Requesting a bigger raise as a team rather than individually?

[MissChief]

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?

 

[MissChief]

Thanks all. I am in two minds about it, but I will absolutely not be working even a minute or two of unpaid OT from now on.

 

[MissChief]

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.

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.

 

[MissChief]

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 ..

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.

 

[MissChief]

I have never understood working unpaid OT Or do you get it back as TOIL?

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.

 

[MissChief]

my wife gpr a 2% pay cut this year for cost savings. You should be damn lucky with any kind of payrise!

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.