Boss Accidentally Sends An Email To The Whole Staff About A Mischievous Way To Avoid Pay Raises
His plan benefited some and not others.
Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels Ben Askins guides younger generations through the workplace by offering millennials and Gen Zers advice on how to deal with bad bosses, office politics, and the state of the economy.
Some of his posts on TikTok cover the bright side of working, recognizing good bosses and positive environments, yet one post in particular highlighted a boss’s immoral idea to save the company money.
The boss sent an accidental email to the entire staff detailing a devious way to avoid pay raises.
Askins read off an email that a manager sent out to his team, that they were never actually supposed to see.
“I’ve been thinking that there is a saving to be made in regard to pay rises,” the text of the email began. “With the economic climate being as it is, people will have less opportunities to leave the business, and that gives us a real economic opportunity.”
Askins offered a brief interjection, noting that “the fact they’re so worried about people leaving the business says quite a lot about the culture already.”
The email continued, “With less choice we could be much stricter with reducing or even rejecting potential pay rises for the team which will allow us to boost our profits over the next coming quarters.”
“Obviously this would be quite a time intensive exercise from the management team, and so I was thinking we could create an incentive program where we would receive a 10% commission on all financial raises that we save on.”
The boss signed the email, “Would love to know what you think about this plan.”
Askins analyzed the email, stating that the boss was “literally pitching a commission scheme where he will directly benefit from either rejecting or denying his team’s legitimate pay rises.”
The manager’s plan to cut back on expenses by denying pay raises to his team included a way for him to earn more money for himself.
“Think about what a good manager is meant to do,” Askins implored, explaining that a good boss helps build their employees’ careers through support and training, along with being engaging and motivating.
Askins proclaimed that the manager in question was taking the opposite approach by “using his time to email people around the business saying, ‘Look, if I save the company a few grand on pay raise, can I get a cut of that?’”
He also described the manager’s scheme as being incredibly short-sighted, noting, “If you deny your entire team pay rises [that] they legitimately have earned, what do you think that does to the motivation of your team?”
Most people will experience some form of toxic work environment throughout the course of their careers, so learning the red flags of those types of jobs is a key to avoiding them, and setting up a better work-life balance for yourself.
This particular office culture seems way more focused on cheating people out of raises that are rightfully theirs, making one question what other morally questionable activities they engage in.
It seems as though this manager experienced a bit of instant karmic retribution in accidentally letting his whole team in on his mischievous, morally gray plan to benefit himself while denying others the same economic opportunity.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers issues in the workplace, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.