So, before the holiday party, Blaine took me aside in his office and closed the door, which I knew meant that we were going to talk about the restructuring of my role in the office.
“You’ve heard we’re going to be getting a lot of work?” he said.
“Yea,” I said. “Mosh already talked to me about it. He said I’ll be better integrated with the Wireless team, so I’ll be reporting to Piper.”
Blaine went on to say how great I was, how much work we were going to get (double what we did last year), and said, “Anyway, I’ll get right to the good news. Usually, at year end, if all goes well, we get 3% pay increases, but I did some haggling with corporate, and they’re pushing your salary up 4.5%.”
I suppose I was supposed to look really surprised and grateful. I was calculating what 4.5% of my base salary was. I’m not great at math, but I’m not totally incompetent, either. It wasn’t a great raise, so far as I was concerned. It meant another couple hundred dollars a month, which makes the Glasgow trip in August more feasible, but it wasn’t on par with what him and Mosh had been talking about regarding the sort of role I’m going to be playing in the company.
“Nobody knows how to do what you do,” Blaine went on (he’s very, very good at flattery, which is why everyone likes him and why he’s been moved into Business Development. He’s like a big happy puppydog. You just can’t dislike him). “You’re going to be asked to take on a *lot* more responsibility, and you’ll need to learn how to replicate yourself.”
“Mosh said he’d be interested in hiring on some temps I can supervise,” I said, “because if we’re doing twice what we did last year…” I was working nine or ten hour days and doing some weekend time and fielding work to the accountant and the secretary, and we still barely pulled it all off.
He intends to give me a shitload more responsibility, a staff, and a 4.5% raise that won’t even allow me to be able to afford a car, let alone a cellphone? (the lack of staff with cellphones in our office is one of our biggest jokes).
“I tried to get Mosh and Piper to understand what a great resource they’re getting,” he said.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I intend to sit down with Piper next week and impress upon him exactly what I can do. All they need to do is put something in front of me, and I can do it.” I’ve been bitching to Blaine all year about what an under-utlized resource I am.
I think it was during his speech about how he was trying to convince Mosh & co. how great I was that I realized Mosh and Piper just don’t get what I can do, hence the 4.5% raise. They think they’re getting an admin, not a Project Support Manager with a Master’s degree.
Ah. Of course.
4.5% my ass.
At meeting’s end, Blaine still seemed troubled at my lack of enthusiasm. I wanted to stomp around and throw things. 4.5% raise my ass! I want to hop up a position pay scale. Lowly admin my ass! Freakin’ fucktards!
But really, it wasn’t so much worth it to bitch to Blaine. I was going to have to convince my new supervisors that I’m worth a 10K pay raise, not an extra $200 a month.
I’m going to have to really wow these fuckers.
And insist on proper compensation.
4.5% my ass.
