Requesting a bigger raise as a team rather than individually?

MissChief

MissChief

MissChief

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While I don’t want to seem ungrateful as I know many people are out of work or have not received any raise at all I can’t help but feel aggrieved at the 1.5% we’ve been awarded across the team with no individual efforts taken into account or any consultation or opportunity to show why I think we deserve more.

Without going in to too much detail we lost two permanent, long term staff members in October who’d been at the company for a combined 40 years so the company is making an immediate saving of at least £45k a year, although of course I don’t expect this saving to simply be given to us, but the workload increased when they were laid off and has only gotten worse. We were promised there would be an increase in automation to take up a lot of the repetitive actions we take but this hasn’t happened or is still in development and not been rolled out yet. Our workload has been increasing week on week for months now with us accepting more orders than we’ve been completing pretty much every week since the beginning of the year.

We experienced a lull in orders when the first Covid lockdown happened a year ago but as we were classed as essential workers we did continue to work from home where efficiency and productivity has either been on par with working in the office or even improved in some areas.

All our figures are above target including ARPU and Churn for our specific product and we have different grades of product and we’ve planned for 50% of orders to be the more lucrative higher tier but this is currently running at 85% of orders coming in. Our team was moved from London to my town around two years ago (I suspect for cost reasons with the London weighting meaning they pay extra down there) and there has been a huge improvement in feedback from our Partners who actually deal with the end users and several team members have been called out by name on Partner feedback meetings. We have also often worked after finish time to clear tickets to save them needing done the next day and when anyone is on holiday we really struggle to clear the work on a daily basis. This has only gotten worse since the two staff members were made redundant in October. This will likely stop if they’re unwilling to share in the companies success. We’re all paid different amounts and I believe I’m one of the highest paid staff members so I do kind of keep my head down when people start talking about wages, but I’ve also worked there the longest so have had yearly raises which all added up.

After all that, has anyone managed to present a United front to management as a whole team? How did you go about it? Was everyone on board? We’re there any dissenters? Did someone go running to management to spill the beans before we were ready to discuss things with management? We’re your efforts successful or not?
 
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I don't have experience of this but the challenges will include:

1) Giving a whole team a rise is expensive and cumulative for future years. Typically one might cherry pick a few exceptions.
2) If there is a salary imbalance in the team it removes potential for 'rebalancing' i.e. giving low earners bigger raises than high earners
3) There might be people in the team that are [perceived by management] to be 'underperforming' and hence they would be reluctant to reward heavily as a result of a blanket team increase
4) They have made two team members redundant in the past six months with a combined 40 years at the company, this will have been very expensive so that 'immediate saving' of £45k/year will be a future saving, not a current saving. I'd wager at least one of those people is over 40 years old where the statutory redundancy multiplier goes up to 1.5x. So probably half of that annual saving will have gone on payoffs.
5) If they are making people redundant and focusing on automation then they may be seeking to downsize the team further in the medium term (from what you've said, the automation hasn't been rolled out yet, so this is a future benefit they've not yet realised that they may expect to reduce human workload in future), hence keeping a lid on pay rises may be desirable so they can a) benefit from natural attrition and b) reduce future redundancy payouts
 
MissChief said:
After all that, has anyone managed to present a United front to management as a whole team?
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No, I don't recommend doing this as a team. It can create a negative environment that can lead to a number of problems.

You work for yourself and your interests should only be about you. As much as you might believe it now, your colleagues won't always have your back. It's understandable to get emotional about these things at times when you feel undervalued but try to handle it professionally.
 
My previous perspective was written from the perspective of an employer. As an employee, I'd be researching opportunities elsewhere if you feel underpaid (the #1 piece of advice I have is ignore payrise % and just consider is your current package acceptable? I've been given a 1% pay rise previously, and been happier than getting 5% in a previous role, because a fair salary +1% is better than being underpaid +5%).
 
It's extremely difficult.

Honestly I believe unless your workmates are willing unionize then no it's not a good idea to collude and attempt to drive up wages across the board. Even when it's official its still questionable.
Most of the time it leads to them firing whoever is considered the "ring leader". It's also difficult given that it's rare that everyone in the team is equally indispensable (either due to work-ethic or siloing). I was historically in a team were we said everyone that worked on a given project deserved a raise (similar sort of thing). We all stuck to our guns and it resulted in the team leader being fired and the rest of us leaving in dribs and drabs during the notice period.

A better option is just to all come to a gentlemen's agreement to cover each others back and praise each other given the opportunity. So long as the praise is reciprocal and the team excels compared to other teams, you'll likely get a similar result without the conflict. It might not happen at the same time, but if the praise keeps coming they will put 2 and 2 together in the boardroom. Just buy the unluck s*d who missed out on the first gravy train first time round a drink or two when the pubs reopen.

I'd say your idea as stated would only work in the Nordic countries where wages are public, that way the "fair is fair" kind of arguments more easily land.
 
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Cooler running said:
It's extremely difficult.

Honestly I believe unless your workmates are willing unionize then no it's not a good idea to collude and attempt to drive up wages across the board. Even when it's official its still questionable.
Most of the time it leads to them firing whoever is considered the "ring leader". It's also difficult given that it's rare that everyone in the team is equally indispensable (either due to work-ethic or siloing). I was historically in a team were we said everyone that worked on a given project deserved a raise (similar sort of thing). We all stuck to our guns and it resulted in the team leader being fired and the rest of us leaving in dribs and drabs during the notice period.

