Would you take a Pay Cut to Save a Coworker – No
The moral decisions that people make are directly dependent on their positioning at the time of the decision. This can be observed by considering Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. If you ask someone if they think theft is morally wrong, many people would probably say that it is. If you asked that same person if they would steal food to feed their family, their answer may change. As with all important considerations like this one, it is good to provide context and some possible scenarios in which this situation might exist.
Downsizing is an unfortunate reality in the workplace. Companies need to make tough decisions to survive the recent economic downturn and make decisions that keep everyone from losing their jobs. In this way, sacrificing 10% of the workforce may be an unpopular option, but it will also save the other 90% of the jobs at that organization. The idea that an employer would even present the option of lowering everyone’s wages to “save” the jobs of their coworkers reflects a very poor and weak management team. The higher ups get paid to make the tough decisions and even making an employee consider this will create a lack of stability in the workplace as some employees may be willing to take the pay cut while others are already having trouble making ends meet. If everyone gets a pay cut, it will foster resentment down the road.
A management team that decides to irritate their entire workforce is not really worried about anyone at the company. There may also be some individuals that think that they work harder and are more valued employees than others. In any given workplace, about 20% of the people do 80% of the work and 80% of the people do 20% of the work. In some cases there is no way to quantify non-metric related performance. While all employees should be valued equally, the perceived expectations for everyone will be lowered.
Many people not faced with this consideration may automatically state that they would in fact take a reduction in pay to save the job of a coworker. The underlying implication is that they would want a coworker to do the same for them if the situation presented itself. However, when it comes down to it, an anonymous vote on the matter would probably reveal much different results. What people say they would do and what they would actually do are often two very different things.
