The very different treatment accorded employees at the top versus those in the bottom or middle ranks has become a fact of life in many professional occupations.
The same scene plays out in Robert DeMeola’s Midtown Manhattan office every few weeks, not that it gets any easier. In walks a director or senior accountant, job offer in hand, threatening to leave for a hedge fund or big bank unless DeMeola can deliver a raise of 30 percent, sometimes more.
“It used to be once a quarter. Now it’s every month,” said DeMeola, chief operating officer of CohnReznick, a national accounting, tax and advisory firm headquartered in New York.