Annual Compensation Review

I was reading a survey a couple weeks ago about pay raises. Out of the many HR managers surveyed, only about 60% of all companies will be giving out raises this year. Of those giving out raises, only about 30% were giving out more than 3% raises, and even less giving out more than 6% raises. Many companies are still uncertain about the near future of the economy even though it has seen a recent spike.

For the last couple months my company has been reviewing our compensation plan. I haven't been terribly involved in the process. I was mostly involved at the front end with updating job descriptions and deciding which jobs had more responsibilities.

We determined that some people were being under paid for the position they held and for the length of service they had with the company. Some people received large raises, and some small raises. Almost everyone in the company received a raise.

I was told today that I would be getting a raise that would be effective on this next paycheck. It's a conservative one of only 3%, but it's better than no raise. However, the cost of living here in Oregon actually went down this year (no minimum wage increases for 2010), so it's really like getting a bigger raise of about 5%.

Even with the announcement of raises, some people were still upset when they were told how much they were getting. They felt like they were entitled to more. I think at least 6 people complained today about how "little" they were getting. I was a bit disappointed in them. A "little" is better than nothing. Sure it would have been nice to get a bigger raise, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Brianne and I are grateful.


~Josh

The Lasting Musical Influence of My Father.

We were driving back to Salem from Albany. This is what I played on my ipod:

House of the Rising Sun - Animals
Ain't no Sunshine - Bill Withers
Grandma's Hands - Bill Withers
Lean on Me - Bill Withers
Lola - The Kinks
Summer in the City - The Lovin' Spoonful
One - Three Dog Night

And it turns out that I don't have Cover of the Rolling Stones by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. I thought I did.

I not sure whether I should thank dad or not.


~Joshua

This is a metaphor

I think I'm losing my touch.
I honestly don't know what went wrong. It looks like a Salvador Dali painting.