Of course, what managers say that they would do in a hypothetical situation
is not necessarily what they would do when they actually experience a situation.
Nor are their views or decisions necessarily the same as those of managers in
other companies that do things differently. In this same vein , what managers think
is not always what their employees think. As we write this, the unemployment
rate is higher than it has been in two decades and companies arc indeed making
pay cuts, either outright or by requiring employees to take days off (often called
furloughs) without pay. Another common cut is reducing contributions to 40 I k
retirement plans. Other companies are imposing pay freezes. With respect to employee
retention, a national survey found that pay was the most often cited reason
(51 percent) among high-performing employees for leaving, whereas relationship
with supervisor was cited only I percent of the time by such employees. Employers,
however, somewhat underestimated the role of pay (with 45 percent citing its
role versus 51 percent of employees) and they very much overestimated the role of relationship with supervisor (with 31 percent citing its role versus 1 percent of
employees)