And I disagree with your disagreement. The following phrase in particular gives me pause.
You may be motivated to do something when you find the new colleague still in college is earning as much as you do after 10 years just because the company wants to promote women and "reverse the wage gap", so they give female college students positions and wages equal or higher than top rated senior engineers that are male. Just saying, I saw many such cases.
I don't know you, but I have known a number of people who said things that sounded like that. (With different concretes.) They were unable to productively work with people who they thought had been unfairly promoted. Their resentment hindered their productivity. And I found myself in disagreement with their self-image about how good and deserving they were.
It didn't matter whether I privately agreed or disagreed with the promotion that they complained about. The fact that they were looking around the workplace and thinking about that lead to the negative behaviors for themselves. And their negative behaviors added toxicity to the workplace.
For this reason and others, I prefer the advice in the letter. Comparing with others might work out in the short run, but in the long run it doesn't seem to work out in our profession.
Totally agree. I've always found it easier to work with someone who was unskilled but eager over someone who had the skills but was deliberately dragging things down through resentment.
Comments
And I disagree with your disagreement. The following phrase in particular gives me pause.
You may be motivated to do something when you find the new colleague still in college is earning as much as you do after 10 years just because the company wants to promote women and "reverse the wage gap", so they give female college students positions and wages equal or higher than top rated senior engineers that are male. Just saying, I saw many such cases.
I don't know you, but I have known a number of people who said things that sounded like that. (With different concretes.) They were unable to productively work with people who they thought had been unfairly promoted. Their resentment hindered their productivity. And I found myself in disagreement with their self-image about how good and deserving they were.
It didn't matter whether I privately agreed or disagreed with the promotion that they complained about. The fact that they were looking around the workplace and thinking about that lead to the negative behaviors for themselves. And their negative behaviors added toxicity to the workplace.
For this reason and others, I prefer the advice in the letter. Comparing with others might work out in the short run, but in the long run it doesn't seem to work out in our profession.
Totally agree. I've always found it easier to work with someone who was unskilled but eager over someone who had the skills but was deliberately dragging things down through resentment.