frantically checking that we don’t work at the same company…
Switching careers in your 40s or older
- Thread starter dahliaclone
- Start date
frantically checking that we don’t work at the same company…
Yep. We were told only x% could receive great reviews because they basically wanted it to fit a bell shaped curve. I was told not to give my high performing employee too many yrs in a row of outstanding performance reviews or they'd expect a raise/promotion. Still boggles my mind. And gave sudden clarity to a nonsensical mediocre review I'd been given that direcly conflicted project manager feedback for the projects I was on. We both left. My former report has doubled their salary. And I'll likely do so by this summer.
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Correct, reviews are used to justify them giving you whatever pre-determined raise that they have budgeted. The best piece of advice I've ever been given is take reviews with a grain of salt, and only start to actually worry when you see your boss starting to micromanage you and showing up at your desk unannounced.
I'll never forget that conversation and asking so we either give them a fake review or no career development? We lose them either way like this is dumb AF.
The next senior management person who understands that nickel and diming a competent employee and banking on just replacing them when they inevitably leave is arguably one of the most expensive ways to say a pittance in the short term will be the first
Had a performance review where my boss basically told me what I should have gotten and what I actually got because of said curve. I have no reason to doubt what he said was the truth.
In regards to the thread topic, I just recently changed fields from chemical/pipeline/O&G to food and beverage. It can be done! What helped me was having my PE license and project management experience that could translate. Current company is a breath of fresh air, although there a few things that drive me nuts.
I see this with parental leave /wfh policies a lot too. Like they think recruiting, rehiring and retraining + loss of institutional knowledge have negligible cost.
Great thread. Been in the same business serving well known brands as an Account Executive for many years and tired of the same ole. My job got worse recently as our company was bought from a venture capital group and so I am done...I don't like their business style and other. They don't now it yet, but I will be getting out June/July. In preparation for a needed change, three years ago I started a side gig and bought into a small company (2 of us own the business) that we are the mfg rep on a very unique product. After a year and a half of promoting our main product, we are picking up traction. By the end of next year I should be making close to what I would have made this year if I stay with my current job. So by this summer, I will be getting my income from my own company. I'm excited and I figure you have to make your own luck. At least you have to try. I hope to make this company successful into retirement and continue to work as I enjoy building business and solving client challenges.
My 12 years at my former job I always got a “meets expectation”. I had the highest sales 11 of those 12 and got promoted once with a salary increase once. My boss kept getting one every year. Talk about your good old boys club!!
Seems like a larger company thing. We went from give your people the score they deserve to this bell curve system which I think GE under Jack Welch started. Dumbest thing ever.
That being said, the budgeted raises never changed which always struck as stupid (usually 3%-5%). I never understood why I couldn't give high performing employees the raises they deserved especially the lower level ones. If I have a high achiever making $40K, I shouldn't be capped at 5%. Capping at 5% might make sense with $100K employees but not $40K ones. If you're good, it's pretty easy to hop jobs at $40K up to the $50K-$60K range.
Reading these posts is bringing back all kinds of memories.
Was a first line supervisor in the division that the next higher manager didn't favor. I had an employee in the favored group that had asked to be moved from my group (which fit what her job was) to the favorite group because she couldn't get along with the senior specialist in her field (who was excellent and tried everything to appease her).
After the moves she refused to speak to either me or the senior specialist - which made for some awkward work situations. At my review my senior manager said that I need to improve my communications with her. I literally laughed in his face and said, "she won't even TALK to me, and I'M supposed to improve MY communications?!"
He's the same guy who for a while adopted the "Perception is reality" mantra. (If people perceive something about you then it's true in their eyes so you have to change to change their perception.) There's a grain of truth to that, but he was spouting this like it applied everywhere. At a manager's meeting he passed on some gem that someone in the favored group had told him about one of my employees (not true). When I tried to defend my employee, he spouted it again, "Perception is reality." I couldn't hold my tongue any more and said, "So if someone tells me they perceive you to be an idiot, that's reality?" The room got quiet. He dropped that catch phrase after that.
Was a first line supervisor in the division that the next higher manager didn't favor. I had an employee in the favored group that had asked to be moved from my group (which fit what her job was) to the favorite group because she couldn't get along with the senior specialist in her field (who was excellent and tried everything to appease her).
After the moves she refused to speak to either me or the senior specialist - which made for some awkward work situations. At my review my senior manager said that I need to improve my communications with her. I literally laughed in his face and said, "she won't even TALK to me, and I'M supposed to improve MY communications?!"
