An employee’s perspective: 

*       I’d continue with regular increases.  I have been at two places where 
the only time I’d get a raise was when I had an offer from someone else.  This 
tends to happen at tiny businesses with no HR department.  
*       More than anything else I want a good work environment:  People I like 
to work with, management who know what they’re doing, a product I can be proud 
of working on, etc.
*       Sticking around for stock is a danger for an employee because while the 
documents say how many shares you’ll have, you won’t have any way to know 
whether they’re worth a million dollars or 94 cents.  I’d be angry and 
frustrated if I stuck it out and let other opportunities pass by and didn’t get 
a big payout.
*       An offer of stock from an employer I wasn’t happy with actually pushed 
me to resign.  I work because I should, and I don’t usually stop to think about 
why I’m doing it. The offer made me do some reflection on them, myself, and 
whether I want to be committed to that group of people long term.  That answer 
was definitely “no”, and that prompted me to look for other options sooner 
rather than later.
*       Production based bonuses are good in theory, but I have not yet had 
those based on a metric that I had any impact on.  I’ve been just along for the 
ride on the bonus programs.  

 

 

 

 

 

From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2024 2:12 PM
To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <af@af.afmug.com>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] compensation for employees

 

I worked for big companies in the 80’s and remember profit sharing and 
Christmas bonuses.  Then we had a period of startups with stock options as a 
huge part of compensation – the idea was you worked 80 hour weeks for modest 
pay but if the company hit it big your options could be worth a lot.  I suspect 
some people hit the jackpot and a lot more got the shaft.

 

My sense is that employees today are mostly focused on the short term.  They 
have bills to pay, they want to know what income they can count on, they 
probably don’t want to roll the dice on profit sharing or a bonus or stock 
options.  Also, Millennials and Gen XYZ I talk to seem to view employment as 
transactional, and they don’t necessarily identify with the company or the 
owners (thanks to companies like Amazon and owners like Bezos).

 

So while I don’t have any hard facts, my guess is you’re doing the right thing 
already.  If you’re inclined to tie compensation to company performance, I 
wouldn’t make it a large percentage, and I wouldn’t try to use it as an 
incentive for people to work insane hours or achieve impossible goals (like 
Elon Musk’s “extremely hardcore”).  And I’d make it fairly short term, like 
monthly or something, so employees aren’t making their families scrimp in hopes 
of a windfall at the end of the quarter or year.

 

If you do experience hard times, reduced hours might be a temporary solution at 
least for hourly employees.  Realizing that with low unemployment, some of them 
might move elsewhere.

 

The good news is that any part of your business tied to fiber projects is 
likely to have at least 5 good years coming.

 

From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com <mailto:af-boun...@af.afmug.com> > On Behalf 
Of Chuck McCown via AF
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2024 12:16 PM
To: af@af.afmug.com <mailto:af@af.afmug.com> 
Cc: ch...@go-mtc.com <mailto:ch...@go-mtc.com> 
Subject: [AFMUG] compensation for employees

 

My latest pivot a couple of years ago to microtrenching blades, adding grout 
machines, then microtrenching saw attachments and now to a specialized type of 
vacuum excavator has gone extremely well.  Almost no software involved.  Just a 
little in a motion control PCB in the grout machine to control the hydrostatic 
transmission.  This is by far my most profitable season I have ever had in 50 
years of running some kind of hustle.  And those years of the stinger and other 
related antennas and hardware were not bad at all.  I am a bit more confident 
that these new “durable products” have more legs than the antennas that were 
radio specific.

 

But having been through wax and wane of business, economy and product cycles 
for many decades, I am always reticent to ratchet up pay.  I do give bonuses.  
I will always live in fear of not meeting payroll.  Only happened once about 30 
years ago, but that is a bad deal.  And actually nobody was unpaid but I had to 
layoff everyone.  But I digress.  

 

What would y’all suggest as a way to reward employees when things are going 
well?  I give COLA plus modest merit increases every 6 months.  I could give 
substantial merit increases but that plays into my phobia of things getting 
tight again.  Maybe that is totally unfounded.  I know when things started 
going well for Henry Ford he doubled pay and things got even better for him.

 

I would like to do bonuses based on my bottom line income (I think), but how to 
distribute that evenly?  Should everyone get the same amount?  And how to 
relate that the size of the bonus is tied directly to how well the company is 
doing?  Or should I just give really nice raises this go around?  Or both?  I 
guess if things slow down we can always trim staff or let attrition do it for 
us.  I think you all can understand the reluctance to give raises as it is a 
one way street.  You really cannot cut pay.

 

I want employees to prosper and do better personally.  I wonder if my fears are 
justified.  I know some of you have worked for large companies at certain 
points in your life, how did they accomplish this.  I know some of you have 
really prospered with your WISP/ISP, curious how you approached the whole 
sharing the wealth thing.  

 

 

Chuck McCown
McCown Technology Corporation
8401 N Commerce Dr
Lake Point, Utah 84074
801-250-9503
435-830-4306 cell 
 <http://www.mccowntech.com> www.mccowntech.com
 <http://www.microtrench-blades.com> www.microtrench-blades.com
 <http://www.terabitnetworks.com> www.terabitnetworks.com

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