What Do You Do When Your Boss Doesn’t Give You the Increment You Deserve
Identify yourself in these five scenarios and take actions
I know what it’s like to get an increment letter from your boss. With a heavy heart, you extend your hand; fear and anticipation flood your mind altogether. At that moment, you imagine all the changes this raise can bring. Deep down, you know the truth — it won’t be good, but you slowly open the letter. As if you had no choice but to consume the stale and chilly sandwich in front of you.
You open the letter and see black scribblings all around. Moving the eyelids right and down, you only want to figure out the number.
On seeing it, your face turns red, and you take a moment to grasp the situation.
YET AGAIN — you say this to yourself.
Unwillingly, it becomes your fate for one year. In a moment, you’re calculating what other expenses can increase. Rather than looking at your manager, you imagine your family’s reaction. You wanted to fill the balloon your child needed, but you can only fill it halfway now.
You realize your eyelids are dying to get wet, but tremendous self-control built over the years comes to the rescue. Justifying efforts, comparing to others, sharing the extra time you put in and the progress of the project, telling how team members respect you, but nothing helps at that moment within the four walls of the meeting room. In the end, you ask: why again a low raise?
Your boss diplomatically tells you,
Things are tough, costs are being cut, superiors are questioning everything, and that’s why the numbers are conservative……blah blah
This makes you even angrier, and you blame your boss. You hurt his ego because the letter hurt yours.
With every word, you burn his heart.
Is it going to help? Heavens, no, it’ll only make the situation worse. You’re pouring more water into the already watered-down batter. You’re making it disposable.
Criticizing doesn’t help, and if they signed the letter, there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Instead, focus on the next steps and take control of the situation.
There can be two scenarios-
1) If you already knew you didn’t perform well, it’s simple: go back, pull your socks on, and do your best. Don’t argue for no reason. Don’t make accusations because no one can be inconsiderate with people.
2) But if you’ve worked harder and not gotten a good raise, then…
Check out what your boss thinks of you from the below five probable categories? Then, for each type, there are action items you can follow to get to your next level.
The actions for a good raise require a consistent effort and contribution, and the company or manager should see the potential for the upcoming years.
If your manager is a performer himself, he might think in one of the following scenarios. Try to figure out which one yours might be and then take action.
Your manager is thinking about you in either of these below scenarios-
1) He Doesn’t Know the Effort I Have Put In to Get That Raise, and He Still Blames Me
You are fortunate here. If there is no budget, your boss cannot do anything.
But you should continue working the same way to avoid any issues in the future.
This is easy to know if bosses are extroverts, but it gets tricky when they are introverts. In such cases, check for the below signs-
- Pay constant attention to his body language for a few days. It’s hard to hide things with body language. Do you think he is supportive of you?
- Can he stand up for you, or does he leave your boat alone in the storm for you to fight and survive?
- Does he show confidence in your actions and believe you’ll deliver?
2) He Doesn’t Perform and Expects Me to Give an Appreciable Increase. So why Don’t I Give It to Others Who Perform?
I wouldn’t wish anyone to be in this situation. You think you’re performing, but your manager doesn’t see it that way. You believe you are great, building your ego and hitting milestone after milestone, but your boss thinks you’re doing crappy work. For him, just hitting the target isn’t enough.
- If your boss can’t see that, how are others supposed to see it? Don’t defend yourself in such situations.
- Take the letter quietly and ask for real feedback. Then, be welcoming and create a comfortable situation for your boss to speak freely with you.
- Ask for genuine 360 feedback from others if you can’t get clear directions.
- Examine your biases, identify them and overcome them.
3) First I Will Get the Increase from the Allocated Budget, and Then I Give You
Those are the selfish ones. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do about them because it’s a personality trait. Either change teams or jobs or make him realize how efficient you’re.
If the manager tries to hide things from the team, everyone feels things aren’t transparent enough. You don’t know the future of the team. Few team members have grown.
Change the team if you are not getting appreciable growth after years of hard work.
But, blaming and criticizing don’t work at all.
4) How Do I Tell Him That the Company Follows a Bell Curve. I Can’t Do Much and Can’t Give Increments Every Year
Unfortunately, most companies and managers are still slaves to the bell curve. They don’t respect the contribution and commitment of the employees, only the allocated budget.
In this scenario, even if you work hard, you can only get a limited raise, and it can’t happen every year.
For example, if there are six people in the team, only 1 of them can get a higher raise, the majority can get a medium raise, and the rest will get a lower raise. The managers have to categorize everyone into low, average, and high performers, and every category has to have someone. That’s a catch.
Unfortunately, the managers only have good words for you with such low raises.
If the average raise is good in your company, you can keep working, or you should change the company where they give raise according to their merits and not according to some deceiving statistical curve.
5) I Know You Perform Well, but I Can’t Tell You My Ulterior Motives for Holding Your Raise
Such are toxic bosses who blame people or pressure them to fail too soon.
It’s best to change teams or companies because you won’t get enough for your performance.
It doesn’t matter if you fall into one of these scenarios. Your career isn’t dependent on a boss or a company. Your current company isn’t the end of the world. Don’t get too comfortable in your job. Change teams or companies and keep challenging yourself. This is life, after all. You’ll be happier living in a challenging world.
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