Dear Evil HR Lady,
I work for a large travel company, but am in a department of 11 people doing the same thing. We got a new supervisor, and her first correspondence to us was SUPPOSED to be about our new shifts, and the “shift differential” (extra money for those who got stuck with weekend hours, etc). Instead of emailing each individual’s own information, she accidentally sent the whole spreadsheet to each person in the department.
Basically, we’ve all seen each other naked now. We all do the same job. There is a $20,000 annual difference in salaries between the lowest and the highest paid. I fall about fifth from the bottom, but the three lowest-paid people are “interns” who came in with no experience and who are not expected to be top producers.
Within a few minutes of the email being sent, one of my coworkers ran to the supervisor and told her what she had done, and of course she was surprised and tried re-calling the email. However, more than half the department had already seen all the numbers, and the gossip started immediately.
What can I do — do I have any recourse? I’m no HR expert, but it seems to me someone needs to find a way to make this better. How can we perform as a team when this confidential information has been exposed and many people on the team are bitter and resentful (as in, why should I help you when you make six dollars per hour more than I do)? And how can we go on calling this woman our supervisor after such gross negligence that left us all so exposed? I will use it as a tool to re-negotiate my salary, as I now see I am under-compensated. I am a top producer with zero errors, and yet I am at the bottom of the range.
I cannot believe this woman wasn’t fired. Yes, it was an accident. I know she didn’t do it on purpose. But this is gross negligence that has left such a trail of gossip and bitterness team spirit destroyed in one email. I do not want her to be my supervisor, nor do I want her to know my salary because she has proven to be completely untrustworthy with our private information. Please, any suggestions you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
To read the answer, clicked here: My boss revealed everyone’s salary
Interesting, that’s a lot of anger over a simple mistake (which isn’t gross incompetence – I’d be surprised if the OP had never attached the wrong thing to a email) that actually gave you info you could use to your advantage.
I hope she’s calmed down.
Sadly, I haven’t calmed down. Still uncomfortable. Reviews are next month and I will use that time to attempt to re-negotiate.
The really horrible part is the reason she’s underpaid is probably because she’s the most loyal. So many companies give higher salaries to attract new people and don’t give raises to loyal hard working employees. It continues until the loyal employess get fed up and leave.
Absolutely. It’s just wrong, isn’t it?
I once worked at a law firm where the partners posted all associate compensation on a bulletin board monthly. It was completely transparent and everybody loved it. When you helped bring in business or win a case, your fat bonus was there for all to see. And when you spent a month warming your seat, everybody could see that, too. It was extremely motivating and completely eliminated all the whispering and wondering about what others were being paid. Granted, it probably only works when compensation is well thought out.