He's the same guy who for a while adopted the "Perception is reality" mantra. (If people perceive something about you then it's true in their eyes so you have to change to change their perception.) There's a grain of truth to that, but he was spouting this like it applied everywhere. At a manager's meeting he passed on some gem that someone in the favored group had told him about one of my employees (not true). When I tried to defend my employee, he spouted it again, "Perception is reality." I couldn't hold my tongue any more and said, "So if someone tells me they perceive you to be an idiot, that's reality?" The room got quiet. He dropped that catch phrase after that.
My favorite is when a company I worked for listed out the requirements to move up to the next level and when I laid out how I met them it was basically "well we can't promote you unless you've been in your role long enough". I'd been in the role for 3 years. Like wtf. Why even layout what it takes to get to the next level then.
Schools give teacher reviews/observations etc. as well and it's pretty much pointless for all that are actually involved (not District HQ folks).
We'd do a similar thing in the corporate world; basically in both arenas if you're generally competent all of this stuff is just a box to check and if not, the 'improvement plan' or whatever starts informally as trends pop up outside of the formal review process.
So I had the exact same thoughts about dealing with corporate ****, so I went private (although in the same field). The last straw was being asked to be in a merger spirit video a couple months after being relocated because they shut down my old location and laid off 95 percent of the people that worked there. I’m still currently looking to go back to corporate. If you do end up going private, make sure the bennies are in line. I feel like they tell a lot about how a private business treats their employees.
I’ve seriously scoured for jobs outside of my field but nobody will pay close to where I’m at now and I’m too far to start from the bottom again. Make sure you’re stable before you hit the reset button. You may or may not like the outcome. The grass isn’t always greener.
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The question is, are you more recession proof as one of the most valued employees there, or as the newest employee in a new field?
My company allows employees to retire it 52 if it is due to job elimination, so that is my exit plan... Only 19 years to go
I’ve been at same job for 14 years now. Working swing shift is killing me and really strains the family life at times. It’s getting worse as new plant manager is ignorant and caters to the lazy. Each position is straight pay so it’s hard to be motivated. Worse thing is the pay is good enough and the pension/retirement plan is hard to beat. I turned down a account manager job with Budweiser as it would have been about $1500 a month pay cut plus I would have had to drive 30 miles one way for work compared to my 3 mile round trip now. I want something different but trying to survive as my son will be a senior next year before maybe possibly relocating
I think it is worth consideration. Best thing I ever did was start returning recruiters phone calls. Found out I was way below market value which helped me come up with a plan to leverage things within my current company for better pay. You probably cannot do that I'm the non profit world but I think talking to others can be helpful. Finding a good fit at another spot is probably the biggest challenge as this thread illustrates well.
- Jun 20, 2006
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So many stories during my corporate life. One that I am reminded of from the stories above, is the annual review, done by the employee.
Smallish to medium size company, national brand. They (C level) were not good at completing yearly reviews on time. It may be 4-6 months after your anniversary, and the raises started at the time of the review. (They didn’t want to back pay so far and so much, lol) So to combat that, the Cs decided employees should write their own annual reviews with compensation aligned with a metric. I shared with them that this isn’t how you grow your employees nor retain them, as they want honest feedback with areas for growth for themselves. That logic wasn’t listened too.
So, my next two reviews were ‘banner year’ reviews. Best years I have ever had professionally. I drew up my reviews as if I was the most competent, dedicated, skilled, valued employee. And used the phrase ‘banner year’ in each one.
The self reviews didn’t last after year two, as they wanted more objective reviews with broader scopes.
Still got the raise of a top performer that third year. After leaving and staying friends with many, it was my self reviews the moved the needle for them in being better attached to the performances of their employees.
Smallish to medium size company, national brand. They (C level) were not good at completing yearly reviews on time. It may be 4-6 months after your anniversary, and the raises started at the time of the review. (They didn’t want to back pay so far and so much, lol) So to combat that, the Cs decided employees should write their own annual reviews with compensation aligned with a metric. I shared with them that this isn’t how you grow your employees nor retain them, as they want honest feedback with areas for growth for themselves. That logic wasn’t listened too.
So, my next two reviews were ‘banner year’ reviews. Best years I have ever had professionally. I drew up my reviews as if I was the most competent, dedicated, skilled, valued employee. And used the phrase ‘banner year’ in each one.
The self reviews didn’t last after year two, as they wanted more objective reviews with broader scopes.
Still got the raise of a top performer that third year. After leaving and staying friends with many, it was my self reviews the moved the needle for them in being better attached to the performances of their employees.
