One observation: if some but not all employees do this in an organization under financial pressure, it could change how and where any redundancies are applied. Salary reduction is sort of like giving the organization a grant that can only be used to employ a specific individual. If the org is only having to pay half your salary, it’s much less likely to lay you off to conserve money vs. laying off a somewhat more productive employee at full salary. On the other hand, lower payroll costs --> fewer layoffs needed, which is good.
One crux might be if you think the organization’s financial pressure is the new normal vs. a blip. If the latter, is there a greater risk that salary reduction could cause the org to lay off the “wrong” employees to minimize short-term pain?
One observation: if some but not all employees do this in an organization under financial pressure, it could change how and where any redundancies are applied. Salary reduction is sort of like giving the organization a grant that can only be used to employ a specific individual. If the org is only having to pay half your salary, it’s much less likely to lay you off to conserve money vs. laying off a somewhat more productive employee at full salary. On the other hand, lower payroll costs --> fewer layoffs needed, which is good.
One crux might be if you think the organization’s financial pressure is the new normal vs. a blip. If the latter, is there a greater risk that salary reduction could cause the org to lay off the “wrong” employees to minimize short-term pain?