Employees Who Stay In Companies Longer Than Two Years Get Paid 50% Less
Why are people who jump ship rewarded, when loyal employees are punished for their dedication? The answer is simple. Recessions allow businesses to freeze their payroll and decrease salaries of the newly hired based on “market trends.” These reactions to the recession are understandable, but the problem is that these reactions were meant to be “temporary.” Instead they have become the “norm” in the marketplace. More importantly, we have all become used to hearing about “3% raises” and we’ve accepted it as the new “norm."...
...People are worried that “changing jobs too often” will reflect negatively on employee resumes. I can definitely understand this fear because everyone is always worried about being unmarketable. I will be the first to admit that it is possible that certain employers may look at a resume with multiple transitions as a negative and may even disqualify an applicant based on that alone.
But, the important question is whether the risk outweighs the reward. Christine Mueller, President of TechniSearch Recruiters, has had clients that “will not consider anyone who has had more than three jobs in the last 10 years, no matter the reason.” Even so, Mueller still recommends that an employee makes a transition every three to four years for maximum salary gains. Thus, the question is less about whether employees should jump ship, but how long they should they wait before jumping to maximize their salaries and achieve their goals.
This is about accruate as far as my job situation has gone, I've seen the biggest increase in pay after changing jobs for one reason or another. I was wondering if everyone else had the same kind of experience or maybe it's just because I do contract work.
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At the same time, right, it's just easier to negotiate everything before you're "tied down". A company that's hiring you asks your desired salary. I've never had a company ask if my salary was acceptable, as I worked there. And for me, it's a lot more difficult and awkward to ask for a raise than it is to tell a new company your desired salary.
I think, also, in the United States at least, we don't have a culture of giving raises anymore, we have a culture where you need to ask for them. But I think we're also taught to think our positions are precarious, and that even a slight bump could lead to being fired, so many people are afraid to bring up anything like that. It's a good mechanism to keep pay down.
And it's tough too, because as artists, I think many of us don't have an accurate view of how good we are compared with others. Even the best artists I know have impostor syndrome. And how can you ask for a raise without feeling undeserving, when you feel like a fraud?
Definitely has been my experience. Only worked at a couple of companies, but never got a raise while working for them (A year and a half each, or so). But the first job was low paying (35k/yearUSD) and the second was considerably better (50k/yearUSD). I don't imagine getting a pay raise like that while staying at a company, in the current climate.
Started moving around a bit and doubled my salary in barely a year and half.
It's ridiculous. It doesn't make sens.
a production cycle will often take longer than those two years, also how often can you do it before having to leave the area and how often till you end up in a bad place that you will be desperate to get away from again. which will cause financial loss all on it's own.
to expect a company to do anything else than what's in it's own best interest is obviously naive. like thinking HR is there to protect your interests and the like.
If you are to leave a company for this reason I do urge you to bring it up though, might sound a bit like blackmailing but sometimes companies actually step up and give you a fair pay raise if you tell them what they are losing, and it's a good way to show them why they might be loosing people and to change their ways.
For me I can clearly say I wouldn't be where I am without switching companies on a regular basis, although me changing companies didn't have anything to do with money it did help me get more money then I ever would by staying at one place, sadly.
It is that much ridiculous. Yes, we did reach that point.
The flipside of all this is that occasionally companies will want to see you work from start to finish on a production before they'll consider hiring you - I guess part of that is to see that you'll be loyal!
I'd agree with @Jonas Ronnegard switching companies shouldn't be about money, ultimately it should be about how happy you'll be because there's no point in taking a job with high pay if you'll be stuck there feeling miserable.
In the end companies end up hiring new artists for the position that they will probably pay more for then the original artist, which already had all those skills that the new artist need to learn and will need at least a year to get up to the same kind of speed and quality, so most probably companies is losing a lot of money by doing this.
Right but the point is that if you're a high-performing employee, it is definitely in the company's best interests to keep you there.
I've seen companies lay off multiple artists only to hire a new batch of artists 5 months later with probably the same cost. Probably would have been cheaper to just pay those artists for the 5 months and not have to find, hire, and train new employees.
don't take that for granted.
For what I've seen and understood around me in these years, if an artist doesn't ask, the company won't offer nothing more than usual pay rise, if there is.
Ok, of course, there are exceptions, don't get me wrong.
In these years I heard stories of artists offered more money and better roles when they said they were leaving for another company: someone accepted the new offer, someone just left shocked by that offer.
Obviously It depends from a lot of factors, role, working years, reputation..., but when you know you really make a difference, it's really sad when your company is trying to having you with a last, "desperate" offer when they could make that move in advance and making you more happy and loyal to them, but you know, money are money!
@Felixenfeu
i was just thinking of games really. i've not worked in VFX but it seems all contract work anyway so switching around regularly surely would be considered pretty normal? all the people i know in that business do it all the time. well, except those in NZ. i suppose due to a lack of alternatives nearby.
1: How dependant is the company on you.
2: Do you dare to put your ass on the line and demand a high raise.
The original post was about being rewarded for moving around, in the whole job market. This here, short contracts, is part of this stupid mentality.
It's fun for poeple that likes to move around to have his possibility, but it should be an option to stay somewhere and still get rewarded too.
But yes game is different though. I've seen more poeple stay at the same place for long periods of time. And yet we still hear here that poeple get bigger raise for moving around
Swaggletooth couldn't agree more.