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A Guy With Balls Of Steel, Emailed His Boss For A $10,000 Raise – For Everyone



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Oct 12 2014
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What do you do when you want a raise? Some of companies’ appraisals are around the corner, now that it’s the end of the year. Some of you may start doing that thing which you’ve been doing every year – pretending to be hard at work hoping your boss notices it and would give you a better salary increment. Some of you may double your effort in going out for drinks and shoe polish your boss, hoping for the same reward – a promotion or at least a giant raise.

 

But none of us dare to be different and think out of the box. Why do you need to suck up to your boss and pretend to be fascinated with his idiot jokes when it was not funny at all? Like it or not, there’re tons of people who get to climb up not because they deserve it, but because they were extremely good at jacking up their bosses. A Wells Fargo employee – 30-year-old Tyrel Oates – becomes the company’s hero when he asks for a raise.

Wells Fargo Tyrel Oates

Armed with balls of steel, the Wells Fargo employee in Oregon wrote an email to the big boss CEO John Stumpf with a subject “Income Inequality”, and carbon-copied to about 200,00 Wells Fargo employees. Apparently, Tyrel Oates tells CEO John Stumpf that Wells Fargo can be a leader in reducing income inequality in the U.S. by distributing more profits to employees.

 

Oates, a customer relations worker, said he has been working for Wells Fargo for nearly seven years and makes just more than US$15 an hour as a full-time employee working 40 hours a week, five days a week, not counting mandatory overtime. That was a pathetic US$2 an hour increment when he started with the company with a salary of US$13 an hour. His justification was equally mind-blowing.

Wells Fargo Outlet Branch

Arguing that Wells Fargo should set a national example as a corporation addressing income inequality, brave-heart Oates proposed that Wells Fargo give each of its roughly 263,500 employees a US$10,000 raise, of which will cost the company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett a merely US$3 billion (£1.9 billion; RM9.8 billion) annually. By doing so, each employee would get an hourly increase of US4.71.

 

Wells Fargo made over US$88 billion in revenue for financial year ending Dec 31, 2013 and net profit of close to US$22 billion for the same period. Effectively, by raising the 300,000 employees’ salary, which will make a small dent of about 13.6% of the company’s annual net profit, Wells Fargo will not only help to make its people, its family, more happy, productive, and financially stable, it will also show the rest of the United States, if not the world that, big corporations can have a heart other than philanthropic endeavours..

Wells Fargo Tyrel Oates and CEO John Stumpf

If that was not enough to raise CEO John Stumpf’s eyebrows, Tyrel Oates also put a challenging justification. Oates pointed out that the CEO himself was making US$19 million last year with a base salary of US$2.8 million and bonuses equating to US$4 million. This means Stumpf makes 473 times more than the salary of a median employee. Interestingly, that’s more than the US$14 million Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan earned but less than the US$20 million paid to JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon.

Brian Moynihan and Jamie Dimon and John Stumpf

Amazingly, Oates said his manager has told him he’s not in trouble (of getting sacked). He said Stumpf has not yet responded. Nevertheless, Oates claims he wasn’t worried about losing his job. Sure, it would make his employee a bigger hero if boss John Stumpf decides to discipline the low-ranking staff for the salary increment email. It would be in everyone’s interest if Stumpf keeps quiet and pretends as if he has never seen the email. Here’s the awesome email, which you can use to do the same on your boss, if you’ve the balls of steel (*grin*).

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf and Tyrel Oates Inset

Mr. Stumpf,
With the increasing focus on income inequality in the United States. Wells Fargo has an opportunity to be at the forefront of helping to reduce this by setting the bar, leading by example, and showing the other large corporations that it is very possible to maintain a profitable company that not only looks out for its consumers and shareholders, but its employees as well.

This year Wells Fargo in its second quarter alone had a net income of $5.7 billion, and total revenue of $21.1 billion. These are very impressive numbers, and is obvious evidence that Wells Fargo is one of, if not the most profitable company in the nation right now. So, why not take some of this and distribute it to the rest of the employees.

Sure, the company provides while not great, some pretty good benefits, as well as discretionary profit sharing for those who partake in our 401k program. While the benefits are nice, the profit sharing through the 401k only goes to make the company itself and its shareholders more profitable, and not really boost the income of the thousands of us here every day making this company the prestigious power house that it is.

Last year, you had pulled in over $19 million, more than most of the employees will see in our lifetimes. It is understood that your position carries a lot of weight and responsibility; however, with a base salary of $2.8 million and bonuses equating to $4 million, is alone one of the main arguments of income inequality. Where the vast majority, the undeniable profit drivers, with the exception of upper management positions barely make enough to live comfortably on their own, the distribution of income in this company is no better than that of the other big players in the corporate world.

My estimate is that Wells Fargo has roughly around 300,000 employees. My proposal is take $3 billion dollars, just a small fraction of what Wells Fargo pulls in annually, and raise every employees annual salary by $10,000 dollars. This equates to an hourly raise about $4.71 per hour. Think, as well, of the positive publicity in a time of extreme consumer skepticism towards banks. By doing this, Wells Fargo will not only help to make its people, its family, more happy, productive, and financially stable, it will also show the rest of the United States, if not the world that, yes big corporations can have a heart other than philanthropic endeavors.

P.S. – To all of my fellow team members who receive a copy of this email. Though Wells Fargo does not allow the formation of unions, this does not mean we cannot stand united. Each and every one of us plays an integral part in the success of this company. It is time that we ask, no, it is time that we demand to be rightfully compensated for the hard work that we accomplish, and for the great part we all have played in the success of this company. There are many of us out there who come to work every day and give it our all, yet, we struggle to make ends meet while our peers in upper management and company executives reap the majority of the rewards. One of our lowest scored TMCS questions is that our opinions matter. Well they do! This email has been sent to hundreds of thousands Wells Fargo employees, (as many as I could cc from the outlook global address book). And while the voice of one person in a world as large as ours may seem only like a whisper, the combined voices of each and all of us can move mountains!

With the warmest of regards,

 

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