in there except other people’s photos. =_=

Few days ago, I posted a comment in Low Yat forum. A person with around 3 years of working experience as an IT programmer was asking about the salary range for someone at his level. Should it be around 3k-4k or 4.5k or more? The question received quite a number of mixed responses.

My reply was 3k to 4k but some of the readers were saying 4k to maybe 5k.

I said that’s possible, if we were still in 2008.

Many of them do not believe me but this is what I’ve found out based on my own job hunting experiences, from my friends who are also looking around, and from people in the recruitment agencies.

The average salary has indeed fallen in 2009, as compared to 2008. Companies are more reserved now and they prefer to keep their cash than to splash it out to hire talented people. So don’t expect that you still can get good salary unless the said company is very desperate for people (I know few companies who are quite desperate) or you are a very rare talent.

Also, expect more competitions this year. According to a friend of mine who is working as a HR of an IT firm, a similar job opening has only 3 to 5 job applicants in 2008…..but in 2009, it went up to 10 or more job applicants. That’s quite a significant increase, and is not a very positive sign for job hunters.

If you still don’t believe me, then try to do some research yourselves. I have no reason to lie to you anyway.

Last but not least, one word of advice. Appreciate your job. Stop complaining about no pay increment or no bonus. There are a lot of people getting retrenched and also a lot of people who are forced to go on extended unpaid leave. Those people need jobs a lot more than you do. If you still think you can come in late to office, going out for extended lunch breaks, playing games in office or even watching Youtube in office…….then I have nothing more to say except for “Good luck”.

p/s… there are still some companies who have increments/bonuses but the amount has dropped significantly. 2009 is not the same as 2008. This is something people should understand.

p/s… this article is purely based on my own findings. It is not supported by a formal survey (like those done by JobStreet). So don’t come flaming me if my findings are wrong.

I am pretty sure you’ve heard of this line before. It’s either from you or from someone you know. Let’s face it, human beings are greedy by nature and all of us will want a better salary. That’s why when you write down your expected salary, it is important to write honestly and don’t regret.

In a normal situation, the company will not be willing to pay you that expected amount and will intend to “discount” your expected salary. But there are also times when the company is willing to pay the expected amount (normally richer and larger companies) or higher (very rare).

So when you get the expected salary, what will you do? Most people will say the above line and complaining that they should’ve asked for more.

But how sure are they? Do they really think they should’ve asked for more in the new job offer? I believe the company hires them for few reasons and maybe one of them is because their salary package suits the company.

Say you are a certified architect and you are expecting RM 8k for your new job. There are few other candidates with similar qualification, similar positive interview results, but they expected higher salary than yours. This will put you in a good position to land the job. But if you put your expected salary higher, maybe they will not consider you at all.

Simple as that. So the next time you get a job offer with your expected salary, don’t say that line “I should’ve asked for a higher pay!” because chances are you might not even get the job offer if you’ve asked for a higher pay. Furthermore, you are already lucky enough to get what you asked for.

Remember that everything happens for a reason. Make your decision, stick to it and don’t regret.

And don’t be too greedy.

I’ve just got my salary increment letter few days ago. I’m happy but not to the state of jumping up and down around the office. At least, it’s better than my expectation especially during such difficult period of time when most companies (mine included) are not doing that well.

However, some of my friends are not pleased with their increment. I only told them that they should talk to the bosses if they’re not happy with it. Maybe together, they can come out with a solution.

Hmm, the thing is, there are some companies I’ve heard of, which don’t give people much pay raise until the day they give their resignation letter. Then the boss will start to panic, and will ask the person for an emergency meeting. They will sit down and the boss will say….

Boss : How much did they offer you?

Victim : RM xxxx per month

Boss : Hmm….what if I counter offer you?

Victim : ……..

Boss : 10% more than your current

Victim : but the new pay is 20% more

Boss : Ok, i’ll pay you the same as the new offer.

The thing is, normally people leave it’s because the new job offers more (in terms of prospects, excitement and money). In this case, let’s talk about the “money” part. There are a lot of companies who don’t give increment to employees (or minimal increment). It happened to me once. The company did not give me any increment, and gave me a RM 75 bonus. I was so furious since I’ve worked 12 hours a day for them (minimum) and my performance review was very good. So i found a job which paid me 20% more. When I resigned, my manager said she wanted to counter offer me with the same amount. I said why didn’t the company do that earlier. In the end, I rejected even though the updated salary (after the counter) was higher than the new salary.

The thing is, employers should try to retain their employees WHILE they (the employees) are still in the company and not when they’ve resigned. Furthermore, what’s the point of keeping an employee who has already set his mind on leaving? It’s better to keep the loyal and good employees.

Just my opinion anyway. But well……sadly…..you’ll get to see a lot of such incidents in Malaysia companies.

Which will you choose? A friend of mine was discussing this with us the other day. He has a friend who was undecided where to go….should he go to the new job which offers him RM 1k more than his current salary or, should he stay put for another 2 months to wait for the promised RM 5k bonus?

His friend, in the end, opted for the bonus because it’s quite a huge amount of money. But I personally believe his friend got too comfortable with the current job, that he became a little short-sighted. With the new job, he just needs to work for 5 months in his new job, and he’ll be able to get the RM 5k. He will also be able to get higher EPF contribution from the employer, higher bonus (possible), and higher baseline pay which will certainly help him the next time he goes out looking for job.

But all these benefits come with one problem – uncertainty. Uncertainty whether the new job is in fact better? Whether the colleagues and projects are better?

Well, in the end, if you never try it, you’ll never know. Just do your current role well….perform the best you can……and if your new job screws up, you can always reapply your current company.

That’s my opinion anyway. Do feel free to tell me yours.

ps…….. nowadays i always fall sick. i’m sick AGAIN. flu, cough, slight headache….*sighs* currently resting at home