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The problem is not with egos, the problem is that they have a preconceived notion that they are equal with their coworkers, and then suddenly find out they are not. Had the designation been clear from day one and each individual pay scale evolved over time publicly, I seriously doubt there'd be the same issues. In essence, a reveal all at once is the equivalent of a massive swath of promotions to one's co-workers and not to yourself (for the lower paid), all in one day - yeah, of COURSE it's going to harm team dynamics. That doesn't mean we should only promote people in secret though, right? Transparent compensation is simply a more granular hierarchy of representative productivity and value to a company, and the respective compensation, than a simple job title. We don't lose our minds at the idea that some employees are junior, others senior, etc. So what's substantially different with a more granular system to what already exists? Any employee should be able to ask "Why is Bob making more than me?" the same way they might ask "Why was Bob promoted to XYZ position instead of me?" And a healthy company should be able to answer the question with the reasons why for the former, just as a healthy company can answer the latter. If an employee is lagging in salary over time because upper management isn't seeing the same value as their equally experienced co-workers, this should be made clear to that employee so that they can find out why their efforts aren't having as much value, and either adapt accordingly, or find an environment where their efforts will be better valued. Imagine a classroom where each student can see their own grade as a number out of 100, but has no idea what the average is, spread, etc. You could have a C student who thinks they are doing as well as an A student, because they have no context for how they are being graded. Yes, there will be drama with each student knowing the other's grade, but they'll better know their own relative performances. At very least, we should have anonymous compensation transparency, where employees can know where their own salary stands in the company compared to tokenized other salaries, so the conversation can at least be "Why is #335 making more than me?" instead of "Why is Bob making more than me?". In small firms/upper management levels this won't be all that anonymous, but it could mitigate the drama in larger employment pools while still providing the contextual benefit. |
Don't have to imagine it. This is how all of my education worked from kindergarten through undergrad. Grades are there as an absolute measure of how well you've accomplished what you and the institution set out to do; your peers' performance is not relevant to that question.
My high school and university both had longstanding policies against disclosing any information about GPA distribution or class rank, explicitly to discourage students from measuring themselves in relation to each other. Facing highly ambitious and academically successful student bodies, administrators (rightly, in my opinion) feared the cutthroat and competitive climate that grade transparency might create, and felt it didn't align with either institution's mandate.
Instead, we measured ourselves against our education and career goals and broad population averages, against which we were overwhelmingly successful. You didn't have to be better than your friends, only good enough for the college applications you had in mind (or later, the grad schools or employers you had in mind).
I view professional compensation the same way. A salary is good to the extent that it funds the housing, transportation, financial security, dining, entertainment, toys, travel, etc. that I'm after. As long as I'm in the Bay Area, no salary will ever be satisfying with respect to housing, but later in life, once I've attained conditions for my family similar to the ones I grew up in, what do I care if a coworker makes more? (Though I certainly couldn't resist reading and resenting it if available, I have no need for this information).
Put another way: I don't care that I'm beating 90% of startup employees if I still have to live with roommates. I don't care that I'm beating 90% of my high school classmates if none of them are going to college at all. I don't care that 90% of bigco employees are beating me if I can comfortably afford a nice condo with a short walk to the office. I don't care that 90% of my high school classmates are beating me if they're all going to Harvard and I'm accepted to the schools between #2 and #10.