How we get paid is how we work. The Russian economy is being hampered by low wages

What to do if your salary was reduced? Well, it doesn’t matter exactly how: the salary was cut or, say, they stopped giving bonuses - the main thing is that they lowered it?

The natural reaction of an employee to such impudence on the part of the employer is resentment and indignation. Any reduction in salary is perceived as robbery. And these emotions have their own explanation.

From the employee’s point of view, his contract with the company looks like this: he sells a conventional kilogram of his work for a conventional ruble. And the employer is trying to slip in a measly eighty kopecks instead of a full ruble. This seems like a complete scam.

Well, as if you came to a restaurant, had lunch, and then, picking your teeth with a toothpick, said: everything is good, very tasty, but I will pay you 20% less. No, no, the food is okay, the service suits me too, the waitresses are sweethearts and beauties. I just decided that I would pay this much. Is there something you don't like? Then don’t let me into your restaurant anymore, I won’t intrude.

This is roughly how an employee perceives the employer’s harsh words: “Now, Grigory Palych, your salary will be 20 percent less.” With a small nuance. Unlike a restaurant that fills its belly with food for a hundred people a day, Grigory Palych has only one “client”: the employer. Refusing this client means being left without a livelihood. Therefore, the offer to “be patient or quit” does not look like a business proposal to reduce the price, but rather arm-twisting and vile blackmail. Well, the standard extortionate choice between bad and very bad.

Fine. Let’s say an employee listened to the news of a salary reduction, digested it, and vented his first emotions in the smoking room. What options does the employee have to respond?

There are two classic options.
Option one: go to a job site and start looking for a new job. In fact, what's the point of working for pennies if you can find a normal place with a normal salary? A place where salaries will be raised rather than lowered?
In general, a year ago, a new place would most likely have been found quickly. After which you could nicely slam the door or force the employer to roll back the salary to the previous level.
Now, however, there is a crisis. There are few new places. And wages there, alas, are very low. What's the point of paying a lot if there is a long line of people willing to work for any vacancy? As my fellow Ukrainians say, there are no fools.
This means that the search for a new job will either end in failure or, at least, will be very delayed.
Option two: start working less. Well, really - we all know that in different companies you can earn different money for the same position. Because, say, in the company “Northern Labor” you have to work from morning to evening, and in the company “May Siesta” you need to move sluggishly only two or three hours a day, drinking coffee and crossword puzzles the rest of the time.
Consequently, since they started paying us like quitters, they will probably ask more gently, like quitters. So we will work like lazy people. With laziness.
Logical?
Alas, it is logical. Many employees do exactly this. They start coming to work half an hour later and leaving exactly at seven. They stop feeling embarrassed when doing personal things at work. And they look at the employer like a wife looks at her alcoholic husband: “Why are you whining here? There’s no money from you, and you’re also annoying.”
An employer's requests, for example, to take advanced training courses during non-working hours are bewilderedly ignored. What, they say, are non-working hours? You pay me less, I now work on the side in the evenings.
Now let's see what the situation looks like from the other side: from the side of the company's owners.
Let’s say that before the crisis they had an income of one hundred rubles, of which forty was spent on salaries. Now the revenue has dropped to sixty rubles and it’s impossible to spend more than 24 rubles on salaries - even if you cut off your ears. Therefore, the wage fund needs to be cut. (Just in case, for friends who are far from entrepreneurship. Spending more than 40% of income on salaries for most types of business is unrealistic. Since there are other expenses, such as taxes, rent, etc., etc.).
On the other hand, clients have become more demanding. Some clients pushed for discounts, some began to pay worse, and some clients demanded more favorable conditions for the same money.
Thus, in order not to be caught between the scissors of income and expenses, the employer has no other choice but to reduce salaries. That is, trying to survive at the expense of employees.
Do employees have the moral right to tell their employer that his problems are his problems and they don’t care?
Theoretically, of course, employees have such a moral right. However, let’s not forget that the “labor market” is called precisely the labor market, and not a “labor warehouse” or a “labor store.” If there are people breathing down your neck who want to take your place, you have no choice but to enter into the position of an employer.
Let us now return to the second option: the “work with laziness” option. What do you think a boss will do with a subordinate who has started slacking?
I'll explain with an example.
Let's say there are two managers in a department. Suddenly their salaries are reduced. And, at the same time, management requires that you call clients on Fridays and submit an additional report on this call. Well, before there was no need to do anything like that, but now suddenly it became necessary. Take out and put away the extra half a day from somewhere.
Manager Vasya was offended and quietly sabotaged the call. There is no additional payment for this call, so why bother? These thrifty goons, they say, should go to the bathhouse with their ridiculous demands and stupid calls. They will be patient.
Manager Petya was also not happy about the salary reduction, but he still started calling. His train of thought was different: the authorities said to do it, so it must be done.
Now, attention, a question. If the client base shrinks and management needs to cut one manager, who can he send out with a light heart?
Of course, the offended Vasya, who himself gave his superiors the reason for his dismissal: he did not follow the order.
Just in case. I don’t want to say at all that management will certainly burden you with new work in order to fire you. Everything will work out by itself. Those who accept the new rules of the game will continue to work. Those who refuse to play by the new rules will look for another team.
Let me sum it up.
Remember the article about “A Just World”? Each of us has ideas about justice in our heads. In particular, we have in our heads an idea of a certain fair value for our labor. And if they try to buy our labor cheaper, we perceive it as a scam - a dishonest deal.
So here it is. For better or worse, we now live in a relatively market economy. Therefore, the “fair” amount of our salary depends solely on our unemployed colleagues. Are the unemployed ready to replace us for 100 rubles? So we cost 100 rubles. Are you ready to replace us for 50 rubles? So we only cost 50.
Well, how many years have we worked in the company, how much experience we have, what color is the crust of our higher education diploma and what is our bust size... these are all lyrics. A cynical management (and there is no other way, yeah) will still evaluate our work based on one single parameter - the cost of our “analogues”. That is, based on the minimum amount for which you can painlessly find a replacement for us.
And this means that after a salary reduction, employees have a simple choice. Either bite the bullet and start working more, or look for a new job.
PS: Are there statistics somewhere: what percentage of pedestrians killed had a license? And what percentage of Russians have rights? I want to compare these two figures.

