Money and Friends
Do you talk to your friends about money? I mean, talk to them about how much they make, how much they've saved, how much they made in the past, etc? I don't. Personally, I don't think it's any of their business. But it's also self-preservation. I've been really lucky in my jobs and my salary. I make pretty decent money. I don't know how I compare to my friends or coworkers, but I know it's good money for the market. With some friends it's obvious. They work part time somewhere while going to school. With other friends it's not so obvious because they're electrical engineers or work in finance or work at a paper and I don't know what salary range is appropriate for their career. Of course, the friends that don't have jobs definitely don't make more money than me.
At my last job, the coworkers talked about their salary all the time. The development lead once told me, "You probably make more than I do." FlirtBoy grilled me constantly with money questions, wondering how much I made, asking for ranges, etc. People in the department somehow found out how much other people made, compared it to their salary, and gloated or got pissed appropriately. One of the leads found out how much someone under her made, got really pissed, and shared the salary information with other coworkers. My coworkers at the job I'm (re)starting Monday never talk about money. Ever. The extent of the convo is "I got a decent raise" or "My raise was average" or "They really screwed me over this time." Sometimes we'll say money is tight because its a few days before payday and we unexpectedly had some car repairs and some other random stuff, but that's it. Perhaps that's because my former job had tons of young people and my new job has "older" people. (Older > 30. Sorry if you're older than 30; I don't know how else to categorize it.) I've just found money to be one of those things you don't talk about. It leads to jealousy. As I told FlirtBoy, the only people that need to know my salary are creditors, loan application people, and my husband. And unless you qualify as one of those, I can't think of any reason why you'd need to know that info. Thoughts?
At my last job, the coworkers talked about their salary all the time. The development lead once told me, "You probably make more than I do." FlirtBoy grilled me constantly with money questions, wondering how much I made, asking for ranges, etc. People in the department somehow found out how much other people made, compared it to their salary, and gloated or got pissed appropriately. One of the leads found out how much someone under her made, got really pissed, and shared the salary information with other coworkers. My coworkers at the job I'm (re)starting Monday never talk about money. Ever. The extent of the convo is "I got a decent raise" or "My raise was average" or "They really screwed me over this time." Sometimes we'll say money is tight because its a few days before payday and we unexpectedly had some car repairs and some other random stuff, but that's it. Perhaps that's because my former job had tons of young people and my new job has "older" people. (Older > 30. Sorry if you're older than 30; I don't know how else to categorize it.) I've just found money to be one of those things you don't talk about. It leads to jealousy. As I told FlirtBoy, the only people that need to know my salary are creditors, loan application people, and my husband. And unless you qualify as one of those, I can't think of any reason why you'd need to know that info. Thoughts?