>> You can price yourself into a layoff. Sure your company is going amazingly well today. Your company got a $200 million cash infusion just last year, bumping the valuation up to $2 billion. There are 250 employees and your technology is super-awesomely-disruptive. But wait... there is a downturn in the market. Nobody will fund an IPO. You're running out of cash. No angel investors are showing up and revenue can only handle 100 employees. Let's look at the price/performace ratio of the current employees! Wow, Bob is good but... are we really paying him that much???
Thanks for posting this, this is exactly the situation I fear I'm in right now in the local market. I work for company that had doubling revenue for the previous four years. I followed the advice given here, I was disgruntled, went and got another job offer, and took the second counter offer to stay (40% raise and lead position).
Since then the company was bought by a venture capital firm, the new version of the software has been languishing in rewrite hell, and sales have evaporated. Had a 10% staff cut a month ago. Now, I'm certain (speculation on my part) I'm at the top of the compensation range, and the next round of cuts will likely include me.
I'm trying to decide if I should jump ship now or wait it out, see if the business improves. So far I've found that at least one local company says I'm too far over their compensation range. Yikes!
My advice (for what it's worth): Don't jump ship. People are fond of the refrain that loyalty won't buy you anything. Many times it is true, but occaisionally it isn't and the times it isn't, it's worth the chance. Go to the higher ups and say, "I appreciate the vote of confidence you gave me when you gave me the raise. It's time for me to repay the favour. In the tough times it's easy to think that maybe I should try my luck somewhere else. But I've thought about it and I'm here to stay. Whether we win or lose, I'm going to devote 100% of my energy to helping this company."
If you end up losing the job (either by being cut or by having the company fold up), then when asked about your salary expectations in other jobs candidly:
- Tell them what you were making before (impressive)
- Explain that you are mostly looking for interesting work and that you are open to any offers as long as the other factors are in line.
This allows you to gather options and asses the strengths and weaknesses of each offer without explicitly scaring people away.
If your company makes it through this tough time (without laying you off), your public stand of solidarity will likely resonate with the business types who are in a position to reward you later.
These kinds of things have worked well for me in the past. Good luck!
> Go to the higher ups and say, "I appreciate the vote of confidence you gave me when you gave me the raise. It's time for me to repay the favour. In the tough times it's easy to think that maybe I should try my luck somewhere else. But I've thought about it and I'm here to stay. Whether we win or lose, I'm going to devote 100% of my energy to helping this company."
That's one way to completely freak out your manager and cause them to wonder what is going on with you.
Thanks for posting this, this is exactly the situation I fear I'm in right now in the local market. I work for company that had doubling revenue for the previous four years. I followed the advice given here, I was disgruntled, went and got another job offer, and took the second counter offer to stay (40% raise and lead position).
Since then the company was bought by a venture capital firm, the new version of the software has been languishing in rewrite hell, and sales have evaporated. Had a 10% staff cut a month ago. Now, I'm certain (speculation on my part) I'm at the top of the compensation range, and the next round of cuts will likely include me.
I'm trying to decide if I should jump ship now or wait it out, see if the business improves. So far I've found that at least one local company says I'm too far over their compensation range. Yikes!