for those that earn a six figure salary in the corporate world

[Dear Summer]

do you really do work that is worth your salary to the company?

correct me if I'm wrong, but I have met more than a handful people who earn six figs and they literally don't do crap. They might "manage" a group or a project to lead it to completion, but there's a lot of downtime. Majority of their time is spent sending emails and attending meetings.

I would think if you were in the financial world and you bring in profits for the company that is easily quantifiable (bankers/traders/etc.), I could see why. If you were the person pitching ideas to sell projects/win clients, I could see why. But other than that, are you worth that much to the company? honest will be appreciated...

 

[bozack]

its those ideas and leadership that drive schmucks like us to do the work...

Only a few can lead, whereas more can do labor, and many can barely do anything right IMHO

 

[RoloMather]

Generally they wouldn't be getting paid the money if their work is not worth much more than their salary to the company.

See what I did there?

 

[JS80]

No, we are all underpaid.

 

[speg]

I don't earn six figures (unless I manage to plant a million trees this summer...) but I don't think they are paid for work in terms of labour. It's different. They have responsibilities, managing, decisions, etc... While this may not seem like "work" it definitely has a price and if companies are able and willing to pay six figures, so be it.

 

[spidey07]

Yep. I bring in much more money than I am paid (consulting). I wouldn't say it's difficult work but I'm paid for my experience and ability to guide important decisions.

 

[arcenite]

Originally posted by: Dear Summer
do you really do work that is worth your salary to the company?

correct me if I'm wrong, but I have met more than a handful people who earn six figs and they literally don't do crap. They might "manage" a group or a project to lead it to completion, but there's a lot of downtime. Majority of their time is spent sending emails and attending meetings.

I would think if you were in the financial world and you bring in profits for the company that is easily quantifiable (bankers/traders/etc.), I could see why. If you were the person pitching ideas to sell projects/win clients, I could see why. But other than that, are you worth that much to the company? honest will be appreciated...

Companies pay for experience.

I do not understand why it is so hard for people to realize this.

 

[RKS]

Originally posted by: Dear Summer
... honest will be appreciated...

Good luck. 🙂

I'm in the legal industry and I have to work hard for my meger salary. I do get a monthly bonus based on how much money I win/settle.

At some point you have to earn your salary (unless it is nepotism) whether it be during school or climbing the corp. ladder.

 

[nakedfrog]

They may simply attend meetings and coordinate things, but not everyone can do that--believe me. And their knowledge/skill set, even though they aren't actively producing "work" can often help facilitate the work being done, or act as a liaison between non-technical clients and the technical folks.
I know I'd much rather be coding than attending meeting after meeting, and conference call after conference call.

Originally posted by: JS80
No, we are all underpaid.

:laugh:
Yeah, right.

 

[CPA]

You've pretty much hit the nail on the head OP, with one exception - it's my ass on the line if something goes wrong. I'm not paid to do the detail work, I'm paid to make sure nothing goes wrong, and if it does, to have a plan in place to fix it.

 

[amdhunter]

lol, i dont work hard enough to make my decently-over-the-half-century-mark salary -- and I love it. 🙂

 

[ViviTheMage]

hopefully they are there for a reason!

 

[Drakkon]

Originally posted by: CPA
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head OP, with one exception - it's my ass on the line if something goes wrong. I'm not paid to do the detail work, I'm paid to make sure nothing goes wrong, and if it does, to have a plan in place to fix it.

I never earned the 6 figures but I was close enough to agree this is the right answer. You are almost getting paid to make sure you remain sitting on your ass doing nothing, because if you are doing something that means something has gone wrong and you are having to fix it and likely take the ultimate blame for it.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: CPA
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head OP, with one exception - it's my ass on the line if something goes wrong. I'm not paid to do the detail work, I'm paid to make sure nothing goes wrong, and if it does, to have a plan in place to fix it.

Compensation is normally inline with your sphere and size of influence and your decisions. If your decisions and influence can lose a lot of money, clients, customers you are normally well compensated so that you don't make dumb decisions (normally because of your experience you know what not to do).

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Drakkon

Originally posted by: CPA
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head OP, with one exception - it's my ass on the line if something goes wrong. I'm not paid to do the detail work, I'm paid to make sure nothing goes wrong, and if it does, to have a plan in place to fix it.

