How to go about getting a payrise?

Unstable

I've been working for an IT company for nearly 2 & half years now and am looking for a significant payrise. I was promised a payrise quite some time ago but my company is constantly in financial trouble (so the boss says, but he's just got himself a new house and opened up a restaurant in his home town).

I do have full industry standard qualifications in my area of IT and the job does involve quite a lot of stress as I'm the main administrator for about 30 Dublin IT sites/networks.

I have been looking around for a new job, but there is not much out there, anyway I've heard you need 4 years experience in administration before you earn any real money

Basically, I want to know the correct and professional way of getting a payrise. I am unhappy how hard I am worked at the moment and am not gaining the rewards of long years studying. I don’t get any overtime but instead 'equilivent time off', which is bull$hit to be honest

WhiteWashMan

i guess it depends on a lot of things.
your working relationship with your boss, the policies of the company, what your contract says etc.

have you not had a pay rise in 2 and half years since you hve been with the company?
have you had pay reviews?
do you get bonuses?

im not sure what the new home and the restaurant have to do with the company. is your boss the owner of the company you work for? i would suggest he just gets a n awful lot more money than you.

what do your collegues get? are you on similar wages to them?

do you have this 'promise' of a pay rise in writing?
what sort of financial trouble is the company in?

or maybe you actually just dont have the experience or ability yet that the company feel you need to earn the pay rise?

The Corinthian

Start looking for another job. Doesn't hurt to keep your options open.

As fo a pay rise, ask for the morining off because you have to go to the dentist. Sleep in that morning, then turn up just before lunch with a grin on your face and wearing a suit. Make sure your boss sees you.

Then enquire about the pay rise again. He'll take your enquiry more seriously if nothing else.

Seth Brundle

Do you have a contract with this company and if so does it state anything about pay rises?
Keep your options open - apply to a number of companies and agencies (dont believe too much that the agencies say either!)

Unstable

Originally posted by WhiteWashMan
have you not had a pay rise in 2 and half years since you hve been with the company?

I got one at the end of the first year, but that was just upto minimal levels (just enough to keep me from running away as fast as my boots would carry me)

have you had pay reviews?

no

do you get bonuses?

no

im not sure what the new home and the restaurant have to do with the company. is your boss the owner of the company you work for?

he is the owner of the company, based in the country. I never really see him, once or twice a month maybe as I'm in dublin all the time. I report to my technical director who does not deal with money matters at all

what do your collegues get? are you on similar wages to them?

my collegues are on low wages as well, but more than me. They have kids and are married, I'm young and single!
They have more experiance than me, but I have the qualifications and am gaining the experiance every day.

do you have this 'promise' of a pay rise in writing?
what sort of financial trouble is the company in?

no, not in writing.

What i meant by financial trouble is rumours about how bad we need business (but I'm always ALWAYS run off my feet going to sites doing jobs). 2 months ago my expences check (about 400 quid) bounced. End of 2001, everyone in the company were called to main office and told the company was in serious trouble. Noone was layed off, but they said it was ongoing. Now that was december 2001......

or maybe you actually just dont have the experience or ability yet that the company feel you need to earn the pay rise?

hmm, dont like that comment

without my certs, the company would not legally be a microsoft certified partner. I'm the only one in my company that is strong in supporting win2k server + exchange, the rest of them are Nt4 experts. The last time I had 2 weeks off, I was getting calls on the phone all the f*cking time for help


I'm going to be meeting my boss tommorow, so I'll try get something down on paper

dazberry

I know that story well, I'd the same scenerio in my second job back in 1995. I won't go through the whole sorded story again, but it was all lies, more lies, and statistics

My gut feeling is that the only way you'll get a payrise is a lateral payrise, i.e. another job. I would serious investigate that possibility.

There are options, but things won't happen overnight, so at least plan a course of action - like a business plan and follow it.

[First]
Prioritise you grievances. Wages vs Work vs Experience. Would you be happ(y/ier) with maybe a little more money but less work beyond the call? Find perspective first. Getting more money might not make the real problem go away.

[Second]
Look at equivalent wages in similar positions and get a realistic idea of what you would be paid, and what your workload would be. Be realistic in light of market conditions.

