Re: re Tech Comm Survey - frozen salary

[TechComm Dood <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>]

> > IMHO, a company that freezes salaries for a whopping
> > three years and still can't tell its employees when
> > the freeze will be lifted is not worth working for.
> 
> It all depends.  Three years ago, I for example
> had just been downsized out of a dotcom that
> paid me the highest salary I had in my life.
> If I could have stayed at a frozen salary I'd
> consider myself lucky today.

Right. There are many reasons for frozen salary, and it could be that
freezing salaries is actually required to keep people employed and the
company going. This is where corporate loyalty comes in, and if the
salary freeze is genuine and in the best interest of the entire
company, then when business improves expect to see some rewards coming
back to you.

I worked for a few companies that froze salaries. One even sported a
CEO who took a 60% reduction in pay, and an executive staff that took
a 30% pay cut, before even thinking of layoffs. And this was a
relatively new company, so salaries were not astronomical on the
executive side.

Let's face it, business ain't always pretty. There are some companies
that are a bit devious about things like this, and there are those who
are genuine. Rather than assume it's a crappy situation that's gotta
lead to a voluntary exit, you really gotta weigh the driving forces
behind the freeze against the intentions and actions of the company
and determine what level of loyalty you have toward that company.

FWIW, the company that cut the executive salaries has since turned
around, and rumor has it (I'm not there anymore, as they eventually
did have to lay people off to keep going) everyone who held on for the
long haul received pro-rated raises and generous bonuses for holding
out for so long (3 years). I even received a bonus in the mail for the
time I did put in (what a surprise), and they have been growing in
employee numbers again, all without the executives at 100% as of yet
(though they did increase a bit, which I thought was fair).

Of course another place still has yet to lift the salary freeze,
despite going back on a growth pattern, and it's been 6 years and
counting.

You gotta weigh the situation fairly, case by case.

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