How to handle salary reviews

This is a post aimed at CGI managers who need – as part of their loooong list of duties – to meet with their subordinates on an annual basis and discuss their performance, their objectives and (gasp) their salary.

First of all, I strongly encourage you to use the term “salary revision” or “salary review” rather than “salary upgrade”, as the latter directly implies “more” and it’s a bad negotiation start when your position is a manager. Altering perceptions by changing language is one of the basic skills of any successful person.

Next, you need to read our latest financial news, take a yellow marker and outline any fact that could be used to dampen any eagerness from the employee to get a fat raise. For instance, if you work for CGI in Canada, this is what you should say to your subordinate: We're still operating at a negative growth level in Canada. Negative growth, catchy term eh? This is what I mean by using language in a clever way.

And then you say that revenues generated in Canada fell to $2.17 billion from $2.34 billion in fiscal 2008. Never mind that there are other good news in the pipeline, your job is NOT to cheer employees. At this point you set the stage and the employee is forced to listen to this deluge of bad news, which puts a bucket of icy water into his personal gain perspective. If you master the art of observation, you should notice that the employee face has changed a bit, like a cloud is now blocking the sun.

Then you move to a more global perspective: CGI spent $35 million in severance and costs related to “rationalizing excess real estate” as jobs were transferred to "low cost offshore operations" in India. That’s double talk for firing douche bags at all levels who didn’t sell or bill enough to pay for their own salary.

In addition, if we can get rid of a $50K SharePoint specialist in Ottawa and do the same job by a guy named Apu in Mumbai who charge 4 times less, everybody wins. But CGI had to spend $35 million to do this, so it’s less money for potential salary upgrades. You understand?

Once you got through all those negative news, you put a cheery upswing before you deliver the final blow, like : despite all the bad news that are going on these days, CGI wants to show you how much we appreciate all those long hours that you’re putting for the company, so here’s 2%, that’s the best we can do under the current gloomy conditions.

If you play the right cards before this moment, the employee should feel happy to get a 2% raise. He feels he’s not considered as “excess real estate” but a “strategic resource” for CGI, and it’s the side of the fence where he wants to be. Again, it’s a matter of managing expectations and altering perceptions.

So let me know if you have any questions regarding this, feel free to share your experience, what works and what doesn’t. Fake Mike Roach at GMail Dot Com.

Profit sharing and expectations

You know where I stand when it comes to dealing with expectations. The lower, the better. When you can convince yourself not to have any expectations, something magical happens. You get up in the morning, you take your shower, you go to work and you just do whatever lands on your desk and … you’re happy. Not happy per se but you have no real strong negative emotion. When a dark cloud follows you to work and make you feel all gloomy, it’s because you expect something and that something is out of reach. Expectation is the mother of disappointment.

This happy state of consciousness can be achieved using medications but health care is already out of control – especially here in Quebec where socialism has torpedoed the government finances – so we need to work on an drug-free approach to induce happiness while controlling costs.

Problem is, you just can’t say to people “expect nothing” to do the job. Even Stalin had to promise something to coerce Russians into his regime.

So we at CGI invented this profit-sharing scheme to motivate our troops to do their job. For one thing, it allows us to gloat about how good we are when we interview candidates. Each CGI member has a very small share of our profits, not a lot of money obviously, but this small token makes many people happy. It’s the intention that counts, not the numbers.

Of course there’s a bunch of strings attached. Your business unit has to reach its numbers, and CGI corporate as well. If CGI as a whole performed very well and your business unit tanked for reasons outside your control, you won’t get a dime even if you had a stellar performance. I think it is a fair approach.

When I’m doing the annual tour, many CGI members I met shake my hand and tell me all the wonderful things that they did with their profit-sharing bonus. I was able to buy new brakes for my ’98 Corolla said a mom of 4 in Montreal. I bought an iPod so I don’t have to listen to all the annoying chitchat going on next to my cubicle said one large analyst in Houston. I will be able to buy a turkey and invite my folks for Christmas said one junior guy in Ottawa. I was almost in tears.

