A Promotion is Really a Lateral Move?
When a "Promotion" is a lateral
move
My client, Jenny, called me the
other day with good news and bad news. She said, "The good news is that I've
been promoted. The job is excellent, I'm really busy, and I'm loving what
I'm doing." "And the bad news?" I asked. "I'm still at my old salary. I'm
spending an hour more every day doing more difficult work, and I'm not
getting paid for it. What do I do?"
Sometimes managers try to pull a
fast one and see how little they can get away with paying their employees,
but many times they just are busy with their own problems. In either case,
your compensation is more important to you than it is to the boss, so you
should bring it up with her. Unless you speak up, she may not know that
there is a problem.
Here's how. Write a memo in
which you make an inventory of the difficulty of the tasks and the time
required to do your previous job, and compare them with the new job. Also,
since you have been keeping a job journal (see the separate article on job
journals), use the material from there to show how the value you were
providing to the company justifies the promotion and pay increase. Give it
to your boss at a time when she doesn't have time for an immediate
discussion.
You want her to
review it before you talk about it. Then, schedule time for an appointment.
You might also map the current job responsibilities in the Salary Wizard or
the Personal Salary Report to gain an objective statement of value for your
work.
