Normal in the industry and in education, too.... (Score 1)

I work at a large for-profit educational company that advertises a lot via web banners (no, not Phoenix University... and with that, you should be able figure out who we are) and we've been told that raises are capped for the forseeable future at two percent for "super-duper-amazing" levels of performance, wheras it used to be five percent. I don't know of anybody in the IT department who has gotten above a point and a half. Supposedly our management is under the same cap, but we all know they get fat bonuses as compensation so raises mean nothing to them.

You might find this depressing, but it gets worse -- two percent is the cap, unless you're a lucky dog like me in which case you have your review and are told "Well, HR still hasn't approved your raise, so we'll let you know sometime in the future what percentage you can expect." Being presumptuous enough to ask for an actual date when you might know what your raise is (if any) results in lots of vague assurances that "the Company will take care of you." Sure, and Travis "took care" of Old Yeller, too. Lest you dismiss this as sour grapes, keep in mind I'm a senior network engineer with almost ten years in the company who has been promoted repeatedly and given bonuses numerous times for performance and cost-saving initiatives.

Is it any wonder I'm considering quitting the tech field to become a goat farmer?