How to get a raise in bad times, when you underperform.

Well, seems the times are bad but even in bad times we seem to always have some folks that prosper. In fact, Wal-Mart has always boasted that in bad times, more people shop their stores because of prices and when times return to normal they end up have a larger share of the market.
Similarly, when people are out of work, those people who help find jobs normally prosper. Human resource firms normally rack up the cash when people are out of work, except in my case. My wife is an HR person and she hasn't done squat for me, may be due to the fact that she hates my guts even when times are good so my expectations shouldn't rise when times are bad. She did get me an interview the other day at a nuclear waste facility that has several hundred lawsuits against it for worker exposure to radioactivity. The pay seemed to be pretty good but I did notice most of the people there had not worked there for very long. They did have a good sick leave policy. I also overheard some of the workers talking about a visit from Erin Brockovitch sometime later in the day. Shoot, that might be a cool place to work!
So even in the direst of circumstances there are folks who prosper during hard times, even in sports. The buzz out there this week has been about the firing of Billy Gillespie, the basketball coach at the University of Kentucky and the hiring of his replacement, John Calipari. Seems Mr. Gillespie didn't do as good a job as his bosses had hoped for and as a result, he was let go. In some ways, he didn't do that bad. He had a winning season in both years he was there, but his failure to get to the promised land (NCAA tournament) just didn't set too well with the hierarchy at "ole Blue".
Well, UK figured if they hired John Calipari their woes would be over and whether he ends up getting it done is really a mute point now, at least for John. His contract calls for over $31 million over the next 8 years, just short of $4 million a year, and one of the first things John said was,"I'm not the grand poobah,"! Dang, how much do you have to pay to get the "Grand Poobah"? Regardless, for a guy who hasn't won a title yet, and can't seem to coach players to hit free throws in crucial situations (Finals 2008), prosperity seems to have arrived. So all of us out there should take note of what might be out there for us. However, you have to give ole John credit, he's a pretty good coach and he has been very successful.
It doesn't end here however. The real winner in all of this may have been the coach at Tennessee, Bruce Pearl. Bruce was not looking for a job, had just come off what is now considered a mediocre season (Gillespie actually beat him at home and home this year, by 19 and 18 points) and a couple of months ago was getting questions from the Tennessee faithful about his program.
Well, prosperity has arrived for ole Bruce. The meer thought of ole Bruce even talking to anyone at Memphis about the job there suddenly turns into a media frenzy. Reports were surfacing that he had been offered a huge contract (7 year, $22 million) to take over the Memphis program. Seems that the FEAR of losing ole Bruce suddenly made everyone forget that "times are a bad". There was obviously a "We need to do whatever we have to do to keep ole Bruce" philosophy. Suddenly ole Bruce now has a new package on the table from the athletic director, to the tune of 6 years and somewhere close to a $20 million dollar deal. So even in not so good times, it's possible that you can go a step up even when you don't do anything to deserve it, just let FEAR rule. In addition, when the athletic director was questioned concerning where the money was going to come from, he indicated fans just needed to be prepared to pay more for tickets and concessions (screw you fans, get a better paying job if you can't afford it). But, wait Mr. Hamiliton, times are tough we're not even sure we can afford the tickets and concessions before the increase!!! Hmmmmm, maybe a prayer is in order.
At least he didn't pull an Obama and say "don't worry be happy". Bottomline, we are currently being driven by FEAR and the sooner we stop being afraid is when we will see things get better....so maybe it's ok to give Bruce a raise?
The saddness of all this is that we don't see enough pay based on performance especially in business. It's hard to image how much some of the guys in business could make if they ever had a good year. Man those guys at AIG would have had to have a cargo plane to take all the money home if the company wasn't doing so poorly. As a result they only got somewhere between $100 and $200 million in bonus bucks....before the President stepped in. Man they could be leaving a lot on the table......or under it.
I just wish the philosophy was around when I was in school.......performance and the grading system are mutually exclusive. The more I think about it, praying is probably not a bad idea and by the way, I hear Billy Gillespie is now at AIG.