How do you react when you know someone's salary/income?

[sunzt]

When you hear how much people make (assuming it's truthful) how do you react?

Do you just shrug it off and become apathetic?
Does it give you satisfaction or disatisfaction?
Does it make you jealous or pitiful?
Do you respect the person more or less?
Do you laud or spite the person for making so much money?
Do you get encouraged or discouraged to look for new opportunities?
Do you judge the person based on how much money the make?

 

[joesmoke]

blatant, hardcore, public masturbation... obviously

 

[spidey07]

None of the above. If they're doing well, then good for them. But I rarely know anybody's salary except my own and any that is public information. Never, ever, ever tell somebody how much you make. Nothing good can come from it.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I used to do payroll so I knew everyone's salary. You become immune to the knowledge after a while and honestly now I just don't care what anyone else makes.

 

[KeithTalent]

99% of the time I really do not care at all and just shrug it off, but 1% of the time I know the person does fuck all and I get a bit annoyed that our company wastes that amount of money on a useless individual.

KT

 

[Electric Amish]

Depressed because they usually get paid more than me and I'm usually smarter than they are.

 

[Shadow Conception]

Why is salary such a private thing?

 

[rivan]

Depends on the person.

 

[rcpratt]

I know what my buddy at work makes, he started a year before me. Our original offers were the same, but I managed to get it up to $5k above his starting. Now I make about $3k more than him since he had a small 3% raise last year.

I guess it gives me some satisfaction but I don't feel bad because I do believe I am a better employee.

I wish I knew what everyone in the office makes.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Officially, I have no knowledge of how much $$ other people make.
Now, I know what pay grades people are in, and what the ranges are. So I can usually know who's making more or less, but, it's not my business how much people make, and I do my best to NOT find out.

 

[spidey07]

Why is salary such a private thing?

Like I said, nothing good can come from knowing what somebody else makes, nothing. You can have two people working right next to each other, doing the same job and one makes 30K more than the other.

 

[soulcougher73]

When you hear how much people make (assuming it's truthful) how do you react?

Do you just shrug it off and become apathetic?
Does it give you satisfaction or disatisfaction?
Does it make you jealous or pitiful?
Do you respect the person more or less?
Do you laud or spite the person for making so much money?
Do you get encouraged or discouraged to look for new opportunities?
Do you judge the person based on how much money the make?

I dont really care what other people make. I dont judge my self worth of off other people.

 

[Kadarin]

I only care if there is a mismatch between what the person does and how much they get paid.

 

[Malak]

Some people make more money in one week than my entire mortgage is worth. I struggle, and they get upset if they don't get a raise. I'm only apathetic because nothing I can do.

 

[sactoking]

Like I said, nothing good can come from knowing what somebody else makes, nothing. You can have two people working right next to each other, doing the same job and one makes 30K more than the other.

Actually, if a company makes all salary/wage information public it improves morale (since there is no speculation about who makes what), reduces overpayment/insider-ism (since if someone clearly is being paid based on connections/nepotism/etc employees tend to leave in disgust which means the company can't continue to pay worthless employees), and protects the company from lawsuit (since everyone can see if you discriminate in pay, you really can't discriminate).

 

[skyking]

I find it to be such a piss-poor yardstick of how they are really doing, it has no bearing whatsoever. I am much more apt to show a little envy to somebody who really has it together and is truly happy.

 

[theeedude]

I make note of it, and use it to plan my career. If I am underpaid relative to my earning potential, I ask for raises and start exploring my options.

 

[JD50]

I make note of it, and use it to plan my career. If I am underpaid relative to my earning potential, I ask for raises and start exploring my options.

this.
qft

 

[Fritzo]

Depends on what they do. If it's an important job, I say "cool." If it's an executive secretary that's making $100K a year to type Word documents and answer phones, I say "WTF???"

I think pay should be based on job difficulty.

 

[Ms. DICKINSON]

Neutral as always. At the end of the year I save up more than the person making 2 to 3 times than me.

 

[spidey07]

Depends on what they do. If it's an important job, I say "cool." If it's an executive secretary that's making $100K a year to type Word documents and answer phones, I say "WTF???"

I think pay should be based on job difficulty.

Pay is almost based on the influence of your decisions or how much money you make the company. Difficulty never really enters the equation.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

depends on the person and salary

 

[schneiderguy]

I pity them, because my salary is always higher.

 

[AreaCode707]

I used to do payroll so I knew everyone's salary. You become immune to the knowledge after a while and honestly now I just don't care what anyone else makes.

This. Except I was in HRIS and ran reports.

I don't really care what anyone makes. Once before a peer and I found we were making pretty different salaries (he was drastically underpaid; he was worth way more than me and was getting paid about 20k less) and we worked together to position him to get the raises he deserved.

 

[Alone]

I know how much everyone I work with (50,000+ people) makes. Not concerned.