Heart Space #21: Net Worth (19 June 2008)

Recently there are a lot of talks about salary and how much one should get. One can't help but to feel sore about himself when he sees other people getting a huge increment when they join another firm. Never is the case about someone taking a pay cut and changing jobs. It's always that talk about the 20% increment, huge travel opportunities, prestigious companies and so on. Jealousy and envy set in when you realized you are stuck in the position and feel so hard and difficult to move out. These feelings eventually eat you from within, making your job sucks more than ever, leaving you disillusioned and lost.

It's never fair when it comes to equating the amount of work to the salary that you are getting. It complicates further when you compare pay packages with your peers. CEOs are getting out of the world pay packages even when the company is making huge losses. Who decides your net worth? Is it the market, the company, your boss or yourself? If you never make known that you are feeling unsatisfied with your package, then how would you expect your boss to know? Having said that, it will also be futile if you just storm into your bosses' room and demand a raise. Go in with a justification and the stronger the justification, the higher your chance of getting that raise. No point in complaining day in and day out, and yet do nothing about it. Do your best to make a change, and if that doesn't happen, wouldn't the choice then be clear?

On the other hand, every decision a company makes is about maximizing profits. Profit is the difference between the amount paid to an employee and the economic value of the employee's output. There are no moral, emotional or financial obligations to any employee. No matter what the core values or charter that the company portrays, the bottom-line is that every single employee is expendable. There is no one single employee that the company can do without. Replacements are plentiful and readily, and in most cases, cheaper.

The silver lining is that different companies have different guidelines and thus varied idea of a person's net worth. You might worth $3000 to one company, but as long as some other company willing to pay you $8000, why not right? Who then question if you are worth that much... because apparently there's someone who thinks so. :P