Am I being a special snowflake?

[Keke94LND]

Hey all.. I want to start off by saying that I am quite a passive person, it's one of my weaknesses that I hate about myself! I was brought up to honour my commitments and put others first essentially, so I have a real tough time now actually putting myself first .. anyway,

I graduated with a degree in business and management in 2015, I then got a job as a PA and office manager for a small company in London (there really wasn't a lot for me to do in this job tbh) I was earning £21k, bumped up to £23k after a year and I was there for 2 years, in this job I got pension, 25 days holiday plus bank hols and 5 days off at Christmas, big office snack cupboard, and they paid for all travel zones 1-3 which was really great.. My hours were 8:30-5:30 after 2 years I felt I needed to move on, so I got my current job where I have been for 3.5 years, it's the same role in a small company, I can't be promoted here because there's no where for me to be promoted too, but I do get different projects given to me which is good.

I started here on £30k and 3.5 years later I am on £35k, I get a basic pension, 21 days holiday plus bank hols and that's it... There's no flexibility in working, can't work from home, my hours are 9-6pm, and I'm not allowed to take more than 1 week off at a time.. basically am I being unreasonable thinking that this is a bit shit? It's not even a job that I like, which is a whole other story I won't bore you with now,

Part of me feels like my boss is actually just doing bad business in terms of providing basically no benefits, but then equally I've stayed here 3 and a half years because I'm an idiot so who can blame her lol

That’s what’s on offer for the role, you can try and negotiate for more flexibility and benefits, but they can say no. I assume there’s policies in place across the business. If you think there’s somewhere offering a better deal you can move.

YANBU to want more, but presumably that's what you were offered when you accepted the job and it's not like they're doing anything illegal. Also, I would have thought that a PA and office manager would be working from the office rather than from home as it's the kind of role where people need you on the ground.

Having said that, I worked somewhere similarly unflexible and it is very frustrating, so you should think about looking elsewhere.

I started here on £30k and 3.5 years later I am on £35k

That sounds pretty good to me, if you've not been promoted in that time. What were you expecting your salary to be after 3.5 years?

You had really good benefits with your first job, it’s not normal to have those benefits so don’t hold other jobs to that standard.

More benefits usually come with lower wages. You can negotiate when signing up to a new job but in this job, you’re stuck with it unless you move. In your negotiations they can always say no though. Your boss isn’t doing bad business, they offered a starting salary that was £7k more than your previous job for the same role and you’re now being paid £12k more. You’ve had a decent pay rise in the time you’ve been there. Your boss obviously just puts salary above other benefits.

@YoungWerther

I started here on £30k and 3.5 years later I am on £35k

That sounds pretty good to me, if you've not been promoted in that time. What were you expecting your salary to be after 3.5 years?

Yeah to be honest I'm quite happy with my salary and I know that if I want a substantial increase I'd have to move jobs, as most people do. Tbh my main thing is the 21 days holiday and not being able to take more than a week off at a time.. I'm just comparing it to friends and family tbh, some of them work 4 days on a full time wage, some can work from home and have flexibility, some get 30 days holiday etc etc, when I compare my job to other peoples mine just comes up short in my head. Having said that, I am grateful to have a job

If you want to look for a new role with a benefits package that is more attractive to you, go for it.
But I dont think what you've got is particularly awful. Seems like a collection of lowest denomination conditions, with quite generous pay that means he can retain staff.
That said, no more than a week off at a time would bug me.

The lack of holidays and week off thing would bug me but everything else is pretty standard really - I think your only option is to look for another job.

The holiday thing, longer working hours and lack of flexibility regarding working from home would be three good reasons for me to look for a new role.

The pay progression in that time frame isn't too bad, but the holiday and lack of flexibility wouldn't be workable for me, plus an inadequate pension. I work in the civil service which has excellent pension and flexibility, not a bad leave allowance (30 days after 5 years) but pay progression is extremely minimal unless you go for promotion. Thankfully I've managed to climb the ladder pretty quickly and am senior so my salary is good, I could earn more in the private sector but not to the extent it would outweigh the flexibility I have. Something to consider maybe?

You're wasting your own time OP. What is it you actually want to do? A snack cupboard is neither here nor there.

@TeachesOfPeaches

You're wasting your own time OP. What is it you actually want to do? A snack cupboard is neither here nor there.

Haha you are right, I just included it because it was technically a 'benefit', I don't actually care about a snack cupboard as it would just make me fat. In terms of what I want to do.. I don't really know, I kind of fell into this after uni as I just needed a job, then moved into this job as I felt I needed to move on and progress and earn more. There's pros and cons of all jobs I suppose, but I don't massively think I'm well suited to office work.. I've just started volunteering to give myself a bit of purpose and fulfilment so I feel like I am progressing in other ways!

I feel your pain! I was once in a job that allowed you to buy a weeks AL on top of an already generous allowance, that gave me 7 weeks!
I was also allowed to take 3 weeks off, with authorisation ( never a problem) to sun myself in the Caribbean!
Thanks to Covid that job disappeared, I was actually shell shocked at my next job giving only 20 days +BH, and no buying and definitely never allowed 3 weeks to pop of to the Caribbean!
Needless, to say I left, but that wasn’t the reason, just one of many.

For a relatively recent graduate, you've now got a fairly solid CV in terms of job history and stability, so it's probably about time to start thinking about moving on.

What would you like to do? I don't mean set up a butterfly refuge / become a yoga teacher in Andalusia etc, more what do you enjoy in your current / previous roles that you could take forward and/or develop?

For example, do you like working with people / client-facing work? Are you very detail-orientated or systematic in your thinking? Do you have any special skills, such as a language or particular product knowledge such as Sage or Oracle?

From there, start asking questions of people to get an idea of the jobs they are in and then start looking into prevalence / open positions etc. Benchmark salaries and benefits (LinkedIn and Glassdoor are quite helpful for this), so that you have an informed view of what you can expect and negotiate on.

With regard to benefits, I'd start with identify a job you are likely to enjoy, then compare and contrast roles/salaries etc within different organisations, rather than taking a job you can barely tolerate in a company with good benefits!

It might take a while, but it's a positive, forward step and may help you feel as though you're taking some control of your career progression.