http://www.damiansaunders.net/2009/02/26/commentary/hp-pay-cuts-an-unfair-act-of-economic-opportunism-and-greed/
Most people think that because I work at HP, I am financially satisfied and ecstatic with the remuneration I receive with the workload and hours I put in. I can still remember entering the US and having the Immigration officer processing my papers at Sanfo hint that I was practically rolling in money working at HP.
The fact of the matter is, if they talk about work-life balance, all I can say that mine is as balanced as it could get - its just work-work balance...because work is all I see from the time I get up in the morning to the time I knock off, say...at an average time of 12 midnight to 2 am - every night.
Its only in my second year that I could sometimes log off before 12 midnight. Nowadays..or maybe now-anights...I probably skip 6 nights max in a year that I don't have this kind of schedule when I am on duty.
Enough said.
The link above points to a more erudite commentary by Damian Saunders. I'd probably be accused of being prejudiced or frothing at the mouth if I try to talk about this, so better to give this link and you can give your 2 cents worth yourselves.
i can understand your frustration..i have a friend here who is currently in HP. good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks Manuel!
ReplyDeleteI'm just venting here on the side :-)
haaaaaay... sinabi mo pa... thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Cat,
ReplyDeleteI can sympathize. It is outrageous that CEOs and top executives use their little accounting tricks to make themselves obscenely wealthy all the while pretending they are suffering along with the work force that they impose real suffering on.
In fact I am in favor of highly qualified people getting paid what they are worth, but sometimes this compensation is totally out of whack with reality. Management guru Peter Drucker has said that the top executive should only be making about 30 times the amount of the bottom level employee and I agree with that. Beyond 30 times I don't believe their is any real incentive to improve the company for the owners (shareholders) just an incentive to one up executives at other companies. I hope the Obama administration in the USA will look deeply into executive compensation and especially do something about executives that ruin companies and then golden parachute out with millions like Kevin Rollins did at your competitor DELL.
It seems that these top level people have no decency and there is no limit to their greed. Shareholders need to take a stand against these abuses as well. Ideally, a shareholder revolt led by institutional shareholders like pension funds against ridiculous pay packages would be my preference, but if they are not willing or powerful enough to take a stand then I guess the government will.
Take care.
i read the article of Damian Saunders. he wrote it in great detail. if that's true... sucks!
ReplyDeleteHi Cat. Based on what was written by Mr. Saunders about the top-honchos of HP, talaga namang nakaka-buwisit. I also think that even if they also had their salaries cut, the scheme of using the same percentage across the the entire organization is really not fair considering that the salaries of these executives are really really astronomical vis a vis the rank and file.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I'd also like to say that a pay-cut may be a good idea under the current conditions, especially for those whose financial conditions are really critical (which HP is not in considering a relatively decent performance), and for those small mom and pop operation, e.g. a grocery store.
I just had an occasion to talk to a US-based Filipino who is here for some family matters. He's employed in a small grocery (small in an American sense). He's a merchandiser there. He says, his bosses, particularly his immediate supervisor was given a salary cut but he was not. He says his pay and that of his supervisor is just a few dollars less now. His $12.00/hr is now just about three or four dollars less than that of his supervisor (who was receiving some $30.00/hr before the pay cut). And his supervisor (and others like him) were not complaining because the alternative was worse, i.e. no work. The grocery owner was thinking about closing down the store altogether but decided against it when the pay cuts were done. My US-based Filipino friend smiled when he remembered that now, sabay na niya rin minsan yung supervisor niya mag-karga ng mga kahon at magpunas ng mga shelves paminsan-minsan. And they all believe (the owner, the bosses and the workers) that they will be able to ride out this crisis.
We must always remember that when these American businessmen or other foreigners come to our shores to give jobs it is to take advantage of using talents for a much lesser pay (i.e. exploitative).
ReplyDeleteAnd has been documented already, these businessmen pay themselves ridiculously high salaries, allowances, commissions, etc. When the business collapses they run to papa government for more money to shoulder the cost of their jets, mansions, vacations, and mismanagement. That is laissez faire concept.
Cat...what can I say..saka---mo sila!..este..hope you'll get by..dumping sucks..
