Although I appreciated the recent three percent wage increase, the overall cost of living over the the past decade and our stagnant wages is really starting to destroy me. That was even before the most recent round of inflation. My actual hiring salary wasn’t even that great but the bonus potential of 50% made it competitive. I personally did not get a wage adjustment as bonus has decreased over the years. I used to have a reasonable staff but now I’m on register half the day and have stay after closing everyday just to complete the routine management tasks. I love my campus but I literally can’t afford to work here anymore at my salary. New hires are being brought in at my salary… I’ve had stellar reviews for almost 20 years. My regional said they “understood “ my concern and actually joked that maybe I should quit and get rehired as they are having trouble hiring new managers. I would hate to walk away from two decades of experiences but local assistant manager positions everywhere have better starting pay than this overworked Store Manager position. Has ANYONE had any luck renegotiating their salary? I’m actually afraid to mention it to anyone other than my regional and I’m not sure anyone in HR would care.
9 replies (most recent on top)
Simply put: You absolutely positively cannot renegotiate salary / a raise.
Company has a set compensation range. They do not increase current pay. No history of merit increases for years. IF there ever was a chance, it wouldn't be right now while the company is newly managed and they are just getting to know what they bought. No RM will rock the boat. Money is tight.
BTW, I have asked for both myself and some of my employees thru multiple upper management changes.
20 years. little to no raise. Bonuses are out of reach. That's a clear message. They're not going to spend a dime to keep you. They'll hire someone new for far less. I'm sorry to be blunt. I've seen this play out many times.
EVERYONE! This is one of the reasons it's so important to keep posting you negative experiences with follett (old or new ownership) on Glassdoor and other job review sites. follett has paid people to post shill reviews for years. You can spot the shills easily. The shill reviews also show who the company is interested in hiring. Share your follett horror stories with the very people follett is counting on hiring. Their lies hurt your income an hurt incoming staff.
I left Follett a little over 2 years ago. I still love going on this site, it's kind of like my daily dose of Follett Inquirer News. I do get tired of the whiners and like to see some more juicy stuff even though 99% of it is BS.
Yes, Stockholm syndrome. Being a glutton for punishment. "If you can't be with the one you love honey, love the one you're with." Just like the song.
Put some feelers out. See what's out there for you. You may be surprised. Just doing something different might brighten your life. If nothing pans out, you won't be any worse off.
Update your resume tonight!
Look on LinkedIn to get ideas of what you should say. You seem very loyal and this works only to the company advantage. Believe me. I know.
So the market will drive pay. Target paying $15.00/hour - some positions starting at $24.00/hour. Any SM at Follett could handle any position at Target. You may have to move along. And when enough leave pay will have to match competing employers or they will have to shut the stores down.
I understand where you're coming from but some of us have been cut down to 34 hours a week and are still expected it to do everything in the store. My biggest concern is the higher ups are going to see that the stores can survive with their managers at 34 hrs and this is going to be the new norm.
I would be shocked if you were able to renegotiate. Payroll/labor is tight as is, which is why us SMs spend half our days on the register. We're basically overpaid cashiers as is. They're not going to give you more money, when they're already having us cut out all of our other staff.
In case it's not clear to people, this retail model is not a good one. New CEO likes to talk about our "captive audience", but that doesn't offset the insanely high commissions we're paying to our campuses, leaving very little money leftover for us and our staff. This is only going to get worse as the CM market continues to shift.
You seriously need to consider looking for new work, rather than hoping that Follett will provide you with what you want and need. It's not going to happen.
Similar situation. I would be careful and not address the situation with HR. They won’t support you. This whole PE situation does look any different from “the family”.