Work - The pros and the cons... - The Bear and Badger

cockbeard

Fuck me, but it's not that unusual, especially at board level the share options are the main thrust of bonus which often dwarf salaries. Brian at Moss paid himself 4.3M in my last year there, pretty sure my boss cleared 800k as well, 160k in salary, the rest in dividends from options

Funkstain

COOs of mid-size firms don't tend to earn £650k + £500k in my experience? I suppose it depends on what a "mid-size" firm is - if you're turning over several tens of £million then maybe, but I'd call that large, no?

Wookienopants

Fuck sake.
This type of inequality makes me fucking furious.
Myself and my colleagues are paid an utter pittance and I can barely afford my rent each month for doing a job that sees me working close to 50 hours a week, often over night and under extreme pressure and stress. One that involves dealing with some real shitbags trying to assault me.
And yet these pricks are paid stupid salaries for sitting in their offices and delegating.

I hate this world sometimes.

I’m of course massively over simplifying things but it’s just how I feel.

Wookienopants

And yes, I know it’s my choice to do this type of work so I shouldn’t complain etc etc. But it’s the huge wealth divide that just makes me furious. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer

Diluted Dante

Eat the rich.

GooberTheHat

I'm not averse to private companies that make significant profit paying their employees well. It's when they go out of their way to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, and when they try to increase that profit margin by squeezing the conditions and pay of the lowest paid employees, but then reward those at the top with the money they've just stolen from the bottom, that I start to get annoyed.

poprock

The other client I mentioned yesterday is another example. He’s a new hire at my client’s company and will be my main contact there from now on. I know for a fact they’ve brought him in on a salary literally four times my own. He’s not even board level.

cockbeard

tbf Brett has worked for Moss for 20+ years, and bought discounted shares the whole time, thereby betting on his ability to help grow the business, so I don't really begrudge him it at all, but it was an eye opener

cockbeard

Wookienopants wrote:

And yes, I know it’s my choice to do this type of work so I shouldn’t complain etc etc. But it’s the huge wealth divide that just makes me furious. The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer

No-one should need to apologise for their job, I never have. I've always been dead against public money filtering out of public systems and into private hands, yet have worked in both education and rail which are both prime examples of it. Nothing wrong with ideals, but if you cut your head off for them then you can't shout about the injustice to everyone else

At the end of the day "this type of work", I'm sure that if there was a perfect world where all your basic needs were catered for you'd still be running karate classes because you want to share that knowledge you've built up over years, which is different. It's a true vocation along with being a "job"

HawBawJaws

So, just out interview.

Was meant to be with the gm of the casino, then if all went well, a further interview with the national e gaming manager. Just as I was about to leave the house, the gm messaged me on Facebook, saying that the national manager just happened to be in Glasgow, so she was joining the interview. He said that 75% of his interview had been done the other night when I was chatting with him.

Think it went well, was able to give full answers to the questions, and drawing on all my experience, not just specifically casino stuff, seemed to go down well with them.

The gm messaged me afterwards, saying he'd get back to me in a week, as they'd had to reschedule some other interviews, but that today went really well.

I'll be sitting on one arsecheek until I hear back from them, hate this part. Wish you could just be told there and then, even if it's not the outcome you want.

davyK

Everything crossed.

poprock

Aye, fingers crossed bud.

bad_hair_day

All rooting for you fella, feels good to me it's all positive vibes they're sending.

HawBawJaws

Cheers lads. Doing the usual of getting my hopes up, then telling myself not to, then doing it all over again. This'll be me for the next week.....

Syph79

poprock wrote:

Ever have one of those moments where you wonder what the fuck is wrong with the world? Stark reminder of financial inequality here.

I’m meeting a new client this afternoon, who do management consultancy. So far, so blah. They’ve sent over a bunch of background reading for me to do before the meeting. One of these is an imaginary persona they’ve developed, describing their typical customer. Now, bear in mind this isn’t made up from thin air, this is an amalgamation of the kind of people who already hire them.

I’m reading through it and it says things like “Paul jones is 48. He lives in North Yorkshire and has a holiday home in Portugal.” It describes him as a Chief Operating Officer for a mid-sized engineering firm. But then it says “Paul has a base salary of £650,000 per year with an average annual bonus of an additional £500,000. He also owns 5% shares in the business.” and suddenly I want to burn everything down and start a revolution.

They’ve just put the decimal point in the wrong place. A £65k salary for that sort of job in the Leeds area would be typical. Bonus would depend on the company, as would dividends.

Glassdoor is a decent enough site for sense checking earnings. There are a few others if you want more than one perspective. I use sites like that, and the jobs pages, to benchmark what I pay staff.

poprock

Nope, after meeting that particular client this afternoon, she reckons that her ‘persona’ example actually lowballs the earnings of her typical customers. She says most of them are pocketing nearer £2m a year once you include the value of divis.

poprock

Mind you, that client rang all my alarm bells. I don’t trust her one bit.

Syph79

They have a terrible and unsustainable client base then. I’m sure there are examples of people who earn like that, but I know some very, very successful people who own their own businesses and I’m yet to meet anyone that takes home £650k basic plus £500 in bonus. If they did, they wouldn’t live in North Yorkshire either (and I say that as someone born around there).

Funkstain

I agree. It’s far too much in earnings. Dividends maybe? But withdrawing that much profit without reinvesting is terrible shortsighted or possible dodgy business practice

Funkstain

I mean as a management consultant (I’m not) my first bit of advice would be stop paying yourself so much money

yourfavouriteuncle

Syph79 wrote:

They have a terrible and unsustainable client base then. I’m sure there are examples of people who earn like that, but I know some very, very successful people who own their own businesses and I’m yet to meet anyone that takes home £650k basic plus £500 in bonus. If they did, they wouldn’t live in North Yorkshire either (and I say that as someone born around there).

I live and work in that area too and I’d say 30% - 40% of my clients earn somewhere in that region at the very least. Many of them clearly bring home miles more than that too. I mean I don’t have their tax returns or anything but there’s plenty out there earning that.

Diluted Dante

£111,000 puts you in the 99th percentile of earners. She can't have that many clients.

GooberTheHat

Diluted Dante wrote:

£111,000 puts you in the 99th percentile of earners. She can't have that many clients.

Still leaves over 300,000.

Diluted Dante

Yeah, but her average client is six times that.

GooberTheHat

Yeah, she's clearly talking shit.

RedDave2

Are we clear that this is her client base or her target client base. I've worked in restaurants aimed at that kind of earning. Doesn't mean that they get that type of customer.

cockbeard

111k is also after tax, so can revise to 166k

Funkstain

There are what, about 50k people earning more than £1m a year according to various sources. These people are not COOs of mid size engineering companies. There are lots of rich people sure but that salary/bonus package is what Sainsbury’s senior management get

cockbeard

But hey aren't spread out equidistant across the country, if you're in certain locations around the city, it's not unreasonable to focus on and aim for big earners

Minnesänger

Nearly a year of hell is over. I got a work residence visa last week or so and my full work permit ID card today. Thank fuck.

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