As we head into March, most of you will soon begin the Performance Review Process. I view this process as fundamental to the development and growth of all of XXXXXXX’s employees. I hope that each of you will benefit from the input you receive and that any constructive insights you glean will be an integral part of your ongoing professional development at the company.
A number of you have asked what XXXXXXX will be doing from a merit raise standpoint this year given the current economic climate. The short answer is that it is too early to tell. For those of you who follow the economic situation closely, you are aware that there are conflicting views on how long and how steep this downturn will be. The one thing we do know is that our clients are at the epicenter as the credit crisis spills over to the nation’s top law firms and financial services companies. The signals from the first eight weeks have been mixed and certain of our clients are predicting a much worse year than others.
We are monitoring the situation closely but as we have always done throughout the history of this company, we continue to make fiscal prudence our number one priority. We are looking at several cost containment measures that we will announce shortly and are keeping a very close watch on our clients as we project the impact of the credit crisis and market instability on our business.
With all this volatility, we have decided that we want another several months under our belts to better understand how the year will play out. Many of our peers in the industry are doing the same and some are taking even more proactive measures. We will have a much better sense of how we will be impacted by all of this by the end of the second quarter. With several more months’ data to go by, I will communicate to you by June 30th what our policy with respect to merit raises will be this year.
As always, thank you for your support. We have been through this cycle several times before and our fiscal prudence has always served us well. More importantly, it has made XXXXXXX a much stronger company. If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your manager.
Tell me again why I'm putting up with this crap?