Performance Review...What do you think about this?

[samston]

Originally Posted by mcb1025

After comparing/contrasting public sector jobs with private sector job, the impression I got was that public sector jobs were typically more secure, but upward mobility and higher pay was less common. On the other hand, the private sector is more dynamic and pay is usually much higher. I don't know where you got your information in regards to your quote above, but I honestly would have never guessed that.



I think you hit the nail on the head. I mean, let's look at the facts. I started with this company in July 2008. I received my offer from the city government in September 2008. All of a sudden, within a matter of two months, I was worth $4,000/yr more to them, not to mention the cost of benefits. Fast forward to today. It's been a year a half since I received the initial matching offer. After getting all this additional experience and truly proving my skills/worth, I'm not worth a dime more?

In reference to another user's post, I'm not trying to sound like a whiner. If I were an NFL player making millions of dollars and telling you that wasn't enough, then I'd probably agree with you. But let's be completely honest with each other for a moment. The fact is, you have expectations after getting out of college.

First, you expect a decent starting salary. Another user posted a list of median starting salaries by major. Well, even after my "raise" a year and half ago, I'm making almost $10k less than what the median starting salary is for my degree (and even my position, according to Salary.com). Of course, when I've mentioned this on forums such as city-data, I get people telling me that I sound like a whiny college grad. Um, okay. That's just about the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Ironically, many people who tell me this are baby boomers who paid a fraction for their college education compared to what I had to pay for mine. Nonetheless, I've accepted my low salary as the status quo for this economy.

Second, after accepting a low entry-level salary, you'd expect that it would go up after proving your so-called worth to the company. Well, here I am, a year and a half in, with about 5 years of solid full-time work experience, and I'm still working for peanuts. Apparently, as other people have mentioned, you get your biggest raises when you move to another company. That is what I shall do.

Third, you expect some form of performance review. I want to see how I performed over the past year. I also want to see if there are areas where I can improve. I'd like to find out if I can take some classes at the local community college in order to better establish myself in the field. I'd like to see if there might be some room in another area of the company that I'm interested in. These kinds of discussions aren't easy to facilitate when your managers work in Minnesota and Chicago respectively, while you're over 1000 miles away in Denver.

Bottom line, please don't tell me I sound whiny. You all know very well that if you invested your time and hard earned money into something, you'd expect to see some dividends. And if you didn't, you'd probably be on here venting, too.

You make reasoned points, and yes you don't sound whiny.

I think it's best to look for another job, since the company you're in at the moment doesn't seem to give a crap about its employees.