I never earned the 6 figures but I was close enough to agree this is the right answer. You are almost getting paid to make sure you remain sitting on your ass doing nothing, because if you are doing something that means something has gone wrong and you are having to fix it and likely take the ultimate blame for it.

Yep, you are essentially a gatekeeper, charged with making sure none of the crap gets through the gate.

KT

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent

Originally posted by: Drakkon

Originally posted by: CPA
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head OP, with one exception - it's my ass on the line if something goes wrong. I'm not paid to do the detail work, I'm paid to make sure nothing goes wrong, and if it does, to have a plan in place to fix it.

I never earned the 6 figures but I was close enough to agree this is the right answer. You are almost getting paid to make sure you remain sitting on your ass doing nothing, because if you are doing something that means something has gone wrong and you are having to fix it and likely take the ultimate blame for it.

Yep, you are essentially a gatekeeper, charged with making sure none of the crap gets through the gate.

KT

And I am a gatekeeper for two $30M units (no revenue, just expense) and almost $1B in health & welfare costs. I have to report the progress of these three items monthly, quarterly, and annually to immediate leadership (VPs), senior leadership (CAO and others) and auditors (internal and external). I don't do much of the detail work, but I have to know what I'm talking about and be able to have solutions, when needed. I think it's worth my six figure salary.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Dear Summer
correct me if I'm wrong, but I have met more than a handful people who earn six figs and they literally don't do crap. They might "manage" a group or a project to lead it to completion, but there's a lot of downtime. Majority of their time is spent sending emails and attending meetings.

I'm not one of those guys, and I've also met people who make a lot more than me and don't seem to do much.

But I think you are underestimating the value of good leadership. You say two things in the same paragraph that totally conflict.
They don't do crap.
They manage a group or a project to lead it to completion.

Both cannot be true.

It is very subjective and often hard to measure the value of good management and decision making, but take one example that I'm familiar with.

An IT director is in charge of a large software implementation at a manufacturing plant. This person may spend all of their time sending emails and attending meetings and not doing "crap". But the decisions that this person makes could easily save or cost the company millions of dollars. So how much value does this person bring to the company? Is it worth 150k? 200k? In this case, with millions of dollars of company money on the line, you could argue that this person is grossly underpaid if they are only making 200k a year.

Sometimes it's hard to quantify the value of a person's work, but you have to keep in mind that it's not always a case of how much value does the person bring each hour or each day, but how much value does their knowledge, experience, and decision making bring to the company in the long term.

 

[Drakkon]

Originally posted by: DT4K
But I think you are underestimating the value of good leadership. You say two things in the same paragraph that totally conflict.
They don't do crap.
They manage a group or a project to lead it to completion.

Both cannot be true.

I dunno - I've known a few managers that by doing absolutely nothing and not interfering at all they contributed greatly to the completion of a project :laugh:

 

[Dear Summer]

Originally posted by: DT4K

Originally posted by: Dear Summer
correct me if I'm wrong, but I have met more than a handful people who earn six figs and they literally don't do crap. They might "manage" a group or a project to lead it to completion, but there's a lot of downtime. Majority of their time is spent sending emails and attending meetings.

I'm not one of those guys, and I've also met people who make a lot more than me and don't seem to do much.

But I think you are underestimating the value of good leadership. You say two things in the same paragraph that totally conflict.
They don't do crap.
They manage a group or a project to lead it to completion.

Both cannot be true.

It is very subjective and often hard to measure the value of good management and decision making, but take one example that I'm familiar with.

An IT director is in charge of a large software implementation at a manufacturing plant. This person may spend all of their time sending emails and attending meetings and not doing "crap". But the decisions that this person makes could easily save or cost the company millions of dollars. So how much value does this person bring to the company? Is it worth 150k? 200k? In this case, with millions of dollars of company money on the line, you could argue that this person is grossly underpaid if they are only making 200k a year.

Sometimes it's hard to quantify the value of a person's work, but you have to keep in mind that it's not always a case of how much value does the person bring each hour or each day, but how much value does their knowledge, experience, and decision making bring to the company in the long term.

