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Comment by some_account | Hacker News Reader

What are you afraid of will happen?

Speaking for myself, I'm afraid, that I'd lower morale and create division in my well-running and competent team.

Yeah it will. Often people are sad someone is leaning, and they may start to look for other jobs themselves.

But all this is actually in the interest of the people working there. They may get higher salary and better work somewhere else.

Or worse scenario: an employer, knowing about potential consequences, would be more interested in lowering salaries of high payed workers to avoid low payed ones leaving the job or losing productivity ("Why should I try harder?").

Does not compute - Why would the high earner stick around if their salary was lower?

If transparency was applied everywhere, the new employer would have the same incentive to keep it lower? They would still earn more but despite the transparency, not because of it.

Scenario A: I make more money than them, they (despite their best intentions) slightly resent me.

Scenario B: They make more money than me, I (despite my best intentions) slightly resent them.

Beyond that, I’m not really in an industry where you can easily/beneficially jump ship to another firm, so I wouldn’t even have any recourse if people are making more than me without good justification (superior performance, etc). I’d have to exit the industry.

Maybe you can both resent the company (or the System) for being unfair?

Perhaps. Perhaps you can resent the system and each other. Still makes for a worse work environment.

I don't see it that way. It seems to me that acknowledging the problem (unfairness of the system) is a first step to change it.

I agree. You can acknowledge the problem of unfairness and still be uncomfortable working with people with this new knowledge.

What would this change look like?

Unionize.

why do you care about resentment against coworkers when there should instead be introspection about why you make less than them? as for them resenting you, that's their prerogative. if you're aware that you're making more than them and aware that they're aware, it makes it more obvious if they display their resentment in the form of office politics

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