Breaking Free From a Toxic Work Environment

We’ve posted a lot of real quotes from real problems that often get in the way of organization success. Often, it’s a comment made by a particular role within the company, but this time it’s something that could be said or even thought of by virtually every employee at any level of the organization.

“That’s above my pay grade” can be very expensive for an organization on numerous levels. 

The uniquely American idiom of “That’s above my pay grade” supposedly originated in the American military in the 1960’s as a term denoting a decision that required a higher authority.  

Today, where this is said and heard, it implies a hierarchical culture and chain-of-command structure that is “strict” with the usual top-down decisions, management without influence, and lack of business challenges.  It suggests that the person who makes this statement probably reports up the chain of command to that decision-maker and must live with the decision regardless of the outcome.  

The culture usually associated with this phrase runs counter to the concepts of adaptability in at least two ways.  

First, Adaptability includes having adaptive leadership, which strategically attempts to continuously craft the best possible environment for empowerment of their employees. A major part of adaptive leadership and empowerment is receiving feedback and listening to the employees.  

The culture associated with “That’s above my pay grade” suggests that feedback and listening are not important.  

Second, Adaptability requires quicker decision-making by those with the most knowledge of the problem; that is, those closest to the problem. Escalation up a chain-of-command is rarely fast, and each level filters information up to the next higher level, so the decision will be made by someone with limited knowledge every time. In that culture, it’s better for the right level to make the decision even though they are not fully informed. 

There is a better way. We have seen organizations realize success more often when adaptive leadership principles are implemented, especially in an environment where decision-making is pushed down to those closest to the problem.