ReplyDeleteI'm fervently praying that the world economic crisis would inch a bit..
Like what Hugz was saying, sometimes I wouldn't wonder why terrorists come into scene..
I don't want to sound like a sourpuss but during hard economic times a company has to take drastic moves in order to survive. These could be pay cuts, layoffs, forced retirements, reduced hours, etc. An employee really has no choice but to take what's offered, otherwise he loses his job. And that's reality.
ReplyDeleteAs for the CEOs and top executives, they are the ones who brought the company, in this particular case HP, success and profitability for making the right decisions in a very competitive market. And nobody bitched about their salaries and perks because everybody was having a great time, including the rank and file. Now that the economy has gone bad and recession has gone global, management has to execute certain measures to keep the company afloat, and that includes pay cuts. It's now a matter of keeping your job with less pay, or losing your job and going on the unemployment line.
Just my one cent worth of opinion.
hi cat, nakauwi ka na?
ReplyDeletethanks for commiserating :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts Ted.
ReplyDeleteanyway, it seems to be the way of the world....I've avoided thinking too much about it as it seems to be happening over an over again like a bad refrain...
most of the business cases I've read (wherein I will refrain from mentioning company names) made me realize more than once that it does happen more often than we like - a CEO gets very good compensation during his/her time at the company and when they get booted out..
a company's most valuable assets - its human resources - sometimes get the short end of the stick..
even before I read that article, when I just read the email saying there was this pay cut for top officers, I just rolled my eyes at heaven...coz one doesn't have to be a genius that the pay cut percentage for the top honchos is just a drop in the bucket...(and I am not even using ocean as a metaphor)
ReplyDeleteif people/accounts/sites/teams get bonuses commensurate with their performance (even if wlang pay increase pa), I was thinking the cuts should be also based on that...di na across the whole group.......para kung anong bagay sa affected, yun dapat isalpak....
ReplyDeletekaya dapat gastos na tayo lahat during this crisis, ipalabas na ang pera para mabalik na sa dati hehehehe...
ReplyDeleteseriously, I'm not saying pay cuts are unreasonable..am not saying pay cuts should not happen in this crisis, .....as in all cases and in carabao English ika nga - 'itz defents" sa situation...
....maganda talaga para nila to outsource to countries of cheap labor...India and Phils are low-cost countries for the company...even if you are doing the same kind of work all over the world, di naman lahat same ang bayad...
ReplyDeletehehehe...Thanks Nonzki...
ReplyDeletethe only thing I'm repeating over and over these days is - gumastos na tayo!
hello BNK, glad to see you more often in Multiply (ha! as if ako very frequent visitor din nowadays)...
ReplyDeletethat is a true statement if it pertains to a company which is on the way to its deathbed...so..agree!
one cents or two cents, opinions are opinions..so thanks for sharing :-)
ReplyDeleteobscene talaga pay packages not just for HP but for most CEOs in big big companies...ay naku...if I just recall the numbers of all those other companies we passed thru in business cases, makes you wonder if those many zeroes and commas after a number for a salary does even translate to a term...
at first glance when one hears about "recession" and "global crisis", that kind of thought comes into mind of pay cuts and hard measures to put in place...but more often than not, one delves below the surface to see that not all is plain to see ...marami pang behind the scenes to give a twist to a situation....not all is black and white..
I must admit though, to see the point of view sa mga tao dito sa Pinas..shempre concerned and teensy-bitsy bit afraid.....sabi di daw affected, its your choice if you sign the waiver or not for a pay cut...but most people will think that if you don't sign...naka blacklist ka...
whats the point though? its no guarantee you won't get laid off...and if you sign and you get kicked out..sa bagong lower salary pa based ang iyong separation pay...and...its no guaranteed rin babalik sa dati mong remuneration ....
there are so many ways to get to the town square - that has always been one of my mantras...
hi Ella..sorry I wasn't able to reply kaagad..ayun buti I saw this and just texted you..
ReplyDeleteyup..here in Manila since Monday last week, with coughs, colds, phlegms until now...this is my souvenir from Bangkok...
if ever I manage to scrape enough in the 2010 or 2011 for another trip...am choosing a colder country...or hibernating in the ref...I sweated like a pig about to be made into lechon during this trip...kaya eto.....sick....
