I previously posted about the the salary harmonization plan put together by our human resources department. Well this thing has turned into a complete clusterfuck. First they told us that we would all be slotted into ne salary grades based on what we do. Everyone in a grade would have the same compensation plan. In theory this is fine, but they have completely messed it up. Those of us at my level who have been here for many years previously were eligible for a 20% bonus. A couple of years ago they decided to eliminate the bonus for new hires. To compensate and provide some equity they were hired in at a 16% higher base salary. Since their annual merit raises were based on the same percentage of a higher base rate there was relative pay parity overall under the old plan. Well under the new plan every gets a bonus, but it is only 5% at my pay grade. As a result I and others who have been here for more than 3 years get a 15% CUT IN PAY. Meanwhile new hires get a 5% increase. So now someone who has only been here a couple of years is suddenly making upwards of 20% more than someone who has been here longer. The HR reps told us that they had no plans to adjust base salaries for veteren employees to compensate for this. This is total BULLSHIT!

Department heads were supposed to hand out individual sheets to everyone with their new salary grades yesterday. Well yesterday afternoon we found out that they had been told not distribute them. It turns out that engineering directors had not been informed of HR’s plans and were not happy when they found out what was going on. HR apparently did all of this on their own without telling any other management what they were planning. So now we have to sit and wait. What a farce.