Our execs keep pay and perks while staff get reduced hours. How is this fair?

Dear Aunty B,

Some of our staff have been asked to scale back to four days a week work and have had some entitlements cut while our executive team are not taking any cuts at all.

Is this fair? It doesn’t seem so to me.

Val

Vic

Dear Val,

Firstly, this is a bitter pill to swallow. But these executives can probably get work at the same salaries or higher somewhere else, while you, my friend, don’t have as many choices or else you wouldn’t be writing to me – you would be updating your CV.

Secondly, lots of companies in many industries are hurting at present and it’s awful. But I would say your executives were facing a number of options; primarily, do they make a lot of good people redundant and then get those left to work three times as hard for the same amount of money? Or do they keep the skills set and cut back hours to try to keep as many people in jobs so they can then emerge from this horror stretch without burning staff out?

Thirdly, your execs (hopefully) are working 24/7 to pull you out if this mess.

If I was you, I would focus on making sure the company emerges from this in good shape and you lot are rewarded in some way for your loyalty. If you can’t get over your resentment, move on and let someone in your workplace take your hours.

Be smart,

Your Aunty B

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