What to do if your salary was reduced? It doesn’t matter exactly how: the salary was cut or, say, they stopped giving bonuses - the main thing is that they lowered it? The natural reaction of an employee to such impudence on the part of the employer is resentment and indignation.

What to do if your salary was reduced? Well, it doesn’t matter exactly how: the salary was cut or, say, they stopped giving bonuses - the main thing is that they lowered it?

Well, as if you came to a restaurant, had lunch, and then, picking your teeth with a toothpick, said: everything is good, very tasty, but I will pay you 20% less. No, no, the food is fine, the service also suits me, the waitresses are sweethearts and beauties. I just decided that I would pay this much. Is there something you don't like? Then don’t let me into your restaurant anymore, I won’t intrude.

Fine. Let’s say an employee listened to the news of a salary reduction, digested it, and vented his first emotions in the smoking room. What options does the employee have to respond?

There are two classic options.

Option one: go to a job site and start looking for a new job. In fact, what's the point of working for pennies if you can find a normal place with a normal salary? A place where salaries will be raised rather than lowered?

In general, a year ago a new place would most likely have been found quickly. After which you could nicely slam the door or force the employer to roll back the salary to the previous level.

Now, however, there is a crisis. There are few new places. And wages there, alas, are very low. What's the point of paying a lot if there is a long line of people willing to work for any vacancy? As my fellow Ukrainians say, there are no fools.

A normal company is a living being. Today we have a lot of orders and not enough people, and tomorrow we will have one single order and a minus on the current account. If we build a business on freelancers, there are no special problems. The freelancer receives his percentage of our order, and when there is more or less work, changing the number of freelancers is a matter of one week. Not so with full-time employees. Firstly, you cannot fire and then rehire people every two months. If the average work time of one employee in your company is less than a year, there will be turnover, which, to put it mildly, is not good. And secondly, even if we convince a full-time employee to work for a percentage, our fixed expenses - such as office expenses - do not disappear.

This means that the search for a new job will either end in failure, or at least take a lot of time.

Option two: start working less. Well, indeed, we all know that in different companies you can earn different money for the same position. Because, say, in the company “Northern Trud” you have to work from morning to evening, and in the company “May Siesta” you need to move sluggishly only two or three hours a day, drinking coffee and crossword puzzles the rest of the time.

Consequently, since they started paying us like quitters, they will probably ask more gently, like quitters. So we will work like lazy people. With laziness.

Alas, it is logical. Many employees do exactly this. They start coming to work half an hour later and leaving exactly at seven. They stop feeling embarrassed when doing personal things at work. And they look at the employer like a wife looks at her alcoholic husband: “Why are you whining here? There’s no money from you, and you’re also annoying.”

