Do you get mad when someone asks how much $$ you make? (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Testa]

Jagan, don't make me come up there..

Excessive floyd references are grounds for a whuppin around here, even if I did start it.

Andy

 

[Jeffrey Noel]

I'll be a teacher so nobody will ask me what I make; they'll know it's next-to-nuthin. :frowning: But I will get the summer off!

 

[Mike Voigt]

Bad idea to tell someone how much you're making:

1. it's none of their business
2. it gets one or both of you upset, most of the time
3. it can get you fired

The latter 2 are the reasons for 1.

Mike

 

[Brian Lawrence]

It annoys me when someone asks how much I make. It's really none of their business. I was taught by my parents that it was rude to ask such a question.

 

[wally]

Here in the metro St. Louis area, we get started young with rude financial questions. THE question to ask is, "Where did you go to high-school?" In a nut shell, the answer gives you a good ball park guess to what your parents income was. :rolleyes

 

[Carl Miller]

I work in gov't, so everybody knows what everyone else makes or can easily find out by looking up the job decscriptions. It's a major source of bad feelings and discontent.

 

[AllanN]

I work in gov't, so everybody knows what everyone else makes or can easily find out by looking up the job decscriptions. It's a major source of bad feelings and discontent.

Do people putthere pay grade in there e-mail signature block? People do that here all the time.

Joe Schmoe, Some Office, GS-12

 

[Carl Miller]

Do people putthere pay grade in there e-mail signature block? People do that here all the time.

Yes! I've seen a few people do that. I even saw one person go a step (no pun intended) further..

Joe Schmoe, Some Office, GS 9-Step 5

 

[Tony Whalen]

I don't mind friends/family knowing what I make, but not co-workers. No good can come of that.

For example...

One time I left out my pay-stubs on my desk. "Ms.Nosey", as we'll call her, looked at 'em (they were face-down on my desk) and got pissed off that I, who only worked here for a year (she'd been here for 3 or so) made more than she did. (The fact that I'm the friggin' IT manager, and she was not in a tech position didn't make a difference to her..duh.)

Well... long story short, she marched into the bosses office and *demanded* that she get a raise to bring her on par with my salary...or she was gone.

Ms.Nosey doesn't work at my office anymore.

 

[DonRoeber]

A lot of my friends are recent college graduates, and I've been working in IT for a few years. My salary is usually two or three times what they make. So I don't like to have salary discussions with them, simply becuase I sort-of feel bad.

I don't talk financials with my coworkers, but all of our jobs are also pay-grade, so we can easily see what range someone falls into. But that range is pretty big, so salaries (and bonuses) can vary wildly.

My parents always taught me it was rude to ask what people made. Heck, I never knew what my parents made when I was a kid. I still don't, come to think of it (but now they're retired, so it's a little easier to figure out )

 

[Bryan X]

A lot of my friends are recent college graduates, and I've been working in IT for a few years. My salary is usually two or three times what they make. So I don't like to have salary discussions with them, simply becuase I sort-of feel bad.

How do you know you make 2-3 times what they make if you don't have the discussion with them?

 

[MarkHastings]

I know we've already mentioned it, but what does this knowledge of what a person makes mean to you?

How does it affect me if I know that a friend makes $20,000 or $200,000? Putting a number value on a freindship does just that...it puts a "rank" on who is "better off". Which NEVER makes for a good situation, so it's not so much that you mind telling someone what you make, it's more the fact that no one should know (or even bother to ask)

 

[Chris Hovanic]

How does it affect me if I know that a friend makes $20,000 or $200,000?

It tells you who you need to ask for a loan!

Im another Goverment employee so my salary range is public to other employees.. anyone can bring up the good ol intranet and look at all of the classifications and salary ranges broken down by hourly, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and yearly.

Also anyone that works in a union shop will have simmilar pay scales based on job description.

Fair? I duno. I do know that I make about 5-6 bux an hour less than some friends in our IS department and I am doing about the same job. (because of department restrictions on IS type positions) Does not realy bother me too much but does make me strive to do better so that I can get noticed and moved to the IS department.

 

[DonRoeber]

How do you know you make 2-3 times what they make if you don't have the discussion with them?

Heh, good point. They've talked about how much they make, but then I usually refrain from telling what I make.

 

[Eric Kahn]

I work for the post office, everytime you get junk mail, I can maybe afford more toys

our PS level and step amounts are public knowledge, and it really makes some of the management mad that the union (or anyone who knows where to look) knows how much they are getting paid (base salary)

I really don't care if anyone know how much I make, since it is never enough!!!

and I do not get to spend your tax dollars, the post office does not get any tax dollars to run anymore, just postage revenue

 

[Kevin Thompson]

Do I get mad when someone asks...?

Nobody has asked me what I make, per say. I would agree that to do so would be rude, however.

During my 20+ years in the Air Force, there was one humorous related event possibly worth repeating. About five or six years into my career, my sister-in-law happened to catch a glimpse of my pay statement while my wife was going through the mail. I wasn't there, so I don't really know if she was snooping or not. Anyway, she was shocked at how little we made, and seemed embarrassed at all the times she'd said things like "Why don't you just buy such-and-such...?", or "Why don't you fly home more often?"

Now that I'm retired from the military and a card-carrying government bureaucrat, things are little changed. I work for a "demonstration project" organization which uses pay bands rather than the traditional pay grades, so my pay amount is more difficult for the average person to figure out than if I were a traditional GS employee. I'm glad, too, because as an IT worker my pay is significantly more than what many of them would guess...and I'm happy to keep it that way.

It seems to me that companies who insist so strongly on keeping salaries secret do so in the interest of maximizing their control over the worker and prospective employees . It reminds me of the situation faced when buying a new (non-Saturn) car. The consumer makes the best deal he or she can and hopes that other customers' sharp bargaining skills don't raise the price he or she has to pay. It's the same with salary negotiations. Why should another applicant who has inside knowledge of an organization's salary structure have an advantage over another who doesn't?

 

[JasenP]

I just tell an unbelievable lie like:

"Because I work in the pharmaceutical industry, I am paid in prescription drugs which I then turn around and sell in Canada for a premium"

or..

"I banked 8 mil last year, but with the part-time work at Arbys it should be up to 8.5 mil this year."

They laugh and realize they shouldn't have asked.

 

[SteveA]

I also like to give ridiculous answers. If someone asks how much I make, I'll usually say something like "$140,000...(pause)". Once their jaw drops, I add "... a month!" and then they know I'm just messing with them.

 

[David Susilo]

It's a culture thing. In many coutries, how much you're making is something that anybody can ask without getting a punch in the face.

 

[Tim Hoover]

Damn! Chris Hovanic beat me to the whole union shop thing...

I rather like the pay rules set up in my union job. There's no jealousy because everyone who has the same job description get exactly the same pay. Of course, there's always the jerk who does as little as possible and still collects the same salary, but that doesn't bother me too much. I know I'm getting paid fairly for my efforts and I couldn't care less about him...

BTW, to all you Fed employees: I'm glad I could contribute to your midget-porn fund