Commensurate / BWE

In which our Hero gets his answer without any of the relief of knowing.

The offer was made.

I was with my former employer for ten years. The three things that kept me there were personal loyalty to a pair of mentor managers, the professional development I got out of being a consultant, and the pay, because while I was able to mathematically prove how my company was screwing me relative to the other employees at my level (to the embarrassed horror of the VP responsible), they still paid me a wage that I felt adequately reflected my ego. And efforts.

But then a few things happened:

As a “cost cutting measure” they changed my pay structure. Which came after I was trapped into signing a new employment agreement. I didn’t actually object to the pay structure, but what I deeply objected to was the fact that my contract specifically stated how I was to be paid and the fact that the company did not feel bound by my contract concerned me.

After spending four years at the same client, I was ready to move on. One of the benefits of a consulting career is that you see different environments and organizations, and you have the challenge of building relationships and learning how the social structures work. But by staying in one place, I already knew the players and familiarity was energetically breeding contempt. And the management wasn’t willing to risk the client refusing to replace me, so I was marooned. “…For all eternity, at the center of a dead planet. Buried alive.”

And finally, the company itself had in the past 10 years, attempted three times to fundamentally restructure itself. Consulting is an irregular revenue stream, you get money when there are clients, you lose money when it’s quiet, especially at the end of the year. So the executives kept looking for ways to add a “service” arm, to create subscription type revenue that would constantly come in and help cover the gaps. Twice, the plans just failed, and it was the hard work of my consulting arm of the company that was all that kept us afloat when the other half of the company died on the vine. The third time, they threw everything into it, and it became very clear that they weren’t just trying to bridge consulting revenue, they were actually abandoning the consulting business. The sales team was all pushing the new thing because that was easy to sell, unlike consulting. And every time things got tight, they’d axe the consultants who weren’t billable. I estimated there was about two years left in the organization. (Turns out I was wrong, it took a year and a half for them to shut down Canada, and another year after that to break up the company entire. After killing my group.)

But the net of it was that the company made it clear that my future with them was limited, and showed me that they had no loyalty to me, just the revenue. And right at the same time, the client (yes, the one I was asking to leave) approached Hollywood and I to see if we’d consider leaving MorlockCo to become independent contractors. They’d pay less, we’d get more, win-win. Except for me being at the place I was trying leave.

And now, I appreciate the attempts to find charitable motives, but there is no question that the drivers are financial. There is a specific drive to cut costs, and they have not been subtle about this. The C-executives and their VPs are asking “Why are we paying so much for [skill], when we have an outsource already and can pay so much less.” Of course, the outsourcers are provably lower quality and these people are are the ones catching the dropped balls and keeping the game going. And then there are the people like me who catch the balls from multiple games in multiple sports and keep the tournament going.

A few years ago, I got a pretty decent look at the client’s payroll demographics. And it lead me to an expectation of what the client would be able to offer if they ever tried to hire me. Which is why I’ve said for years, privately, that they’d never be able to afford me.

Frankly, I was startled when they initiated this process, back in the summer, because they were suddenly talking about offering a whole lot more than I ever expected they would. And that’s where it’s been, for six months, a potential fraught with the possibility they’d make me an unwanted offer I could not refuse in clear conscience. Because as some of you have noted, if it gets me the other things I need, a pay cut is perfectly sane. (Heck, I tried to trade a 10th of my pay for an extra month off, but my former employer wouldn’t take the deal. And now that I’m self-employed, I’m finding my new boss really pushes me to stay billable. The jerk!)

Anyway… 6 month of being dangled and they made the offer. Exactly where I predicted their upper bound lay, originally. And so the decision is easy, because the offer is a joke. Probably not to them, it may actually be the upper bound of their reach. But it’s not realistic. Not for me, not in this market.

And now I have to find a way to say no thanks in a way that doesn’t even suggest the “Are you fucking kidding?” that’s in my head. And then wait to see how the contract for next year plays out. And maybe get my resume up to speed. And stuff.

Are we having fun yet?

Boring Work Entry. Get it? BWE.