Tsaka kung yung pay cut eh for the recession why don't they say anything about restoring your previous salary before the pay cut was made.. hehehe parang ang labo since the recession is not permanent..
ReplyDeleteThe CEO and Executives would take a 20% and 15% pay cut on their base salary, if i calculate mo yan plus ibang compensation nila sabi sa ibang web site that only amounts to 0.67% na pay cut.. tapos ang mga front liners eh 5%.. yun pa lang iisipin mo na you've been screwed over pag you agree to it.
onga eh...iba na talaga ang culture ng HP ngayon versus before when it was in the time of the founders...I'm not seeing what I heard during the orientation even in my first year...
ReplyDeletebesides ang dami pang pwede ring i-cut ah..cut sa perks, cut sa unnecessary stuff except to those which keeps the business going...and its the basic pay they want to fool around with....tsk..tsk...there are other types of expenses they can cut down on if they want to increase the margins or keep it as is...
isama nila sa gusto nilang pa-sign-nan that they will give back or get back the salaries before the pay cut when the recession is over...I might be more receptive to the idea, its not as if people are not willing to sacrifice in order to do their bit.
when I was involved in running a small software dev business in Cebu before I came back to Manila, we officers delayed our salaries para lang mauna masweldohan or mabigyan ang mga tao or took some cuts on our compensation, because we tried our best to put the employees first since they are the lifeblood...services na business shempre...and we were just a 10-15 peeps max company nakaya...eto pang malaking company di kaya? ang bilis to jump into that kind of conclusion - recession diretso pay cut...ano ba? can they not think of other ways and means first before jumping gleefully into this bandwagon?
this is also dangerous to increase jobless' statistic in first-world country...the pay in 1st World countries is considerably higher cause of higher standard of living, otherwise the worker can't cope up with the demands of normal life around..there's the health insurance sharely paid by the employer and employee,this is implemented for every legal worker..plus social security...
ReplyDeleteglobalization does not, at all, make economy worldwide healthy...
you know Nonz, I was just chatting with a US colleague..next month they will get 15% pay cut...and the bills still stay the same.
ReplyDeleteif the company was in its death throes,
if the company were in danger of going belly-up,
if the company was in the list of the top 3 companies in the world who will disappear this year because of the recession and bad state of economy...I can understand the pay cuts then..we'd do all our part...
but the sad truth is...the people get the pay cuts
guess what?...the upper echelons will still get the quarterly bonuses...
why? well, because of lowering the labor costs, which are *cough* due to pay cuts....
if that doesn't make one gush steam from one's ears...well.....grrrrrr...
and remember, HP fused with EDS...so as usual, redundancy of jobs....so who goes?
ReplyDeleteI just remembered the Wall Street movie...Michael Douglas saying..greed is good :-)
ReplyDeletethis is really unfair...in London as well as in the US they're talking change in this mentality "Bonus Culture"--
ReplyDeleteif the company is gaining, why not give bonus, but rational, and that not only the managers but rank and file who are part of the whole business..!
there's some good news at least for some of my co-employees...I think Belgium and UK will not get pay cuts :-)
ReplyDeletemaybe a union or something is good thing..
yeah, a Union protects your right and extend your voices!
ReplyDeleteyes, so far most of the peeps I talk to here in Phils, takot..
ReplyDeletetakot ma blacklist...takot matanggal if they don't sign.....
you mean walang union sa work nyo? there's something like a universal union din right, protecting the rights of workers, not within the company..
ReplyDeletesayang huh, so democratic country pero tako ang mga tao to voice out...I do understand, one could say one's lucky enought to get a good job..pero sayang talaga..
before in Sara Lee, may union kami..hehehe
ReplyDeletepero company union..
that's good..I remember in Jardine Davies dati, where i worked ang active ng union..kakamiss those days..
ReplyDeletemedyo dismayed lang ako...siguro I still retain some naivete about these things...in the end, iba talaga if ang founders mag run sa business kay sa ibat ibang CEO lang one after another...
ReplyDelete