In the midst of all the doom and gloom which seems to read as my life of late, I almost forgot to mention that I received a PAY RISE ! Our annual pay negotiations are generally carried out by the union. The management then sends a note around to all staff saying that after union negotiations, the annual pay rise will be "X" percent. And that's pretty much the end of it. We are SUPPOSED to have a private interview at which point we sign off on the increase, but that hasn't happened for the past couple of years. This is a good company to work for but our local admin has really lost its way. Anyway, I received some email from our union rep about the increase some time around April/May and never thought anything of it. I don't check my monthly pay slip and just assume that things are as they should be.
Fast forward to about 4 weeks ago. Our office manager came into my room and said that he wanted to talk about my salary. He presented me with a form which I remembered from back in the days when I used to sign off on the annual union increase. The increased amount on the form was pretty good, and I was impressed by the ability of the union to negotiate such a big annual rise. So I happily signed the form. My boss said that the increase would be backdated to the union date (April/May). At that point it it suddenly dawned upon me that I hadn't been getting paid the increase as agreed between the union and company from the date they both agreed. Which I thought was pretty shitty.
So anyway, the next week I was travelling up to Kiruna with a colleague from the same office. I asked him if he had also met with the boss to sign off on the salary increase. He replied that he had: back in APRIL ! and that he had been receiving his increase from that date. I starting talking about my meeting the previous week and thought that I had simply been forgotten in the original roll-out. It turned out that it was my colleague who had actively sought his meeting with the boss, to force through his salary increase as quickly as possible. It sounded like it had been quite a drawn out process for him, but that's how he was able to get his increase direct. A couple of other staff members had also gone through the same thing. Then my colleague talked about the increase itself, and how it had been the recommended percentage from the union. I did some quick silent calculations in my head and realised that the increase presented to me by my boss was almost 3 times more than the union negotiated increase. At that point I decided that it was probably diplomatic to change the subject.
Back in the office I spoke privately with my team leader. He confirmed that he had recommended me for a personal salary increase based on my work contributions and output over the past year. In my experience it's been hard to get personal recogntion when working for a large company, their systems generally don't allow for such flexibility. But talking with my wife, who works for an equally large company in the same industry, local Swedish managers are able to adjust salary levels relatively freely on a case by case basis. That was a real surprise to me after 30 working years in rigid payroll systems. Personal recognition is important I think. Some people do try harder than others. You have to be careful with such things as often an employee can have an element of luck when being assigned a profitable low-risk high-profile project whereas another employee can do an equally good job on a fairly insignificant project. It's tough to know exactly who has performed the best. That being said, I have to say that think I deserved a little recognition. When I started working here in Sweden, I didn't draw as high salary as I would have had I been Swedish trained and experienced. I could understand that and I was just happy to have the chance to work (it's taken me nearly 4 years to get back to the same salary level I had in NZ). Over the years I have received the same annual increase as my fellow Swedish workmates. However, whereas their value mostly likely increased in a relatively stable line, my value to the company would have increased at a much sharper rate as I picked up the Swedish techniques and methods missing from my own 30 years of industry experience. To the point where I have felt in the past year that my value to the company had moved beyond the company's value to me. I really enjoy working for this company because I like the variety of work and appreciate the company of my work colleagues. I've been told that I could earn more money elsewhere but I'm not sure that I want to risk losing those 2 other factors as a result. Maybe one day that will change, but not today. While I have no intentions of leaving my current employment, it was very encouraging to see that my loyalty and efforts have been appreciated. Even if it was a half year late.
Congratulations! What a wonderful Christmas present.
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