A better option is just to all come to a gentlemen's agreement to cover each others back and praise each other given the opportunity. So long as the praise is reciprocal and the team excels compared to other teams, you'll likely get a similar result without the conflict. It might not happen at the same time, but if the praise keeps coming they will put 2 and 2 together in the boardroom. Just buy the unluck s*d who missed out on the first gravy train first time round a drink or two when the pubs reopen.

I'd say your idea as stated would only work in the Nordic countries where wages are public, that way the "fair is fair" kind of arguments more easily land.
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I decided after all to keep quiet, I'd heard from others that pretty much the whole company got the 1.5% so we weren't being low-balled or anything. Next year, once the company and economy picks up I'll be expecting double that as a minimum, if I'm still there.
 
lol at least you got a pay rise .. my wife and son are on nearly equal terms to me now and they work at morrisons .. ok there higher paid than most but .. basic at morrisons is £10 an hr now ..
seeing as my employers have lost a great deal over the last yr .. lockdown and hotel's and they have paid the 80% .. i'm both happy and sad .. as we are going to be hammered this yr ..all that and trying to cut costs ..
 
flea.rider said:
lol at least you got a pay rise .. my wife and son are on nearly equal terms to me now and they work at morrisons .. ok there higher paid than most but .. basic at morrisons is £10 an hr now ..
seeing as my employers have lost a great deal over the last yr .. lockdown and hotel's and they have paid the 80% .. i'm both happy and sad .. as we are going to be hammered this yr ..all that and trying to cut costs ..
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That's one of the reasons I didn't push it, Covid and knowing that not everyone was in the same position. I'd expect nearly every Supermarket to have had a great time. All that money usually spent eating out spent at home. Ubereats, Just Eat and Deliveroo must be have been making a killing too. I was out for KFC tonight and I must have seen a dozen or more drivers visiting KFC in the 30 minutes I was parked outside. And that's just one restaurant.
 
Don't forget there have been recent rulings against uber around the 'gig economy' though so the 'killing' uber have been making will be offset somewhat by them having to give workers more rights.

It doesn't work like this everywhere but in many medium to large size organisation blanket pay rises are the 'default' which are then adjusted slightly based based on various factors like distance from the 'expected' salary for the role, performance and 'positive discrimination' i.e. boosting the wages of female workers more (especially now there is gender pay gap reporting). In my experience these adjustments are often quite small so if someone is massively underpaid it will take them a long time to catchup.
 
HangTime said:
My previous perspective was written from the perspective of an employer. As an employee, I'd be researching opportunities elsewhere if you feel underpaid (the #1 piece of advice I have is ignore payrise % and just consider is your current package acceptable? I've been given a 1% pay rise previously, and been happier than getting 5% in a previous role, because a fair salary +1% is better than being underpaid +5%).
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Agree with this. I got a 0.7% pay rise and I was completely happy with it tbh lol mainly as I feel I'm paid well for my role.

flea.rider said:
lol at least you got a pay rise .. my wife and son are on nearly equal terms to me now and they work at morrisons .. ok there higher paid than most but .. basic at morrisons is £10 an hr now ..
seeing as my employers have lost a great deal over the last yr .. lockdown and hotel's and they have paid the 80% .. i'm both happy and sad .. as we are going to be hammered this yr ..all that and trying to cut costs ..
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You can't come in and use the "least you got a pay rise" argument. If you're not happy with what you earn, do something about it. Doesn't discount for others feeling their work should be rewarded at the same time.
 
randomshenans said:
You can't come in and use the "least you got a pay rise" argument. If you're not happy with what you earn, do something about it. Doesn't discount for others feeling their work should be rewarded at the same time.
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at 55 and having been to 11 different schools in 2 country's in my youth. I'm quiet happy with my pay ..for just cooking .
i was pointing out that most people will not be getting a pay rise this yr and to be happy with what he got ..
 
Daaaavvveee said:
I have never understood working unpaid OT :confused: Or do you get it back as TOIL?
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No, but a couple of minutes here and there is something most people do? Finish what you’re working on or get it to a point where you can more easily pick it up when in next? In some jobs it’s not possible to literally stop at 5 on the dot. If we need time off for a Covid jab we don’t have to put that through as unpaid for example. Swings and roundabouts.
 
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MissChief said:
No, but a couple of minutes here and there is something most people do? Finish what you’re working on or get it to a point where you can more easily pick it up when in next? In some jobs it’s not possible to literally stop at 5 on the dot. If we need time off for a Covid jab we don’t have to put that through as unpaid for example. Swings and roundabouts.
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Ah sorry, I thought you meant 30+ minutes etc. Yes, I agree, a few minutes here and there is fine. Anything other than that I would knock it off the next day I was working .

Personally, I would approach them separately about a pay rise, always easier dealing with things yourself than trying to co-ordinate with more people etc.
 
The game is this: you look after number 1... always. If your mates or colleagues ever get offended over your actions at work in fulfilling this, they are either not mates, unintelligent, naive and most likely playing the game themselves anyway.
 
D.P. said:
my wife gpr a 2% pay cut this year for cost savings. You should be damn lucky with any kind of payrise!
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Given the Q1 report my company jus released to us showing that we've ridden the Covid storm extremely well and even managed our best first quarter in six years I feel I'm entitled to feel aggrieved at 1.5%. I'm sorry your wife got a pay cut, I'd recommend she start looking elsewhere.
 
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