An employer's requests, for example, to take advanced training courses during non-working hours are bewilderedly ignored. What, they say, are non-working hours? You pay me less, I now work on the side in the evenings.

Now let's see what the situation looks like from the other side: from the side of the company's owners.

Let’s say that before the crisis they had an income of one hundred rubles, of which forty was spent on salaries. Now the revenue has dropped to sixty rubles and it’s impossible to spend more than 24 rubles on salaries - even if you cut off your ears. Therefore, the wage fund needs to be cut. (Just in case for friends who are far from entrepreneurship. Spending more than 40% of income on salaries for most types of business is unrealistic. Since there are other expenses, such as taxes, rent, etc., etc.)

On the other hand, clients have become more demanding. Some clients pushed for discounts, some began to pay worse, and some clients demanded more favorable conditions for the same money.

Thus, in order not to be caught between the scissors of income and expenses, the employer has no choice but to reduce salaries. That is, trying to survive at the expense of employees.

Do employees have the moral right to tell their employer that his problems are his problems and they don’t care?

Theoretically, of course, employees have such a moral right. However, let’s not forget that the labor market is called precisely the “labor market”, and not the “labor warehouse” and not the “labor store”. If there are people breathing down your neck who want to take your place, you have no choice but to enter into the position of an employer.

Let us now return to the second option: the “work with laziness” option. What do you think a boss will do with a subordinate who has started slacking?

I'll explain with an example.

For a person with material motivation, the main thing is money. And not just money to live on, but a lot of money. The bigger, the better. An important nuance. If a future employee says that “he needs to feed his family,” this does not mean that he is motivated by money. He just needs stability. If a future employee says that he “wants to become a dollar millionaire,” this also does not mean that he is motivated by money. Money for him is nothing more than a building material necessary to achieve a goal. But if he says that, for example, he is going to change his three-year-old Ford to a brand new BMW, this is clearly a monetary motivation. Every extra hundred dollars is important to such an employee. Monetarily motivated people are quite easy to work with. Well, for example, we need Petya to go to work on Saturday. If Petya is motivated by money, it is enough to offer him double overtime pay. And that’s it, the problem is solved - Petya will happily work as long as we ask.

Let's say there are two managers in a department. Suddenly their salaries are reduced. And at the same time, management demands that you call clients on Fridays and submit an additional report on this call. Well, before there was no need to do anything like that, but now suddenly it became necessary. Take out and put away the extra half a day from somewhere.

Manager Vasya was offended and quietly sabotaged the call. There is no additional payment for this call, so why bother? These thrifty goons, they say, should go to the bathhouse with their ridiculous demands and stupid calls. They will be patient.

Manager Petya was also not happy about the salary cut, but he still started calling. His train of thought was different: the authorities said to do it, so it must be done.

Now, attention, a question. If the client base shrinks and management needs to cut one manager, who can he send out with a light heart?

Of course, the offended Vasya, who himself gave his superiors the reason for his dismissal: he did not follow the order.

Just in case. I don’t want to say at all that management will certainly burden you with new work in order to fire you. Everything will work out by itself. Those who accept the new rules of the game will continue to work. Those who refuse to play by the new rules will look for another team.

Let me sum it up.

Remember the article about “A Just World”? Each of us has ideas about justice in our heads. In particular, we have in our heads an idea of a certain fair value for our labor. And if they try to buy our labor cheaper, we perceive it as a scam - a dishonest deal.

So here it is. For better or worse, we now live in a relatively market economy. Therefore, the “fair” amount of our salary depends solely on our unemployed colleagues. Are the unemployed ready to replace us for 100 rubles? This means we cost 100 rubles. Are you ready to replace us for 50 rubles? So we're only worth 50.

Well, how many years have we worked in the company, how much experience we have, what color is the crust of our higher education diploma and what is our bust size... these are all lyrics. A cynical management (and there is no other way, yeah) will still evaluate our work based on one single parameter - the cost of our “analogues”. That is, based on the minimum amount for which you can painlessly find a replacement for us.

And this means that after a salary reduction, employees have a simple choice. Either bite the bullet and start working more, or look for a new job.

What to do if your salary was reduced? Well, it doesn’t matter exactly how: the salary was cut or, say, they stopped giving bonuses - the main thing is that they lowered it?

Fine. Let’s say an employee listened to the news of a salary reduction, digested it, and vented his first emotions in the smoking room. What options does the employee have to respond?

There are two classic options.

Option one: go to a job site and start looking for a new job. In fact, what's the point of working for pennies if you can find a normal place with a normal salary? A place where salaries will be raised rather than lowered?

