Ex Microsoft HR says companies don't reward loyalty, employees should not ask their bosses for a raise
Microsoft's former Vice President of Human Resources, Chris Williams, says that companies will never reward an employee's loyalty through pay raise and if an employee finds a better role in another organisation, they must take it. He also added two other things that he would never do as an employee.
In Short
- Chris Williams, Former HR VP of Microsoft, listed four things employees should not do.
- He says people must not expect company to be loyal.
- He adds that they should not ask their bosses for raise.
It is a common notion that employees who stay longer at a company will get rewarded for their loyalty, eventually. Many times people think twice before accepting an offer from another company because they have a sense of loyalty to their present organisation and don't wish to be perceived as a betrayer. However, according to Microsoft's former VP of HR Chris Williams, that should not be the case.
In an authored piece for Business Insider, Williams says that if an employee has an offer from another organisation that they feel is better, they must go ahead and take it without worrying about company loyalty. In the same article, he also says that companies are not really loyal to employees either and that seniority is not really rewarded by bigger paychecks.
Ex-Microsoft HR on company's loyalty
In the piece, Williams listed four things that he would never do as an employee. The first one was expecting the company to be loyal and reward him for spending years at the same organisation, the second thing was asking boss for a raise and the third thing was making empty threats about leaving the organisation. In his fourth point, Williams says that people should never ask for help without enough preperation.
Talking about loyalty when it comes to a company, Williams says that he isn't sure if companies ever have rewarded employees for being loyal truly but that certainly is not the case in today's scenario.
"Even when loyalty is recognized, it's usually personal loyalty, from one individual to another. And with people moving jobs so often, that kind of loyalty rarely endures," he says.
He added that one must not expect their companies to promote employees simply because they have spent years at the company. "And don't expect your company to be sympathetic to your years-long tenure when the layoffs are looming). It's going to treat you as part of a cold business calculation, a simple exchange of value," he wrote.
On asking for raise and empty threats
Talking about asking for a raise from bosses, Williams says that when you ask for a raise, you are coming from a position of weakness. As if that is a 'favour' that your boss must do for you. He says that people must rather have a conversation about 'value exchange' and not look at raises as favours.
"You provide the company with this value, and the company should reciprocate. That's how it thinks about it, about you. That's how you should present it," he says.
Third, he says that people must not threaten to leave a company if they don't actually intend to do it. This is because at times companies might really let you go and if you don't actually want to leave then those empty threats would backfire.
"So threaten to leave or fight only if you really mean it. And expect the worst," he says.
Coming to the final point, Williams says that if you need help with something, you must be fully prepared before asking. Employees must be clear on what they want help about and should avoid asking for things vaguely.
