Death March
I feel like I'm the Ho Chi Min trail at work. I've not been given any assignments to complete since I handed in my letter of resignation. All work that has come in has been assigned to my counter part who is not planning on leave anytime soon. I thought that the last week for most people was pretty busy cleaning up and making sure that assignments are handed off properly so that they are completed correctly. Instead, I sit in my brightly lit office with my Ipod playing, reading crap online, and generally just screwing around. Its amazingly boring; I'm so excited to have stuff to do soon.
I realized one other thing this weekend. That some people still play into what our parents generation thought. That you shouldn't talk about money with your friends. I think that is a stupid plan for most people. The best resource you have for knowing if you are getting paid market value is your friends who work in similar positions. Especially if you have a number of friends at different career levels it can be very useful to learn from their mistakes when negotiating for a higher salary. So then you both know what you should be making and how to go about making more money. Friends should help friends. Especially when it comes to increasing their earning potential. It only helps me if I have a friend who makes more money because of what I've shared with them. If they are making less money than me - and I help them make more money - that means that they know have more discresionary funds available to go out and play with - meaning cooler trips that we can agree to go on. If they make more than me and they help me make more money - then I'm making more money and can have more fun with it. Part of the problem with making a certain amount is that people put you at a certain career level based on how much you are making and making decisions about your skills and abilities before you even walk on to the job and have a chance to prove yourself.
Talking about money with work friends is probably not a good idea; because jealousy and backstabbing could occur. Helping your friends make more money is always a good thing. People should be more open. The problem is when people aren't okay with other people making more money than them and jealousy ensues. If people can grow up and get over their envy everyone can work together to help everyone else out.
I realized one other thing this weekend. That some people still play into what our parents generation thought. That you shouldn't talk about money with your friends. I think that is a stupid plan for most people. The best resource you have for knowing if you are getting paid market value is your friends who work in similar positions. Especially if you have a number of friends at different career levels it can be very useful to learn from their mistakes when negotiating for a higher salary. So then you both know what you should be making and how to go about making more money. Friends should help friends. Especially when it comes to increasing their earning potential. It only helps me if I have a friend who makes more money because of what I've shared with them. If they are making less money than me - and I help them make more money - that means that they know have more discresionary funds available to go out and play with - meaning cooler trips that we can agree to go on. If they make more than me and they help me make more money - then I'm making more money and can have more fun with it. Part of the problem with making a certain amount is that people put you at a certain career level based on how much you are making and making decisions about your skills and abilities before you even walk on to the job and have a chance to prove yourself.
Talking about money with work friends is probably not a good idea; because jealousy and backstabbing could occur. Helping your friends make more money is always a good thing. People should be more open. The problem is when people aren't okay with other people making more money than them and jealousy ensues. If people can grow up and get over their envy everyone can work together to help everyone else out.
Comments
I have no problem talking about it with friends that don't work at the same company. In fact when i left progressive i then talked about my salary at my new job with a progressive friend.
Being open about it only helps you know more about the market and your value in it.