In general, a year ago, a new place would most likely have been found quickly. After which you could nicely slam the door or force the employer to roll back the salary to the previous level.

This means that the search for a new job will either end in failure or, at least, will be very delayed.

Option two: start working less. Well, really - we all know that in different companies you can earn different money for the same position. Because, say, in the company “Northern Labor” you have to work from morning to evening, and in the company “May Siesta” you need to move sluggishly only two or three hours a day, drinking coffee and crossword puzzles the rest of the time.

Consequently, since they started paying us like quitters, they will probably ask more gently, like quitters. So we will work like lazy people. With laziness.

Now let's see what the situation looks like from the other side: from the side of the company's owners.

Let’s say that before the crisis they had an income of one hundred rubles, of which forty was spent on salaries. Now the revenue has dropped to sixty rubles and it’s impossible to spend more than 24 rubles on salaries - even if you cut off your ears. Therefore, the wage fund needs to be cut. (Just in case, for friends who are far from entrepreneurship. Spending more than 40% of income on salaries for most types of business is unrealistic. Since there are other expenses, such as taxes, rent, etc., etc.).

On the other hand, clients have become more demanding. Some clients pushed for discounts, some began to pay worse, and some clients demanded more favorable conditions for the same money.

Thus, in order not to be caught between the scissors of income and expenses, the employer has no other choice but to reduce salaries. That is, trying to survive at the expense of employees.

Do employees have the moral right to tell their employer that his problems are his problems and they don’t care?

Theoretically, of course, employees have such a moral right. However, let’s not forget that the “labor market” is called precisely the labor market, and not a “labor warehouse” or a “labor store.” If there are people breathing down your neck who want to take your place, you have no choice but to enter into the position of an employer.

Let us now return to the second option: the “work with laziness” option. What do you think a boss will do with a subordinate who has started slacking?

I'll explain with an example.

Let's say there are two managers in a department. Suddenly their salaries are reduced. And, at the same time, management requires that you call clients on Fridays and submit an additional report on this call. Well, before there was no need to do anything like that, but now suddenly it became necessary. Take out and put away the extra half a day from somewhere.

Manager Petya was also not happy about the salary reduction, but he still started calling. His train of thought was different: the authorities said to do it, so it must be done.

Now, attention, a question. If the client base shrinks and management needs to cut one manager, who can he send out with a light heart?

Of course, the offended Vasya, who himself gave his superiors the reason for his dismissal: he did not follow the order.

Let me sum it up.

Remember the article about ""? Each of us has ideas about justice in our heads. In particular, we have in our heads an idea of a certain fair value for our labor. And if they try to buy our labor cheaper, we perceive it as a scam - a dishonest deal.

So here it is. For better or worse, we now live in a relatively market economy. Therefore, the “fair” amount of our salary depends solely on our unemployed colleagues. Are the unemployed ready to replace us for 100 rubles? So we cost 100 rubles. Are you ready to replace us for 50 rubles? So we only cost 50.

And this means that after a salary reduction, employees have a simple choice. Either bite the bullet and start working more, or look for a new job.

PS: Are there statistics somewhere: what percentage of pedestrians killed had a license? And what percentage of Russians have rights? I want to compare these two figures.

Three years ago I was looking for a deputy or assistant for myself (chief accountant). And this is what came out of it:

One worked for six months and during the May holidays she and her husband started drinking heavily and had to go on the police wanted list. The result was that they were fired “at their own request.” The second was always indignant that she was not respected and appreciated, although she had worked at the enterprise for three months. The result was that I quit myself. The third was sick three times in a month, but did not bring a single sick leave. She was probably sick with a hangover. The result - see above. After all three of us had to “clear away the rubble,” accountants will understand me. As a result, I decided to give up all attempts and work without assistants and deputies, relying only on myself and the surviving staff, proven over the years.

However, after an inspection, Rostechnadzor forced us to hire another staff member at the product distribution warehouse. Just didn’t tell me where to get this unit! They hired a young woman, 30 years old, who somehow worked under pressure for 1 year, sometimes not like this, sometimes not like that. She whined all the time: “I’m tired of your papers, I don’t understand anything about them!!” I worked until my vacation, from which I didn’t return - I disappeared and I still haven’t picked up my work book. Doesn't answer letters or calls. They hired a new one - all the time on sick leave - whether she was there or not - it made no difference, the others had to combine work. Fortunately or not - I don’t know anymore - I quit.

