I joined an education recruitment agency in Jan 2024 as a Compliance Officer, clearing teachers for work, and working alongside recruitment consultants to get them clear and compliant. My job description was compliance duties only, and also some social media which I looked forward to as I had also done this before. I work from home full time, and I am 29 and my salary is 25k per year. I give 150% to everything and sometimes it is my weakness as I forget about myself big time.
In the last 11 months since joining, 5 consultants have left the company due to the difficult nature of the role finding candidates, thus making no placements. Due to this, my role has ramped up (not in the way I wanted), because it has entailed me picking up the pieces. My line manager (who is also the CEO) keeps putting extra work on me which is ultimately benefitting the consultants to make more sales. Additional work I have done includes updating our system with 2000+ direct new business contacts, payroll responbilities, posting job adverts on behalf of the consultants, filtering through CVs, becoming a "point of contact" for our CRM system meaning I have had to learn it back to front, setting up IT for new starters, providing inductions for new starters - all just to start. From my efforts, the new starters have gained some new business due to the new contacts I added onto the system, meaning they will get commission for an action I built the foundations for. Not only all of this, but the compliance is full on as lots of checks need to be done. I am hand holding every new starter and going above and beyond to provide guidance, as my line manager seems to assume that this is part of my job.
The consultants are making between 30-32k per year base salary, plus commission, and I make 25k. The current consultants have ALL worked here less time than me, only joining in the last 3 months. The turnover is ridiculous. My manager has not given me any indication of any potential for growth in the company. She also has recently started recruiting our staff from overseas as she believes the work ethic is better and is very vocal to her opinions on this. Every meeting we have, she always dumps more on me, why should I be punished for this. She makes comments like "I wanted to give this to you because I don't want to bog down the consultants because they're busy enough", insinuating that I am not busy. At the end of every weekly check in, she ends it with "thanks for all you're doing" with complete insincerity, and has no intention of bringing up any effort to recognise how much I have taken on, she knows how much else I have done. I work later, I work through lunch, I forget to eat and drink. It sucks.
I am at the point where I feel like my original compliance role is basically 30% of my day (meaning I have to work later), but so many other roles seem to be added on and on and it puts huge pressure on me. She has no interest or care, she just wants people who "get on with it and dont ask questions" - her words, not mine. She recently looked down on a new recruit as they asked 1 question about their reference and she proceeded to call her "a potential red flag and hope we haven't recruited dead wood'. I have always been someone who is there to help if someone needs me, but I feel like my manager is taking huge advantage of that, and the saying is correct that if you are good at your job, you are rewarded with more work. I attend meetings with the consultants (and myself) who actively say they've worked into the weekends/ and into stupid hours of the night, but she never flinches and makes a comment about how we should focus on our work life balance, no concern about it at all. She just seems like a robot who literally doesn't care about anyone. I don't expect her too, trust me, but should a line manager be worth my time if they are like that...
I just wanted some thoughts from others to see if I am over reacting. I think it's unfair that my salary has not been considered alongside these extensive additional duties, especially because my work has lead to the consultants getting business, so everything I am doing in my job benefits everyone else - except me. The consultants get more but they rely on me SO much it's ridiculous, so why should I be giving 100% when my salary barely covers my ability to comfortably afford a take away after paying all of my bills. I don't know whether to bring my situation up or just find another job.
Side note - One day I would love to have a child, ideally in the next 2 yrs, but I cannot imagine putting myself under so much work strain like this. It cant be like this when that time comes nothing is worth that.
Thank you For any advice anyone can give. Sorry for the long post x