salary/bonus conundrum

[IrishSea]

I posted this in another section and someone suggested I post on here

Some background:
I work in the financial sector in a professional capacity and was relocated to a small regional office 2 years about. At first I was the only person in my department and reported to my boss (EW) a director in London. About a year ago we hired new staff and there are now 12 of us, some above me some below, some at the same level. I have a fraught relationship with the most senior person (BS) in my office but (thankfully) I still report to EW.

EW and I used to have a good working relationship but since my new colleagues joined BS has made it very clear that he does not like me and is constantly bitching to EW about me, my ?attitude? and my work (some of it was outright lies ? ie I talk down to a junior member of staff and she might leave because of the way I treat her, we actually have a good relationship, but London wouldn?t see that so he can say what he wants).

Unfortunately I?m not particularly political and I didn?t tackle this when I had the chance so it has festered. The downside is that it now appears EW believes BS?s stories (despite an excellent 2 year working relationship prior to this).

To top this off there are 4 other (male) colleagues at the same grade as me and they are all on the same salary which is 20% more than I get paid. I have let this slide for the past year as I made the assumption that this inequality would be smoothed out at bonus time (I?m on a London contract which includes a discretionary bonus, they are all on fixed amount contracts). I have now discovered that my bonus will only close the gap by 4% because I have been ?below par? this year (it is also ¼ what I received last year). I have been made aware of this unofficially (someone let something slip) so I can?t let on to EW that I know but I will be officially told this at the end of this week.

My question is what, if anything, should I do about the bonus? I like my job and I use to think my salary was okay, it just feels incredibly unfair that I am on less than all my colleagues on the same grade as me. I can?t really leave as the job market is non existent here. So do I have to ?suck it up? and learn to live with it?

My plan at the moment is to wait until I am officially told and then ask for a meeting with my boss a someone from HR to explain the discrepancy and also to formally complain about BS and his behaviour (I have a long list of what has happened over the last year). Is this a good idea or would I be shooting myself in the foot.

TIA
Irishsea

I'd start by finding out who the HR person is who is responsible for diversity/equality. Call her/him and ask for informal meeting to discuss. Am assuming you work for largish org....

These things get very very messy in professional firms and they will argue that your colleagues are not direct comparators or performance is different or they are still 'normalising' the two salary structures. They have lots of things they can argue. But if your HR diversity person is good then they may stand behind you and sort it out for you without you having to play hardball yourself.

Can you arrange a meeting in person with EW about your bonus - ideally one at which you are told what it is.
Forewarned, you will be able to prepare - as EW no doubt will - for the discussion about that. But it would also be a good opportunity to talk about "how things have been going". If you can resist the understandable temptation to just say how much you hate BW.

If EW is taking BS's word at face value, rather than having direct evidence to counter it, it seems to me that you are maybe not communicating as much with EW as you ideally would. Distance working has its traps and the informal communication that happens naturally in the office is one of the things that goes - so a lot of effort has to be made to fill the gap. When I've seen it work well, the people are for ever on the phone to each other. This might be something else to discuss with EW - not either taking or laying blame, but just recognising that it's not quite working as it should and what can you both do to help?

To me this doesn't sound like a bonus issue at all, more a question of why your colleagues on the same grade get the same base salary while you are on a lower salary and reliant on a bonus which may or may not get you up to their level.

I think you should be focusing on the discrepancy between base salary rather than bonus. Is the 'same grade' an official thing, or just your opinion? Is it the same job you are doing?

Thank you all for responding, I appreciate that. Communication between EW and I is sporadic, he ignores calls and emails which impacts my work. I should say, it?s not just me it happens to everyone in my office ? EW is basically spread too thin. I spoke to him about this in my annual review and things improved for about a week before going back to normal.

My company is large (1000+ employees), but in the dark ages in terms of equality etc. I?ll have to look into whether the HR dept has someone that specialises in diversity.

Flowery My role and that of my 4 colleagues at the same grade (ie job title), is practically identical. The main difference is that they are currently in account acquisition mode whereas I my book of business is a little more mature although I am still expected to grow my book (no targets). We all mange the accounts we have in a similar way. My accounts cover my salary, the others don?t have enough accounts to cover their salary but we are a new office and this has all been budgeted.

Duke you?re right that being forewarned will help. I won?t be able to change the amount of the bonus, it?s too late for that, but I need to work this to my advantage. I was thinking of saying: ?Right, that?s a fairly clear message, but what exactly is the message??, I also thought I should raise some of the issues that I have been having with BS, (without getting into a bitchfest) but it sounds like you think it?s a bad idea? I don?t plan to raise the issue of the salary discrepancy with EW, I think I might just take that up with HR separately.

Thanks again for your replies.

I don't think I meant don't talk about BS at all at your suggested meeting with EW - just mention your issues with them as part of a discussion about your job as a whole, so it doesn't turn into a bitchfest.

I like the "clear message" thing.

It's not surprising there are issues between old and new staff in a new and rapidly expanding office, but it should be being managed better. Hope you can start to shoot this up EW's priorities.