They put an ad in the newspaper - there were about a hundred calls - everyone really wanted to work. As a result, THREE came for the interview... This time they accepted a young man. And they hit it! He wants to work from bell to bell, he can barely move - in the end he doesn’t have time to do anything. The work hasn't been done, the invoices haven't been posted - but, you see, he already needs to go home! Moreover, the work schedule is such that he does not complete one hour of work every month, although we put 8 hours on the timesheet. All the time he demands something - either remove these responsibilities from him, or insist that entering invoices into the computer is extra work, etc. and so on. As a result, an oil painting: workers unload a car with containers, half are already in the warehouse, half are outside on an overpass, the time is 17-05, closes the gate and that’s it! The workers were in a stupor as to how they could leave the containers on the street overnight, and there was almost a fight. He has one argument: “I’ve already overworked 5 minutes!” He ran to the director and asked: “How much will you pay me for 20 minutes of overtime? Double the amount?” The director explains that there is no order for overtime work, that he doesn’t even complete his 40 hours, and if he doesn’t have time, then he should help the workers unload and quickly fill out the documents, and not fiddle with one invoice for half an hour. Useless - insists on double payment for 20 minutes. The objections that even if you pay extra, the first two hours are paid at 1.5 times the rate... do not apply. Iron logic - this is HIS PERSONAL TIME AND HE VALUES IT GREATLY! They asked me to resign on good terms. We've never seen such clowns before - I worked for 2 weeks and got on everyone's nerves. Quit. Came the next day with a certificate of average earnings from the stock exchange. Here is the solution - you needed a minimum income to calculate unemployment benefits and that’s it.

I personally would vote with both hands for the return of the article in the Criminal Code for parasitism. Everyone is on the stock exchange and doesn’t want to work! And if anything happens, they run to the labor inspectorate. And who will protect the employer from such “workers”? where to complain? There have been plenty of such cases in my career; I’ve been working at this company for 14 years - I’ve never seen anything. We process everyone as expected, and social guarantees and free lunches... nothing helps. Like a salary or an advance, someone is bound to at least go on a drinking binge, even if you pay them 100 thousand, they still don’t want to work!

Fine. Let’s say an employee listened to the news of a salary reduction, digested it, and vented his first emotions in the smoking room. What options does the employee have to respond?

There are two classic options.

In general, a year ago, a new place would most likely have been found quickly. After which you could nicely slam the door or force the employer to roll back the salary to the previous level.

This means that the search for a new job will either end in failure or, at least, will be very delayed.

Option two: start working less. Well, really - we all know that in different companies you can earn different money for the same position. Because, say, in the company “Northern Trud” you have to work from morning to evening, and in the company “May Siesta” you need to move sluggishly only two or three hours a day, drinking coffee and crossword puzzles the rest of the time.

Consequently, since they started paying us like quitters, they will probably ask more gently, like quitters. So we will work like lazy people. With laziness.

Logical?

Now let's see what the situation looks like from the other side: from the side of the company's owners.

Let’s say that before the crisis they had an income of one hundred rubles, of which forty was spent on salaries. Now the revenue has dropped to sixty rubles and it’s impossible to spend more than 24 rubles on salaries - even if you cut off your ears. Therefore, the wage fund needs to be cut. (Just in case, for friends who are far from entrepreneurship. Spending more than 40% of income on salaries for most types of business is unrealistic. Since there are other expenses, such as taxes, rent, etc., etc.).

On the other hand, clients have become more demanding. Some clients pushed for discounts, some began to pay worse, and some clients demanded more favorable conditions for the same money.

Thus, in order not to be caught between the scissors of income and expenses, the employer has no other choice but to reduce salaries. That is, trying to survive at the expense of employees.

Do employees have the moral right to tell their employer that his problems are his problems and they don’t care?

Let us now return to the second option: the “work with laziness” option. What do you think a boss will do with a subordinate who has started slacking?

I'll explain with an example.

Manager Petya was also not happy about the salary reduction, but he still started calling. His train of thought was different: the authorities said to do it, so it must be done.

Now, attention, a question. If the client base shrinks and management needs to cut one manager, who can he send out with a light heart?

Of course, the offended Vasya, who himself gave his superiors the reason for his dismissal: he did not follow the order.

Let me sum it up.

So here it is. For better or worse, we now live in a relatively market economy. Therefore, the “fair” amount of our salary depends solely on our unemployed colleagues. Are the unemployed ready to replace us for 100 rubles? So we cost 100 rubles. Are you ready to replace us for 50 rubles? So we only cost 50.

And this means that after a salary reduction, employees have a simple choice. Either bite the bullet and start working more, or look for a new job.