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Comment by derekp7 | Hacker News Reader

As an employee, I don't want to work for a place that is paying me more than they feel I'm worth. Because then they start to resent you. "What do you mean you can't read my mind? That's what I'm paying you [large sum] for."

Had this at a previous job (I was actually right at market rate, or slightly below, but a year prior the company was offering about 20% below market for this position). And every time I asked for clarification, or performed the job that was asked for (instead of what they "really wanted", since I wasn't a mind reader), I got that thrown in my face. Can't believe I stuck around for 3 years there.

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"What do you mean you can't read my mind? That's what I'm paying you [large sum] for."

That's just a bullying strategy for underpaid people. If you are really highly paid you are in the "in" group and they will make sure that you get what you need. Otherwise they would be wasting your expensive time.

This is a supremely good point that we (devs) normally fail to grasp-- you think the CFO gets talked to like that? The answer is no-- at the places I've been.

I heard this argument thrown by a manager at an annual review: "We're paying you what you are worth to us, not what the market pays", to which I promptly replied: "Following your logic, can I step in a Ferrari dealership and pay only 1000$ for a nice car, because that's what it's worth to me?"

You should take it as a compliment. Your manager is saying that your company cannot afford an engineer of your level.

My manager was a good guy, but a sub-mediocre performer and a bit spineless and he REALLY wanted to be a manager.

Just before the annual review they had him trained how to handle it, and I'm pretty sure he was just regurgitating bullshit fed to him during his training.

I later found out he asked a mother of two why is she so fixated on earning more money. Pretty lame gimmicks -- just say to your employees "Hey, your performance was ok but nothing special, I have this budget and for an ok performance the firm only gives you 3% salary increase this year".

> As an employee, I don't want to work for a place that is paying me more than they feel I'm worth. Because then they start to resent you. "What do you mean you can't read my mind? That's what I'm paying you [large sum] for."

They are not going to pay you more than you are worth. That's the maximum they would pay you. The argument made in the article is how to pay below maximum and get away with it.

I theorize it's the opposite way. If you take less money, you'll be respected less because you were willing to work for less.

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