Over the years I have had hundreds of employees work for me in various positions. Either full time, part time or sub contractors. I have had long term, short term and others that just didn't work out for whatever reason.
Annually I would perform a review of their past years progress and reward accordingly and offer suggestions on needed improvements. Almost without fail during their first years review they would ask about "cost of living raise" or "longevity" raise.
I'm just going to be frank with you
I don't give raises based on how much things cost or how long you have been here. As a rule this did not go over well at first. My initial question was "Why should I?"
Their reply always was "I'm entitled to it". Houston, we have a problem! Entitled to it! Are you kidding me?
I have put my family at risk by being self employed, sleepless nights, and often heavily leveraged and you feel a sense of entitlement because the price of milk increased 3%? Sorry, I'm buying the same milk with the proceeds coming out of the same business as you.
Having an entitlement mentality in my opinion is a cancer. This is one of the problems with America today. Everyone feels that something is owed to them.
Let me be next in line to say no one owes anyone anything.
Think about entitlement in reverse
Let's just say that your employer is a victim of a sluggish economy or let's pretend that the CFO embezzled 30% of last year's profits. Are you willing to take a reduction in pay to offset these losses? No? Why not? Are you not equally obligated to share in the unfortunate misfortune of your employer as you are entitled to the "cost of living increase" or your personal "longevity"?
1) Where could I best serve this organization as to bring maximum benefit?
2) If I exceed your expectations next year could I be considered for a salary increase?
Just a word of caution. If you go through life feeling a sense of entitlement, you will never be successful. If you want to discuss a raise, let's discuss merit. What exactly have you done to increase productivity? What value have you brought to your workplace?
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