[Third]
At some point arrange to have a meeting with your boss, and with perspective and other information you have gathered see what your bosses opinion is on this. Don't be angry or aggressive, be informative and include you boss as if he/she was there to solve a problem. The trick is treat this as interviewing your boss. If your boss was like the sh*t I worked for, you'll hear all the excuses again. REMEMBER EVERY SINGLE ONE.

[Forth]
After third being a miserable failure, go job hunting. It may take another year, but bide your time. There will be days you'll feel like just walking out - DON'T. A job is better than no job - trust me. Don't give up, but be subtle.

[Fifth]
When you eventually get another job, you're boss may offer you a payrise. Don't be fooled. Remember the excuses. Take the other job and leave and don't feel responsible. Don't think along the lines of better the devil you know.

[Additionally]
Don't be destructive regarding your job. Think of it as a finite step to something better. But what I observed was that for example, the more overtime you are willing to do, the more overtime you are expected to do. Start pulling back on that. Be flexible and do some overtime, but don't be available for all overtime they throw at you. With respect even if you don't have much to be doing outside work generally, pretend you have, or at least make sure that they know that the overtime is putting you out, and you can only say put in an hour and then you really have to go.

[Finally]
Its you are being underpaid or overworked, or both, you can be flexible, but the companies financial problems are essentially not your responsibilty, you don't run the company.

Your boss has the leverage at the moment, both because you are still working there, and because realistically there are not a lot of opportunities in the market. That will change, but be subtle and play your cards when the time is right.

HTH

D.

woolymammoth

http://www.cidb.ie/live.nsf/WebTOC?OpenView&Start=1&Count=30&Expand=4.4#4.4

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=citizens+information&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryIE

there's a wealth of information out there, and information is your
best, most effective weapon in dealing with situations like this.
the lads here have spoken wisely, so remember what they've
said. have a browse through the Citizens Information database,
or even go down to your local citizens information centre. they
should be able to tell you about any of the legal involved.

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by Unstable


hmm, dont like that comment

sorry, i wasnt being bítchy, its just a fact that sometimes people think they are worth more than they really are.

i think its much better to take a real look at who you are and be realistic to how much you are worth to the company.

if you sit down, list out whatit is you do, as if you are putting together a CV (in fact, while youre at it, update your CV ) and list all the things that you currently do on a regular basis, list all the things you do occasionally, and list out the projects you are involved in.
have the information to hand when you go to a meeting so that you can sit down and say 'i do x, y, z and i think i am not paid enough. i also do a, b anc with a lot of d and e thrown in for good measure, and should we ever try to do f and g, then im qualified to go down that route.'

you make yourself invaluable to the company. you show what you currently do and what you can still offer and make sure they know that if you stopped, they would be up a creek. after that, look for a new job. as someone said, take your time. its not a race, and you want a job you like, not just an alternative.

if they dont cough up, youve wasted nothing, in fact youvbe gained insight into your current position and you can tlak about it in an interview better than you could before

RicardoSmith

If I was your boss I'd try to keep you on your current salary for as long as possible as thats the most profitable way to run a business, unless of course you were absolutely crucial to the business. Which is highly unlikely. They probably get 50 CV's like yours (and better) in the door every week at the moment. So bear that in mind before you go asking. I rarely find that asking for a rise gets you anywhere. Normally you have to jump jobs to get a rise. As most places will call your bluff if you say you will leave if you don't get a raise. Besides if you're willing to go that far then you've almost made up your mind to go anyway so whats the point in keeping you when its likely you'll leave soon enough anyway. Like you said the market is in the pits at the moment, and I know lots of people who haven't been working for up to 12 months. I'd more impressed if you said you wanted a new job because the one you have isn't challenging enough for you and that you can handle everything you do with ease. Most people will put a lot more value in experience than in paper qualifications too.

Heres it in a nutshell...

If the company was to give you more money, what (money value) would they get in return, more than they currently get from you. If you left what (money value) would they lose. Finally could they replace you with someone on less money or would they need to pay someone more money than you are currently one? Because 2 & half years ago you were doing it with no experience. Could they not hire someone like that to replace you? You need to start looking at it clinically from their point of view, not all misty eyed like you are at the moment.