Flames from the front: expectations & disappointments.

I read one of the many annual salary surveys the other day. What a distinctly unpleasant experience. I picked up this thing expecting to see that I was keeping up with my peers. What a shock it was to find out that fresh out college," entry-level kids are beating my brains out. More power to them, of course. Take what you can get. (I have never complained about the salaries of professional athletes as I would be more than happy to accept a $4,000,000-a year-contract for my services regardless of the contribution I actually make.) The ego bruise, though, will take quite some time to heal.

I've probably given this subject much more thought than I should have since reading the article. It's one of those things that just won't go away. What have I done wrong? Where did I make that big mistake? How in the world do I correct it at this late stage of the game? The disappointment comes because I just don't know. I've gotten the education. Gotten boatloads of diversified experience (not the same job every year). Even gotten a certification. There's really not much more I can do.

I began to examine my expectations. This took 10 seconds. I expect to be paid what the market will bear. I expect to be paid on a par with my contribution. I certainly expect to be paid more than any wet-behind-the-ears 22 year old. Few would argue with these points, I suspect. Yet, frustratingly, this salary survey says I will never meet my expectations. 50% of the who responded have exactly half of my experience. Now there is not even an expectation of promotion.

There is the possibility that this particular salary survey was taken on Jupiter and all the respondents were from the battlestar Galactica. Maybe, some wiseguy just added an extra zero to every response. Maybe it was all a big joke to make us feel inadequate. Whatever the case, I'm bummed. Devastated. What if it's really true? The humiliation meter needs to b re-calibrated. Even more disgusting is the fact that the survey was based on experience with - gack!!!! (Bill the Cat lives) - a piece of hardware. Big bucks for the soon-to-be obsolete.

Every year I tell myself not to look at this kind of thing. The surveys are usually compiled for some headhunter outfit who uses them to drum up business. A pretty good ploy. We all know that we can make statistics tell the story we want to tell; and that it's very hard to take that fact into consideration when looking at something that strikes home as hard as salaries. When you compare your salary to the average, it's easy to forget that just a few very high ones will distort the numbers on the, high side. Remember those 'curve busters" in your college days?

The plain and simple fact of the matter is that most of us can't really do anything about our salary. Most companies have a piece of the raise pie that they give to the boss to parcel out. This decision is so distasteful, many just break it into the number of pieces equal to the number of people and call it good enough. Sure, sure, Sally may get 8% while Joe only gets 4%; but the average will usually be the same as the department bump. Performance appraisals are better looked at subjectively as vehicles for improving your work habits than as report cards of what you have accomplished.

As I've said before, the most equitable way to pay ...