Help with the unofficial promotion

Submitted by Don Clark
in
General Questions and Comments
I don't know how common this is but I suspect my company is not the only one out there that does this. Since I started my job about 18 months ago, I have had my responsibilities increased several times over. Both the manager I directly reported to from the start, as well has his manager have left the company and in both instances, I was asked to take over their responsibilities. I was not promoted, nor was my salary adjusted. I was just given their jobs to do on top of my own. I am now facing another one of these "promotions" coming the first of our next fiscal year (April 1)and this time I really need to have a clear conversation with my new manager about this being an official promotion and having my salary adjusted to an appropriate level. I am not the only one at my company who this has happened to, but there are others where they did promote and increase salary appropriately. Any advice?
Submitted by stephenbooth_uk on Monday January 19th, 2009 1:46 am

That's a far from uncommon situation. Unfortunately, with the state of the world economy, now is a really difficult time to be asking for more money.

Your best bet is to concentrate on building up your skills and achievements and recording them on your resume. That way when your review comes around you're in a strong position to argue for why you should get more based on your contribution. If your manager doesn't come through with a suitable pay rise, you're in a strong position to look for another job where you will get closer to what you think you're worth when things get better.

Stephen

Submitted by Joy Jensen on Monday January 19th, 2009 7:55 pm

While I agree that now is a touchy time to be asking for more money, in general, in this case it would seem that the company is saving (and has been for some time) the salaries of the two people whose responsibilities you've assumed over the last 18 mos so while you're asking for more money, it's not within a vacuum. It's not like you'll be asking for a raise of $100,000 per year - the full sum of those two salaries - for crying out loud! LOL

I would suggest you get your ducks in a row and base your conversation entirely in facts.

- Job description for ABC Title indicates X, Y and Z. I have been doing X since 12 mos ago; I have been doing Y since 8 mos ago and I've been doing Z, AA, AB and AC since 6 mos ago.

- The company has not replaced Person 1 or Person 2 thus saving their salary expenses, conservatively estimated at about $100,000.

- Salary.com / The Local Employers Council indicates that the median salary for this level of job to be 15% higher than my current rate (citing the current median salary in dollars as well.)

And then I would enlist your new manager's assistance: "What else do you need from me in order to get the promotion approved and my salary adjusted to be commensurate with the feats of wonder I accomplish here on a daily basis?"

Okay, maybe not quite so smart-ass-y but you get the point. If you present the Business Case to your soon-to-be-new-boss so that all s/he has to do is rubber stamp it and pass it along to for the next approval, your odds of getting it to go through are greatly increased.

If you tell the soon-to-be-new-boss anything that makes it sound like it'll be a lot of work on his/her part or make it come across like you're whining or complaining or emotional, your request will drop to the very bottom of the pile - no matter what the economy might be doing!

Submitted by Don Clark on Monday January 19th, 2009 9:27 pm

Thanks all of you for your advice. My new manager is very supportive of my taking on new challenges and hopefully because he is new to the company can help champion my cause if I provide him with the facts as mentioned. I did a rough estimate and the company is saving nearly $200K per year with the additional work that I've been doing and I'd be very happy with an additional $15K. that would bring me close to the 40th percentile for my job. I will document my work history and put the numbers together.

The upside is I've been getting good experience. I'm looking forward to officially managing the team that I've been unofficially managing for the last 8 months. And of course I'll start doing 1o1's with them once I'm official.

Thanks again!

Submitted by John Hack on Tuesday January 20th, 2009 7:05 am

Present this as a goal, asking how you get there, not as a demand.

And good luck!

John