When a “Win” Comes with a Cost

Regardless of the challenge or adversity, the one seed I’ve nurtured consistently since my early teens has been a strong work ethic. That, coupled with so many other leadership attributes I’ve slowly in the years since, helped me navigate the near-foreclosure experience, the crazy lowball offer that still has me shaking my head more than fifteen years later, and the being ostracized for taking a stand on behalf a women who were being sexually harassed. This same work ethic served me well as I took on more and more in the human resources role I transitioned to after more than a decade of intense involvement in behavior-based safety.

I mentioned previously how, after my boss left the company in August 2012, I took on everything I could that our new plant manager didn’t explicitly forbid. It only took a month or so for the corporate HR guy and the local plant manager to bring in a new human resources manager for our location. Interestingly enough, he was the third to join our local management team from another company just a few miles away and had worked with the new plant manager for several years already. While I wasn’t looking at things through a DISC Model of Human Behavior lens then, I realize now that this new HR manager was likely a very high C blend with a fair amount if S in the mix - and just a touch more D than I, which was most certainly VERY low.

I don’t share my guess as to his behavioral style blend as a criticism. He was actually a relatively nice guy. In fact, that was something I heard routinely from our team members after the limited interaction they had with him. All that said, most of his time was in meetings with the rest of the management team or with his door closed - hence my thoughts about his high C blend. He put a lot of hours into what appeared to be sifting through the details of so many things.

My new boss had worked in human resources for many years, he maintained a professional credential in the field, and he had completed an MBA (Master’s of Business Administration) - which I’ll circle back to soon. However, his responsibility in this new role was wildly different from anything he had done previously. Add that with his more Reserved approach and it’s no wonder he was happy to allow me to take the lead on the handbook revision, maintain what I had been doing with the “peer review” process, handle the majority of the internal job postings and interviews, and conduct nearly all of the interviews to hire external hourly new members (as well as a bunch of other things that were actually part of the job description when I moved into the position).

Make no mistake, I’m not complaining one bit. The experience I was gaining in such a short period of time was priceless. And while I was putting in far more hours than I had in years, I was being compensated for some of the time over and above the normal workweek; I was in a somewhat rare salaried, non-exempt role. 

In July 2013, my new boss and I sat down for my first formal performance review since he had joined the organization. We interacted daily and he frequently showed appreciation so I wasn’t surprised by the glowing feedback and specific detail he shared. The organization used a “9 Box” review metric and the time and I was one of two (out of 40) salaried employees who scored in the 9th box, which was the best possible. He finished the review by sharing that I would see a raise on my next pay statement but it would only be four percent; he said that’s all he had to work with. Cindy and I had worked our way out of the deep financial hole we had been in for so long and I was already earning a fair amount more than I ever had, based on the overtime compensation; my base was actually the same as it had been in the hourly behavior-based safety role since I hadn’t completed a degree. Even then, I was at the bottom of the salaried pay scale. 

At that point, I was thankful for the opportunity and for all the exposure I was getting to things I wouldn’t have dealt with otherwise. When he mentioned the slight increase, I (somewhat) jokingly referenced Galatians 6:9 by sharing that I remember reading something to the effect of “As you sow, so shall you reap,” but didn’t recall seeing his name included. Only one of us found it amusing…

For the next year, I worked as hard as I knew how. My next annual performance review earned even higher marks, but that “win” came with a cost. We’ll dig into that more next. A harsh reality we’ll all face at some point is that even opportunities that look like forward momentum can still deliver bad situations, especially when compensation doesn’t match the leap in expectations. My challenge for you now is to think about a time where a “promotion” or opportunity felt like a step backward financially or emotionally. Reflect on your immediate emotion (even now) and one warning sign you might have missed at the time.