Congratulations!
After years of working your way up the corporate ladder, you are finally offered that promotion you have been yearning for. You know, the one where you finally become the boss and get to give the orders rather than receive them.
Whether this is your first foray into management and your promotion puts you in charge of two junior associates, or if you have finally won the rat race and you are being crowned with the corner office, make sure you factor the “boss tax” in to your compensation package before you accept.
Haven’t heard of the boss tax?
No worries, neither had I until the bill came due for the first time.
Although it has been many years since I first discovered the boss tax, I remember it as if it were yesterday.
Fresh out of law school, I went to work for a small hospital as an in-house counsel. After working for them for a year, I was asked if I would be willing to oversee a small team of nurses and medical coders who perform audits of the payments we receive from insurers.
Flattered the hospital had so much faith in me, I accepted on the spot without giving it much thought nor countering the very modest raise they offered.
Big mistake.
Nary a week on the job in my new role managing my small team of roughly a dozen, one of the nurses popped by my office to let me know it was her birthday next week, that her favorite type of baked good was red velvet cake, and her favorite lunch spot was the small café/deli up the block.
While this was certainly nice information to help me get to know my new team, I did not quite know what to make of it. That is until my in-house colleague who formerly managed the team let me know it was customary for the boss to treat an employee to lunch on their birthday and bring in their favorite baked good for the whole team to share.
On its face, it was a reasonable way to engender team bonding and help me score some quick points with my new colleagues. But after spending $20.00 to cover my employee’s lunch and another $30.00 on cake, I did some fast math to account for my other team members and began to better appreciate the boss tax.
Lest you think I am a cheapskate, I came to learn the birthday ritual was not the only fiscal expectation of the manager. Holiday gifts, Nurses’ Day, and random acts of donuts and cookies throughout the year all began to add up.
By the end of my full first year in my new role, I had easily spent over $1,000 on the various employee appreciation efforts detailed above. While some may consider this sum to be modest annual expense, to a young 20-something still laden with law school debt, you can bet I was kicking myself for not countering their initial offer that previous year.
In my opinion, the “boss tax” is money well spent. It is often said employees do not quit their jobs, they quit their managers. Paying the boss tax through your time and money can help ensure you retain the talent on your team.
But take it from someone who found out the hard way, the boss tax is real, and you may find yourself stuffing gift bags at midnight two days before Christmas, but given the return on investment, it is certainly worth the price.
Stephen R. Williams is in-house counsel with a multi-facility hospital network in the Midwest. His column focuses on a little talked about area of the in-house life, management. You can reach Stephen at stephenwilliamsjd@gmail.com.
Don’t Forget To Factor In The ‘Boss Tax’ Before You Accept That Promotion curated from Above the Law
No comments:
Post a Comment