After many years of work, I finally got promoted to manager level and received a very modest increase to my base salary. Hooray.
Thing is, managers don’t get paid overtime.
End result, I’m out of pocket a few hundred dollars each month.
Heck, I even got top ranking in my last work performance assessment, and my reward is a pay cut!
I feel like a school kid whose teacher lust gave him a gold star and then stole his lunch money.
(Except the lunch money is really the money I need to feed and clothe my own three kids. Also, I’m not really a school kid.)
So, I have to smile as everyone at work congratulates me on my promotion, and then take myself off to weep in the toilet.
I should be grateful that I at least have a decent job with a decent salary. I know I’ve got it better than most in the world. It’s just that this comes at I time when I’m already feeling a real financial pinch, and I’m also at a pretty low ebb emotionally. It would have been really nice to have something good come my way.
So, yeah. That sucks.
I am now comforting myself with a cup of tea, recycled from the same teabag I used yesterday. Also, two cheese and ham toasties; not recycled.
And people at work wonder why I never put in for any promotions or titles. My direct manager was getting twice my pay (which still ain’t much) but he was doing 70 hour weeks and better while I do 20-24 hour weeks. I ain’t no rocket scientist but even I saw the problem there.
where I work I’ve made it known that if they want to get rid of me, promote me. when wannabe-Big-Swingin’-Dicks talk about “Career Limiting Moves” I just laugh.
I didn’t even ask for a promotion. In fact I even explained to my boss, in a recent consultation about family problems and work hours, that my family’s financial state was pretty reliant on my overtime pay.
I think she was intending to help me out by recommending my promotion to upper management thinking the pay rise would be more than the loss in overtime.
'Tweren’t so.
Also . . .
= “a kid whose teacher JUST gave him a gold star . . .”
(I will neither confirm nor deny that I ever had any “teacher lust”, but I certainly never got any rewards for it.)
The slight increase in base salary means a modest increase in bonus, but it still doesn’t amount to half of what I was able to bring in by working overtime.
Since I’m not getting paid for it, there’s no incentive for me to be working late anymore. But managers are kind of expected to stay back a little late anyway.
I’ve been running after-work training seminars twice a week to earn overtime, so I’ll be cutting back on those as soon as the course is done, but I’ve still got a month and a half before it finishes. I can’t just leave the students. So, I’ve got several more weeks of late nights for less pay to look forward to.
I guess you cant explain your situation and ask for a raise? it seems unfair what happened. you are a good worker, they should want to make sure you are happy.
Seriously, Why? I have turned down at least five promotions to management positions that actually were cuts in pay.
While I am good at management, I hate the job. I have done the job often on a “temporary” basis. To quote my uncle, “There is nothing quite so permanent as a temporary fix”. So, IRL temporary means at least six months, often over a year.
When I accused them of trying to trap me in the position, they denied it. I had to get “caught” updating my resume on company time before they found a replacement for my “temporary” position.
My hat is off to you! I hope that it works out well for you. Good luck, you are going to need it.
I stopped climbing the corporate ladder at the level I am now due to good luck. I acted in the senior management role above my position for a long time while it was vacant and was expected to be promoted into it. Having experienced its joys I didn’t even apply for the job when it was advertised. I copped a lot of flack from the executive but didn’t relent. I regularly relieve in the position and whenever I do I am grateful that, despite the higher pay, I am only doing it for a short period.
A friend of one of my kids worked at a major electronics store. Sales staff, commission, etc. Got really good at it. Was making a lot of money. Too much money in the eyes of management. Solution: Promotion to department manager. Fixed pay. Net total pay cut.
And they soon lost their best salesman. Nice job there, PHB.
I’m going to suggest you sit down with your manager who promoted you and calmly, professionally, explain the negative impact on your household finances. There may be something that can be done to at least put a plan and timeline in place to get you back to your old take-home.
Companies really don’t intend to do this on purpose (usually), and there are HR/Comp staff (usually) who try to keep an eye on this. If that is not the case, then explain to your manager that the attempt to reward you, motivate you, (and keep you), has backfired spectacularly.
Congratulations on the promotion. Now, update your resume, look for another job that pays you more money and leave since you have this track record of being promoted to management.
Delegate. Train and empower underlings to take some of the responsibility. If there aren’t enough resources available to do this, make changes (recruit, change processes, eliminate waste) to provide the necessary resources. These are manager-y things to do when you become a manager.
If none of those sorts of things are possible due to budgets or boneheads, sit tight for as long as seems decent, then move on.
I see this all the time. “Opportunities” spring up regularly at my office and I am often nudged to apply for a management position. Thanks but no thanks. I see person after person make the move, and virtually every one of them regrets it.
The last one didn’t make it a year before he demoted himself to a worker bee. I saw him yesterday and he was grinning from ear to ear as we talked about this decision. Twice he said, “Why did I do that to myself?”
