I work for a small company that has plans to grow. Was the 2nd person to be employed by the director's over a year ago.
Applied for the job through an agency and turned out I had worked briefly with their recently employed Head of Practice.
in the last year the business has grown and in April a family member was employed and they had previously worked for the directors. (Family member being Child of Head of practice). I went with it as everyone is so lovely and they will do anything to make working enjoyable. Fast forward to June we nearly employed another full time member of staff but it was decided there was no business need for them. So I assumed we were not employing anyone else this year.
Then in September it was announced the Head’s sister was coming on board part time - no previous experience (which went against what was said about the next person needs to have knowledge of the systems we use).
Again, I went along with it but had reservations as could not understand the logic or reasoning.
I have recently had my annual review and whilst it was extremely positive I felt the pay rise was low in comparison to what I have stupidly seen others are on innocently I have to add!. And my workload is sometimes hectic but manageable.
Not only this I was asked the other day if I knew when I wanted to take holiday in summer 2026 as they wanted go on holiday with Sister which meant it restricted any overlapping like this year. Felt almost guilt tripped in to giving an answer and am verging on just saying go ahead and book and I’ll book what I can (I have a school
aged child and so do they) Another member of the team who is related to the director has a few weeks off every summer too.
So I feel I’m the person on the lowest pay in the team, that there will be an Unconscious bias towards family members no matter what. And I have no clue what to do as I don’t want to upset anyone or look a dick by just saying what’s bothering me!!
Any advice as I just feel a little broken right now