Bonus in lieu of pay review

[Dacquoise]

Hi All,

Seems a bit first world problem in the current situation with people losing their livings every day but I am struggling to know what to do about my employment at the moment.

I work for a private landlord, very large portfolio, not been affected by the pandemic at all. My role is underpaid and has been since I joined. Made the fatal mistake of negotiating a low starting salary to get a local job and pay rises have been minimal since although I did manage to get a better deal at the beginning of last year due to changes to the role and taking on direct management of some 'difficult' properties. Role was untested at this point. There is no sick pay for this job and boss makes minimum pension contributions, so no bells and whistles, although he is very flexible in terms of taking time off when I need it.

Since then I have saved my boss a lot of money in management fees for the properties and have thrived in the role. I have successfully evicted problem tenants and, self taught, taken on legal work to to get money from a tenant that was withholding rent for spurious reasons. I am now expected to do the legal work for other tenant problems that I don't directly manage. This is addition to the work I was already doing. I now have a year's experience in the role.

However, there has been no pay review (last month) and I am starting to think there won't be one. I thought it might be due to lock down and us working shifts in the office, not seeing each other but it is now mid February and nothing has been mentioned. My boss is a total micro-manager so I can't believe he has forgotten.

He gave me a very generous bonus before Christmas (three times the normal amount) but I have discovered he did the same for my colleague who does the accounts and, no disrespect to her, but I don't think she did anything outstanding outside her normal role. I am starting to think the bonus is our pay review.

To give some additional background, a consultant was engaged a couple of years ago to work on property development. His hourly rate is over two and hour times mine. He completed the project but has been kept on and his role has merged a bit into mine so that he is doing work that I would have done. Not a problem as I was so busy with the management role but I know my boss is not happy with the amount he is paying the consultant but won't tackle it. If it sounds like the boundaries are very smudged here, they are. It is a very small company and everyone, apart from the accounts person, is involved in all roles.

I know the obvious answer is to ask my boss about the pay review but for some reason I feel a bit icky about it in light of the bonus? Any advice gratefully received?

Should be two and a half times mine.

I think you have more than one issue.

One is pay and the other is performance review.

You raise the issue about the consultant and particularly that the consultant does some of your work, some work you were to busy to do and your employer seems unhappy with paying the consultant fee

Is this correct?

Perhaps asking for a meeting to discuss us year in review and plans for year to come. Prepare by writing out your job description as it was to how it is now so you can illustrate to your employer why you feel you are value for money abd should get a raise. Address how you can minimise the usage of the consultant as you can do that work for an increase in salary but less than the consultant.

Bear in mind, the consultant does not any paid holiday, bank holidays, statutory sick leave nor any other statutory employment benefits whereas you do as an employee. There are costs to your employer to employer you above your hourly salary which are not considerations when using a consultant.

I would comment that your employer is very small business in relation to employees and usual HR function found in larger organisations. It’s likely what you’re looking for just is not in his radar. So you’ll need to ask for review, goal setting, measurements for pay progression but be prepared that he may want to simply keep you in current salary and give you bonuses instead.

With your experience that you have gained over the past year, would you consider moving to a larger employer that could meet with your expectations and where there is room for advancement?

Hi @SaltyTootsieToes, thank you for taking the time to post.

You are correct that it is a small company and is less formalised in terms of pay reviews and benefits. However, since I have been there (nearly five years) the procedure has been, bonus before Christmas ( not huge amount) then pay review in first week of January. Usually about the rate of inflation. It's all very informal. Last year I did push for a bigger rise and made it clear that my salary was lagging for what I do. Took on the new role and have performed very well which has been mentioned by my boss a few times last year. Also given bottle of champagne for recovering a large amount of money from a tenant via the courts.

Where it is getting a bit sticky is that the consultant is a friend of the boss's family and was taken on on an informal basis. As a result his role has grown driven by the consultant ie not enough ongoing development work but trying to maintain a monthly income. I know my boss is unhappy with this but he won't tackle it directly with him. He was trying to get me to a time and motion exercise on my job at one stage to calculate the what the consultant was doing. Not really possible as my job is extremely varied and the consultant uses an app that tracks his tasks by minute for billing purposes. This hasn't resulted in any change in the consultant's monthly charges. To be honest I don't have any authority in job distribution and don't want to get drawn into this. It's all a bit blurred.

I am thinking that my boss is tackling this by an effective pay feeze on myself and my colleague. How are we being assessed on our performance if we all get the same bonus and no pay review?

I'd Be very tempted to set up my own business in your position. It sounds like your doing all that now

Update on my last post:

I took the bull by the horns and requested a pay and annual review. Two fronts, salary for new role and change of days/hours. Latter because it has occurred to me that I could reduce my days due to the consultant taking over some of my role.

My boss agreed to the reduction in days but offered me the following in pay rise: 2% from February plus an additional 3% when lockdown is lifted. Have absolutely no idea why he thinks it should be staggered because we have worked as normal throughout the pandemic although partly from home, half days.

5%+ payrise, whilst fairly decent on a decent salary, does not touch the sides for my change of role last year plus the low level of my salary overall.

It was left that I won't reduce days until the summer but will discuss the salary again at that time. My boss has said that the payrise I received last year took into account the new role I undertook which is not my recollection. I hadn't started the role, or achieved what I did.

Is it take it or leave it time? Tell him what I am willing to take for reduced days or walk away?