Here you must keep in mind the fact that even the fairest of employers must profit from your enterprise. If you work out a program that saves $5,000 a year for the company, and are rewarded with a $5,000 a year raise, you haven't saved the company a cent. Or let's say you work out a routing that saves the company a thousand dollars on a costly freight shipment, and are rewarded with a $50-a-month raise. Unless you can come up with more cost-reducing procedures, and soon, your raise will devour your original savings, and the company will begin looking at you with a yellowed eye.
In the former instance, where the savings affected for the company continue year after year, you have produced the equivalent of a patented product that returns an annual profit of $5,000. A proportionate increase in salary is indicated plus, possibly, a bonus for the creation of the original cost-reducing plan. In the case of the once-in-a-blue-moon savings on a big freight shipment, I would consider a one-shot bonus of one or two hundred dollars as a fair reward for a one-shot accomplishment.
The important point is that in both cases you have to keep your own records to prove that the company has benefited, or you cannot expect to be rewarded in proportion to your contributions. Again it's a case of, "If you don't know you've done anything special, why should anyone else?"
What kind of a record should you keep? The best place to start is with the date of your employment, or, if you have had raises since then, the date of your last raise. Just what were you doing then?. Use a separate sheet of paper for each, starting out with the questions as listed and following through on the rest of the page with the details.
George had made the jump from a small chemical company to the giant chemical concern of Dulac, Inc., with the vague idea that if he jumped from a little outfit to a big one his success would be scaled accordingly. Instead, after two-and-a-half years as a Senior Engineer and assistant to the Division Manager, he was still just that at no increase in salary. The Division Manager, within two years of retirement, had come to depend upon George, and was in no hurry to see him promoted. Quite congenially he agreed that George was deserving of a raise, but, regretfully, he had to state that George was already in the top salary bracket when one considered his age, length of time with the company, and his Senior Engineer title.
George suggested a transfer to another department and a new title that warranted an increase in salary. The old gent agreed that this was the solution, but he never found time to act on it. It was the old Army game. George’s could not get a promotion until his superior approved it, and the superior wasn't going to approve an act that was tantamount to severing his professional right arm.
When George came to me, he was ready to quit. Prices were rising, he said, and his salary wasn't. His wife was bitter because they couldn't afford to join the country club that was a status symbol separating the successes from the failures. George didn't care about the club, but he did object to the fact that many of his college fraternity brothers of less talent were ahead of him in prestige and salary.
I knew Dulac was a good company, and after I had heard George’s entire story, I was convinced he could find his success there if he could get himself out of the trap into which he had jumped. If only he had taken the time to analyze the job before jumping-! But jumped he had, and trapped he was. Nevertheless, business traditions are made by men, and what men have made, men can change. That has to be true, or there would be no change, no progress, at all.
Remember that if you run into a stone wall. As the whole- world changes from hour to hour, so must change the rules that have nothing to support them but tradition. Any time you hear the words, "It's a rule around here not to-" or "It is company policy to-" you know something is in need of up-dating, and you might get an additional raise for doing so.
I had George go through all the procedures, from the analysis of his achievements and Functional Self-Analysis to the completion of the four forms prescribed in this chapter. Amazingly, for a man of his education and experience, he knew very little about Dulac, Inc., beyond the limits of the job that had absorbed all of his time.
He knew, of course, that the company was expanding rapidly in the fields of chemicals, plastics, paints, and fertilizers, but not until he had completed his research in company history and had "functionalized" several jobs in various departments did he realize what a wide range of opportunities it offered a man of his ability. And more surprisingly, not until he had "functionalized" his own job in terms of corresponding jobs did he realize that he was actually functioning as a Division Administrator, a job about three levels above that of Senior Engineer. His crusty old boss, coasting on the downgrade to retirement, had eased out of most of his responsibilities and was "letting George do it" with a vengeance.
We agreed that George's boss was not going to be very cooperative in advancing George's cause. At the same time, "lines of command" were firmly established at Dulac, and to go over a supervisor's head was a breach of etiquette that could lead to serious trouble. That meant we had to go over the man's head without appearing to do so.
I suggested that George develop a forecast of his career for the next twelve months, documenting it in the same way the company documented its own annual forecast. He began with a summary of the talents and values he had brought to the company at the date of his hiring. This was followed by detailed descriptions of the contributions he had made since. Thanks to the careful analysis of his functions, this list showed a steady increase of responsibilities, up to and including the responsibilities normally assumed by a Division Administrator. It made a fine record of accomplishment-an onward and upward report that stood out in sharp contrast to a job title and salary that showed no change whatever. Then he headed the report with a title page which read:
"To Mrs. George Wiley from George Wiley
"Subject: Financial and progress forecast for the next twelve months, with alternatives for improvement, on the occasion of our tenth wedding anniversary."
(Experience has proven that the use of anniversary dates is one of the most disarming techniques in getting around "lines of command." Almost any anniversary can be used-the birthday of a key executive; the date you joined the company, the company's "founder's day," or date of incorporation; the birth of a child and the subsequent passing out of cigars, and similar occasions.)
Under favorable circumstances, George could have taken his "anniversary promise to his wife" to his boss with a smiling suggestion that he check it for accuracy. That step being out of the question, George put in a phone call to the key executive who had had the final word on hiring him.
When that dignitary answered, George said, "My wife and I had a long talk last night about my work here. You came into the picture because you were the one who hired me and assigned me to my job. You gave me such an inspiring talk that day that I wish there was some way I could talk things over with you again."
"Nothing easier," replied the executive. "I see I've got a luncheon open next week. Make it then."
George handed over the report, without comment, as the table was being cleared, and before the coffee was served. The executive read it unsmilingly, and handed it back.
"What do you want me to do about it?" he asked.
"I don't know that you can do anything," said George. "I don't seem to have any alternative but to leave, much as I like the company as a whole. What I really want is your advice."
Between being flattered by the request for his advice, and challenged by a situation about which he might be helpless, the executive said, "Let me borrow that report of yours for a few days. I'm getting a couple of ideas I can't talk about now, but I'll call you Monday if not sooner. My only advice right now is not to do anything until you hear from me."
And on Monday George began a series of interviews within the company that brought him a $2,200 raise.
In this case the four-point formula was modified only enough to get around a recalcitrant boss. George knew he had earned a raise. His boss knew it but refused to do anything about it. So George resorted to diplomacy to let a higher executive know he had earned a raise. And he made sure, through the presentation of his "forecast," that this top executive knew that George knew that he had earned his raise.
Every man and woman has different experiences and faces different situations in getting a raise, but the case history of Wiley will serve as a flexible guide. The general principle of filling out the aforementioned forms is to compel you to "think on paper." Such "written thinking" will do much to clarify your position and reveal why you are uniquely deserving of a raise even though the "annual review" might be months in the future. In their final drafts, the four forms should reveal that you have self-confidence, without arrogance or egotism. They should indicate a knowledge of your own worth wholeness, a belief in your value to the company, and a genuine concern in doing whatever may be necessary to continue your-and the company's progress.
