Taken advantage of at work

[Mrshoneyneedsanewhat]

Help! I joined a small team at a big local employer last year in an admin role. The pay isn’t much but it fits around my DC and caring responsibilities. The problem I have is that prior to this role and before DC, I was a corporate high flyer and my new boss is more than happy to take advantage of this experience. She is off sick a lot, has a teenager who has various issues and so is often off at the last minute dealing with him. I’ve essentially become her deputy but earn less than half what she does (obvious due to the pay scales we’re on).

I like my (original) job, I like the team and I like the flexibility. What I don’t like is effectively doing my boss’s job for no extra reward! I’m not really in a position to say no to additional duties and to be honest, some of the tasks are not that difficult anyway given my background. However, the final straw came when last week I had to pull together a presentation and present it at a board meeting as she called in sick at the final hour. This is stuff that people who are on well over £70K/year normally do and I’m on somewhere around £25K. It wasn’t even a case of presenting her work, and I think she called in sick as she knew she hadn’t prepared anything.

Boss has acknowledged that I do more on one occasion and mentioned a pay review/grade review. However, despite preparing all the necessary paperwork for this to happen, she now won’t submit this to HR and so I’m in limbo. If there is some recognition of my additional duties, I can stomach staying. However, I’m just feel like a mug sitting and working for peanuts.

Any tips? All I can think of is looking for another role with this employer (who overall is a good one). Anecdotally I’ve heard that boss would be gutted if I left (so would I if I were her - she’d actually have to do something!) but I don’t know how far I can go in terms of demanding a regrade before leaving.

Be clear about whether you want a pay rise or more contained responsibilities. Start saying no to tasks outside your remit, having explained that you are going to do so.

Thank you Eva - ideally both! Without blowing my own trumpet, I have sort of been a victim of my own success. I’ve picked up systems and so on quickly so now people will come to me rather than others who are responsible for these areas as I turn things around more quickly. Even boss’s boss asks me for updates... It’s a political minefield as it’s all very hierarchical in one sense, but within our own tiny department, which is quite isolated in many ways, what boss says goes. I feel like a lot of how this turns out depends on her mood and whims.

Your boss is taking advantage but think you need to be clear. Sounds like you don’t mind doing it if paid more but a pay review within hour existing pay bands is still unlikely to be what you are after? As in maybe you would go from £25k to £30k but would you be happy then?

Maybe speak to your boss and say for what you’re doing you think you should get more and you are thinking of looking at other roles which reward your experience more

There's a HUGE difference between being "admin support to X" & "assistant X" - if they won't recognise that, you've got three options:

1. mug on, no doubt resentfully (quite rightly)

2. escalate the issue with a business case hat on. Tell them you're performing above the role, look for similar market data to the role you're doing salary wise. This assumes you want it (I'd say: why fight? It's quicker, easier just to move employer, and they should know that).

3. step back from doing anything not in your role description. I suspect you're capable and like being capable, but you're also creating the problem. Boss not there to present? It should be rescheduled, why are you covering? Expose the gap, don't cover it.

I'm currently on long term sick as a result of working for a very similar boss. If there was another woman with kids in the team would absolutely think it was the same woman!

I think if I were you I would either ask for my role profile or use the one from when I applied, then go through it and note down all the things you are expected to do outside the role profile on a regular basis. Also note down any single incident above and beyond stuff like the presentation separately.

Then approach her and say that as the role has changed you believe the salary should change accordingly. Or the role should revert to its original duties. Give her one last chance to action that paperwork. Ask her when you can expect a decision. Do it by email and reference your earlier conversations.

If she's not forthcoming schedule a meeting with her boss and take your evidence of the changes to the role, your ability to perform more highly than thje role requires, and your bosses inaction on either paring the role back down or giving you a pay rise.

Alice - I have mapped out what I currently do against the existing published pay scales and if done correctly, it would take me at least two bands up. (Ironically I have experience of roles and regrading from a former life!) From what I can tell, boss would authorize a move of one band but you’re right, that would maybe make it £30K if I’m lucky. So - still underpaid for what I’m doing.

Alison - exactly. I was at a meeting today with boss and some people who were at the board meeting where I presented were also there. Before I think they’ve seen me as a secretary and not worth talking to. Today it was like they saw me as a different person, worthy of listening to and were more interested in my ideas than boss’s. It’s not just the role and so on, it’s the perception that comes with it. Boss is more than happy for me to deputise but with my current somewhat lowly title, I’m not taken seriously. If I send emails with her signature, rather than mine people take action.

wee - I hope it won’t come to that. How did your situation pan out?

God, I am going through similar. I have refused to sign my end of probation stuff until I get a pay rise.

AJP - how did that go down? Interestingly my first six months’ objectives were the most basic possible, ostensibly so I’d pass my probation easily but they in no way, shape or form reflect what I’m doing.

Badly. I'm signed off indefinitely, having counselling and genuinely can't see a way back into a job I've loved for 10 years.

My problems came after a restructure changed my direct manager.

What I've written is what I wish I had done rather than soldiering on and eventually going into crisis. Don't be me!

Oh wee, I’m sorry, that’s so tough.

There are many dynamics at play here and I think my boss feels simultaneously threatened by me and so doesn’t want me to be as successful as I could be, but also if I do well, she does well in terms of reflected glory and so she wants to keep me. It’s all rather toxic! There are times when I feel she wants me in my place, so to speak, and then others where she is more than happy to delegate (the tough bits) to me.

I trust her to an extent but have been very careful to keep emails and so on where she’s agreed to things I’ve worked on as she has a habit of ‘forgetting’ what she’s said (she is scatty anyway). As in, I always cover myself. Maybe I shouldn’t have to but then maybe it’s just sensible?

This week’s crisis comes back to a contract she authorized without having read property. I assume she thought I’d read it through, but given I’d only been asked to cut and paste certain sections, I wasn’t directly responsible for the terms within (payment terms and so on). She has been having absolute kittens over the fact that it’s now been sent to a suppler and is incorrect, and I know she’d love to pass the buck to me, but as I’m only the admin person then she can’t. (In my former role this would have been the first thing I would have checked, but I just did what was asked, not what she assumed I was capable of, if that makes sense). In my defence, I had no idea how she ran things at the time and so had no reason to believe what was being sent out was incorrect.

I would look for another role in the company.
with your experience and documented extra work, shouldn't be too hard. good luck!

urgh, I know the type of manager. definitely get away from her.

I’ve PM’ed you!

Jesus, apparently my manager has a twin - this is exactly the kind of shit storm she would create.

Ultimately she's taking credit for your work, rather than basking in the reflected glory of a well managed team.

If you are anything like me, your drive to do a good job will mean you are covering her back, when really it's to your detriment to conceal the problem. That's not good in the long run and I think it's important to draw a line where your responsibility ends and hers begins.

Fighting - thanks.
Wee - that is a very good point. I think I will start referring back to her rather than trying to resolve issues myself.