[/thread]

 

[Sust]

Originally posted by: Drakkon

Originally posted by: CPA
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head OP, with one exception - it's my ass on the line if something goes wrong. I'm not paid to do the detail work, I'm paid to make sure nothing goes wrong, and if it does, to have a plan in place to fix it.

I never earned the 6 figures but I was close enough to agree this is the right answer. You are almost getting paid to make sure you remain sitting on your ass doing nothing, because if you are doing something that means something has gone wrong and you are having to fix it and likely take the ultimate blame for it.

Interesting.
I'm curious about whether or not threat of being sued over the losses you incurred for the company possibly changing your desire to be in management?

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: DT4K

Originally posted by: Dear Summer
correct me if I'm wrong, but I have met more than a handful people who earn six figs and they literally don't do crap. They might "manage" a group or a project to lead it to completion, but there's a lot of downtime. Majority of their time is spent sending emails and attending meetings.

I'm not one of those guys, and I've also met people who make a lot more than me and don't seem to do much.

But I think you are underestimating the value of good leadership. You say two things in the same paragraph that totally conflict.
They don't do crap.
They manage a group or a project to lead it to completion.

Both cannot be true.

It is very subjective and often hard to measure the value of good management and decision making, but take one example that I'm familiar with.

An IT director is in charge of a large software implementation at a manufacturing plant. This person may spend all of their time sending emails and attending meetings and not doing "crap". But the decisions that this person makes could easily save or cost the company millions of dollars. So how much value does this person bring to the company? Is it worth 150k? 200k? In this case, with millions of dollars of company money on the line, you could argue that this person is grossly underpaid if they are only making 200k a year.

Sometimes it's hard to quantify the value of a person's work, but you have to keep in mind that it's not always a case of how much value does the person bring each hour or each day, but how much value does their knowledge, experience, and decision making bring to the company in the long term.

It's always hard to quantify the value of work when people don't see "typical" work being done. If there isn't mashing of the keyboard, scribbling of the pen, flipping of the burger or any other manual labor, people tend to feel nothing is getting done.

 

[Babbles]

The OP seems to be touching on something that many "lower tier workers" seem to perceive, which is: If you are not on the production line making a widget then how can a high salary be justified.

CPA, and others touched on it, there is a significant value for experience and the ability to manage and communicate. Additionally some people are much better at managing processes and people than they are at producing something. It's not good or bat, it's just how it is.

 

[polarmystery]

I make 20% more now than what I used to and do significantly less work. I'm close to six figures...

 

[robphelan]

i make lower 6 figures as a programmer... some days, I don't do a lot of work... but others I do. however, I work on critical back office systems of a Fortune 10 company. So, we have a lot riding on the quality of our software.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: DT4K

Originally posted by: Dear Summer
correct me if I'm wrong, but I have met more than a handful people who earn six figs and they literally don't do crap. They might "manage" a group or a project to lead it to completion, but there's a lot of downtime. Majority of their time is spent sending emails and attending meetings.

I'm not one of those guys, and I've also met people who make a lot more than me and don't seem to do much.

But I think you are underestimating the value of good leadership. You say two things in the same paragraph that totally conflict.
They don't do crap.
They manage a group or a project to lead it to completion.

Both cannot be true.

It is very subjective and often hard to measure the value of good management and decision making, but take one example that I'm familiar with.

An IT director is in charge of a large software implementation at a manufacturing plant. This person may spend all of their time sending emails and attending meetings and not doing "crap". But the decisions that this person makes could easily save or cost the company millions of dollars. So how much value does this person bring to the company? Is it worth 150k? 200k? In this case, with millions of dollars of company money on the line, you could argue that this person is grossly underpaid if they are only making 200k a year.

Sometimes it's hard to quantify the value of a person's work, but you have to keep in mind that it's not always a case of how much value does the person bring each hour or each day, but how much value does their knowledge, experience, and decision making bring to the company in the long term.

It's always hard to quantify the value of work when people don't see "typical" work being done. If there isn't mashing of the keyboard, scribbling of the pen, flipping of the burger or any other manual labor, people tend to feel nothing is getting done.

Yep. Probably because people who aren't at management levels (I'm not) are accustomed to being required to provide evidence of what they've done each day or week or month. And when you are constantly having to produce (whether it's something physical or not), it's understandable to start wondering what your bosses have produced to justify their incomes.