I am very concerned that the equity grants employees receive as a portion of their compensation are about to vest and leadership has made it known that refreshers aren’t coming. It is notoriously difficult to get promoted, get a higher performance rating, and get a merit increase that’s more than 3% on my team. But the expectations remain high.
I see people around me frustrated by the lack of recognition and are checking out and quiet quitting. Instead of solving the bigger issues, we have team award programs that are supposed to foster connection and cross-team appreciation, but instead mirror whatever existing visibility gaps and biases already exist in the org, and a couple of employees get a pat on the back every quarter.
What happens when our equity vests and instead of quiet quitting, people start quitting left and right? We are all on the verge of taking a big pay cut. Our compensation won’t be competitive, and our culture’s failure to recognize great work does little to encourage folks to stay and see how it shakes out. When good employees leave en masse, institutional knowledge suffers, the work suffers, and the company suffers… and then even more people leave out of frustration.
You can’t build something great without great people, and great people won’t stick around if they aren’t paid competitively.
