I sat down at a table in the conference room, facing my manager.  Today, I was to find out what my annual raise was to be.  In the past, I had decent pay raises.  More of a pay increase than others.  But since transferring from one location to another, within the same company, I realized that my pay raises were getting smaller.

Manager:  Clifford, as you know the annual pay raises came through.
Clifford:  Yep, it’s that time of the year.
Manager:  And as much as I would like to have given my people more, I didn’t have a choice in the matter.  All the pay raises were determined by HR.
Clifford:  That makes no sense.  I doubt highly if HR even knows what I do.
Manager:  They have an idea.  Anyway, here is your raise for this year.
Clifford:  (quick calculation in head)  Wait!  That’s barely over 2%!
Manager:  Like I said, I had no control over it.
Clifford:  (quick calculation in head)  That’s not even 25 cents an hour!
Manager:  Well, you also got a promotion a few months back.
Clifford:  Yeah and that was 2.5%.  That was ridiculous!  They said they wouldn’t give me more because I make "too much" money for someone at my level.
Manager:  And I’m sure this is part of that.  But the two together get you 4.5%.
Clifford:  Oh come on.  The numbers don’t work like that and you know it.
Manager:  Like I said, I had no control over it.  I think in the future, that will be rectified.

I took a long lunch.  I was furious. 

This isn’t over.  Not yet.

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