It is during those precious moments that I realize how important my role is and why profit-sharing brings joy and happiness to all CGI members.

Members Column Day

Let’s open an e-mail from another disgruntled CGI members, hoping I can fix whatever is wrong in his head.

Dear Mike, I am a young CGI member fresh out of college and I have to say this company is truly supporting new employees, I feel like I’m really part of something here. How do you encourage leadership so that new hires like myself can quickly get more responsibilities within the company? Signed: Ron

Ron, I guess you first worked at McDonald’s during college so maybe you deserve a first CGI reality check here. While at McD you first got working on fries, and once the manager saw that you were not entirely clueless and you could read the time on your watch, you were upgraded to the McFlurry station. And then after 6 months you moved to making quarterpounder which was a big, big step and the manager gave you a pat on the back, way to go champ, maybe a few years from now you’ll be night manager. Sounds like it?

CGI doesn’t work this way pal, and leadership is not exactly something we value because there’s only one leader and that’s me. Only Captain Kirk decides where the Enterprise goes. The rest of you red shirts are expandable. And I really don’t need to breed future leaders. I mean, this is just bull you read from highly paid management consultants.

Why? For one thing, there are already dozens is not hundreds of VPs at CGI who would give anything to take my seat - and my parking spot. And I’m not talking about the thousands of starving directors who work their ass off 70 hours a week hoping I’ll notice them (yeah, right). So if you’re at the lowest level of the pyramid I think you should put lid on any hope to move very high – that is unless you plan to live 670 years.

The other reason is that CGI is on the block and I hope to find a buyer so that I can retire. So let’s say IBM buys CGI, your hope to move to a VP position is probably 5M to 1 against. Why bother? My advice to you: keep doing whatever you’ve being doing as long as your client wants you. Keep your expectations bottom low.

If you want to move to a real manager position, I advise you go to Tim Horton’s. You’ll get to wear a funny hat, something CGI cannot provide.

Lowering your expectations for your own good

CGI Group was founded by 2 young guys who were 26 and 29, and now it’s the largest IT company in Canada. We’re like Apple and Google in a sense, except we’re not cool, we wear suits and people under 25 don’t know us - and if they do they think we’re specialized in “CGI-BIN” development.

Friends, the economy is tough nowadays and we will live through harsh times for several years. Don’t even think of taking risks and starting a company, nobody will give you a dime. Our fearless founder Serge was one of a kind, he’s much smarter than you and they’re no way you can even walk in his footsteps.

The reason I’m such a downer is that we badly need to hire people, and I get extremely angry when I hear that one smart employee leaves for a gaming company or Microsoft or any other company cooler than us. Why would you work for a company where you get free drinks and food, casual dress code and co-workers who look like Kramer or The Dude? At first, you’ll get all excited, the company will throw free t-shirts, golf hats and Hawaiian parties, but as the reality sinks in and you work 90 hours a week, you’ll realize you’re just a pawn in a giant chess game controlled by people who’ll never meet. Your contribution will be insignificant, the entertainment and freebies that your company provide will just a mask to hide the truth. And the single truth is, a company has to make money in order to survive.

Here at CGI we don’t do this double talk. What you see is literally what you get, it is the stark reality without a costly varnish of make-believe. Yes, our projects are boring. Yes, our customers are government offices frozen in time. Yes, our organization is made of dozens of middle management layers each with no power or budget. Yes, you’ll feel like a number from day one (and we’ll actually give you a number). Yes, you’ll work 37.5 hours a week (I mean 40). But that’s the beauty of it - we could not be more transparent.

So save yourself years of unfulfilled promises and unrealistic expectations. The whole notion of starting a company and changing the world is just an invitation to get your expectations crushed. Accept reality at face value and come work with us. You’ll never be a millionaire, you’ll end up at 65 pretty much like anyone else (bald, bitter and heavily in debt), your professional life will be pretty much uneventful, so dull actually that you’ll never talk about your job is social gatherings.

If you accept this reality as your wildest expectations, you will never be disappointed and you may actually feel pretty good. I’m awaiting your resume.