Salary Comparison – The Funny Side

3 February 2010 No Comment

The moment one step in the corporate life the funny thing that happens is the way salary comparison kicks in. When I talked about demotivators at work; compensation, salary, or pay packages was identified as one of the top demotivators for the person working in any organization. But have we ever wondered how these demotivators or motivator kicks in. Well it is by salary comparison calculation only. Everybody has a sense of salaries that a particular industry commands. But satisfaction or dissatisfaction happens when a person salary comes out to be more or less by comparison. In a way human beings are not assessing the salaries based on their need, keeping in mind the quality of work the do, but how it compares with their colleagues.

A good job can turn bad or a bad job can start to look good once a person knows how he is getting compensated. People change careers, cities, countries only to earn more and improve their financial situation. They can live with the salary gap for sometime but soon somewhere the comparison kicks in and they are directionless again. This comparison may not happen with peers but within families, relatives, or societies too. In a way money commands the supreme power that divides the societies and influences the mood of majority of human beings. But again removal of this would not help till the time we learn to remain satisfy with what we have keeping in sight what we want to be.

The funny side of salary comparison is how it pitches itself in every phase of human life. Below are some of my personal experiences which I hope will in many ways relate to yours too.

First Job- You might be the first person to get the job offer with decent package. You celebrate all night and feel like the luckiest person in the world. But next day your friend or classmate gets a better package way above yours. Soon you package start to seem as a peanut. What has really happened – Well salary comparison got kicked in and soon your job seems to be the ugliest one.

Peer Comparison- You might be the most efficient and motivated member of your team. The job has always been your first priority. But one fine day you came to know that your colleague or team is earning more than you and benchmark figures. Soon the enthusiasm is all gone and you feel that you have been cheated all through.

Annual Increments- You got the best numbers and is among the top performers. You know you the best in job and there is hardly anyone that compares to you. At least you think it that way. You were happy with annual increments because it matched industry standards. But soon it seemed that the guy next cabin has got the better increment and bonus. He never seemed to be better than you then why your company did this to you. Well salary comparison licked in again.

New Joinee- You helped the company hire a new person or you know someone with job profile, same as yours, has been hired. Things were fine but one day you came to know that he got hired with a good jump on top of his previous salary. While company has always resisted your request for increase in package; in this particular case they broke all rules. A feeling of dejection and hatred by virtue of salary comparison got kicked in again.

Family, Relatives, or Neighborhood-You got the nicest of package by virtue of your qualification. You know you the smartest and you derive good respect within your family circle. But one day it seemed that centre of attraction has got shifted from you to someone less qualified in your family just because he did something amazing and had made a fortune. Soon your package seemed to be so minimal that you start looking out for a change.

Everything in this word is relative. Infact it drives the very existence of human beings and how they achieve the marvelous successes in their lives.

Yes it hurts when salary comparison kicks in. But the Big question is that is it worth over your peace of mind and your health?

Learning- Each human being is blessed with unique good qualities. In our eyes we might consider ourselves to be the best but the reality can be quite different from what the world might think of us. We deserve what we get and if we think that we deserve more then world is a big playground. If life is not fair to us, we should be strong enough to change its course. We should be capable enough to affect our future and not let our environment affect us. Disparity can happen but for the time being only. This being said, it is also important to understand that nothing is above the peace of your mind- not even money. It is imperative for human beings to learn to live within their means and accept their status in this society with happiness. Everyone in this world has a purpose in life and they are made to fit in as part of larger picture. It is important to enjoy what we have in life keeping in mind the goals that we have for future.

Every person is born with a specific objective and we have got one life only. It is in our hands not to let materialistic things affect our life in any manner. We get our share fairly well and future in it always holds promise to explore it for more.

Continued Below.........

I have always found it to be funny that how salary comparison rules the mind of human beings. At same time it is important for organization to understand that no matter how much secret they keep, salary comparison does happen. So the best way is to make it ample clear to employees, through process and measures, that why this happens and how they have a fair opportunity too to make it happen for themselves.