The principal of my synagogue’s Hebrew School announced he was quitting after 16 years to take a position elsewhere. It’s devastating to me since we left our old synagogue with an inept principal for this new one with a principal who was able to teach my kids more in two years than what they learned in the previous 5 years.

Clearly, by his email and my discussions with him, it was clear that he left after 16 years over a salary dispute. As someone who is no longer involved with synagogue management (a whole chapter is dedicated in my last book), I was just amazed that the synagogue would let such a great principal leave over money. While no one is irreplaceable, it’s going to be very difficult to find someone with that kind of experience.

It’s the same with the retirement plan industry, there are many employees out there, but not great employees. Losing someone who is so well accomplished and experiences for a few bucks is a hard pill to swallow because finding such great people in this business is hard to do.  You should never pay a king’s ransom for an employee that you can’t afford, but you also need to ponder the hidden cost of having to find employees with a similar background and experience and the cost of hiring them.

There is a hidden cost with having to replace members of your staff, especially if they are experts at what they do. So you need to figure out that hidden cost when you ponder on whether the incumbent employee is deserving of that raise.