Repost:Mtg w/Boss advice needed
bmstee03
member
This may be long so please stick with me.
When I accepted my position I was told that I would make $12/hour for the first 6 months during my trial period. I would be evaluated at the end of that period and we would discuss my wages then and if I performed as expected I would get a raise (we were in a wage freeze when this promise was made). 6 months later I have my evaluation and received excellent scores in every category. When I ask about wages I am told that we are in a wage freeze so there is nothing they can do about it but they are really trying to push an increase through for me. I am in charge of payroll so I get to process other peoples raises after this happened. I can not quit because we cant afford for me not to work and there is nothing else.
Now it is a year later, my job duties have increased ten fold and the wage freeze is lifted. Again I get a review with all excellent scores. I am given a 40 cent raise. Again I have to process other peoples raises that are more than mine when they have been here for less than a year. It sucks.
I have scheduled a meeting with my boss next week. I feel like I have been taken advantage of and I'm not sure what to do. I have always had employers who were more than fair with wage increases. I am constantly told that I do good work and am one of the most trusted people on staff. If I am so important then why don't they pay me like I'm important???
I know I am going to cry. When I get emotional about something I always cry. I have been trying to think about what I am going to say so that can hopefully avoid the tears.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Re: Repost:Mtg w/Boss advice needed
DD - February 2011
Rehearse the reasons why you deserve the raise in your head until it is no longer emotional but factual. That way you are removing emotions that may cause you to cry and sound more professional and more in charge of the situation. I totally get where you are coming from- but you MUST must ask in order to get. Ask your boss to appeal to HR for you and bring up all the responsibilities that you are handling and have a list of them ready. Sometimes it is very easy for bosses to overlook all the things that you do to make their lives run smoothly and need to be gently reminded. Otherwise- whip out your job description (which is most likely in your personell file) and study what you are paid to do. Then only do those things if you are not given a raise. If questioned why you no longer do them- you can reply that it is not in your job description and you are not paid to do them. You don't want to feel taken advantage of- so therefore you will gladly do additional tasks if you are paid for them. (ok- that sounds like a dream response to me too, but i don't think you'll end up taking it that far anyway- most people (women) will get raises if they ask)
I'm a crier too. With my boss it usually works in my favor, but I don't think that's the case with everyone. Try to go in there without crying though. You have to remember you are a great employee to them, otherwise you wouldn't have had any raise or a good evaluation.
Are there set steps in the pay rank of things at your work? With my last position, there were set steps up so you started at X, your first raise got you to Y, etc. There was no deviation no matter how good of a worker you were. On the plus, you got a little over a 3.5% raise. That is HUGE at my work right now. We are actually looking at pay cuts. Are the people who are getting raises that are higher than yours at a different hourly rate?
Honestly if I were you, I wouldn't use your knowledge of what other people have received to your advantage. That information probably is confidential and it won't look good on you bringing it up. I would just go and talk to your boss and let him know you were curious about how they determined what your raise was going to be. Let him know you appreciate the increase though and thought it would be a little more based on your evaluation. I had a pretty awesome evaluation last year and my work place was on an unofficial wage freeze so I ended up with I tiny little raise, I was told others received nothing. It just may be a sign of the times and you may be lucky to be getting one right now.
Good luck!