I need some advice ..

ron_darrell

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a bit of objective advice. I'm in a job at the moment that is getting from bad to worse with no end in sight. I can't see any other option than to resign but the thing of it is I could really like this job. Here I'd better give the full story (without the names etc of course).

I was hired about 3 years ago to develop a computer system for a company. With one thing and another within 3 months of my being hired two people were let go so I was asked if I would mind taking on, temporarily, some of the admin that those who had left previously performed while they were sorting out new staff. I said no problem but as time has gone on more and more of the admin is falling my way and no new staff have been hired.

I've talked to my boss several time since and explained how I really wasn't happy taking over the admin role full-time and that I really need to devote more time to the computer project (which he is attempting to sell as a product but which is barely into beta testing so constantly crashing because I cannot devote the time needed to properly developing it). He keeps promising me that he'll hire someone and redistribute the workload but it never seems to happen.

I'm at the point now where it s**t or get off the pot. If I try to go onto another web design role (which is what I love to do and what I was hired to do) I only have this half finished project to show for my three years. If I stay, there's no guarantee that this time next year I won't be asking the same questions.

Am I being an idiot? Is this just how things are and I should just suck it in and move on? Or is my boss being unreasonable and should I just hand in my notice? What do you guys think I should do? All advice appreciated.

-RD

Spud83

That seems to be the problem in working for so called smaller companies. You are taking a big risk on the success of the company, as I believe the reason they have not hired more staff is that they cannot afford too, and because you are willing to do it. If you have signed a contract with the company you may be able to use this to stop doing the admin work as it is not part of you job description.

Firstly I would begin to explore the job market that is out there, do up your CV post it on a few sites apply for a few jobs, and talk to a few agencies. It can’t hurt too look you don’t know what is out there until you look. You might find the perfect job, or might just find one good enough that you may be able to blackmail your boss a bit.

Kattyboy25

No way are you an idiot! If there is a HR department, you tell them that you are receiving work outside the scope of your original employment with the company. Tell them you want to be adequately compensated! Personally I would do this. Now if your company doesn't have HR, and your boss asks you to do extra work like that admin stuff, you tell him that you don't have time, and if he would like to you do it you'd have to do it as over-time, and over-time is what nowadays, time and a half. You could make a killing.

Anyway getting back to being seriously, go to HR, but if no HR in company, tell your boss that you'll no longer do work outside the scope of your employment description. The worst that can happen is he could fire you, and you can sue the company ;-)

Spud83

Kattyboy25 wrote:

No way are you an idiot! If there is a HR department, you tell them that you are receiving work outside the scope of your original

The only problem with this is if he doesn't have a contract (as is the case in many small companies) he can't really argue this point, as he already agreed to do some of the admin work. Best to check your contract, then speak to HR or your boss. If you have no contract there should be a government agency for employee rights who may be able to advise you if you boss tries to reprimand you for failing to do the admin work.

ron_darrell

Thanks for the feedback guys. Unfortunately as some of you have already guessed it is a smaller company so no HR department and worse still no contract. I've dug myself quite a hole it looks like. I'm going to take alans advice and post a cv up on a few online work sites and get in contact with an agency.

I'd love to take the overtime route but anytime I've tried to charge for overtime (i.e. where the workload is so much on a particular week that I've had to come in on saturdays to catch up or where the website has gone down in the middle of the night and I've been called in to fix it) the accountant has gone bananas and made me account for every minute for it. The saturdays aren't paid unless I've been specifically asked to come in (which has happened) but then if I didn't come in on the other occasions I'd have been swamped. It's a catch-22.

Next time, definitely a contract and a list of duties. The thing is I don't mind helping out from time to time (that's why I agreed to take on the admin work temporarily in the first place) but this has become a full time role. It's my own fault and sure it's taught me a lesson. Thanks for the feedback again guys. I appreciate it and it confirms what I've been thinking myself anyways.

-RD

BostonB

The obvious thing to do is move on. In the meanwhile do the work you want to do and be bad or just very slow at the work you don't want to do. That seems to work for anywhere I've ever been. In my experience the people who take on the stuff they don't want to do work never get rewarded. They just get more of it to do. The company have no need to replace you while you are doing it. People who do the work they don't like it badly but work they like well, get more of the work they like to do.

Coming in for free is just really bad practise. If you work for free, or come in out of hours without getting extra pay, the company will take advantage of it. You'll lose respect. As you can see in the attitude of the accountant.

Everyone should always have a contract. Not having one is reason enough to leave on it own.

Personally if I'm not being paid to come in, I just wouldn't come in and wouldn't be contactable. Working for free you are just robbing youself. If it gets swamped, then thats a good way of putting pressure on them to find more staff. By working extra, and clearing the backlog you are removing all reasons, and pressure for them to get more staff.

At the end of the day you work to earn money. As you get more experience and skilled you should be able to get more money, and find jobs with better conditions and pay. If what you are doing isn't achieveing this then you need to change. Do you have a pension, have you made plans for the future?

ron_darrell

No pension yet and I'm probably getting on a bit to not be looking into it. I'll be 28 this year. I graduated from college and just needed a break from what I was doing. The job I had in college offered me a management position and I just kinda fell into the routine of it. It took me nearly 5 years to get off my butt and move on. Without much experience and being out of the loop for that long I just took this job to build up a portfolio and experience. You're right though, I need to move on. I'm sent my CV onto a few sites last night and emailed HR in a few of the agencies in the area so hopefully things will start to move for the better. Thanks to everyone for their input.

-RD

fatboypee

Guessing from your sig, Limerick = Few Opportunities, at best paying sh1te, at worse you get ridden for every penny you're paid.... added to which, yer boss knows this fact better than you do and is taking the p1ss on account of you not wanting to travel / move on to find a better job...

This commentary is based upon experience and I would say the following:

1. You are very much likely to be WAY MORE employable than you currently beleive.

2. There IS work out there for you but you have to resign yourself to go and finding it.

My suggestions are based upon what I would do / have done to get myself out of the hole:

1. UpSkill in your spare time, get the free versions offered by Microsoft (if tis your flavour ) and up-skill yourself in the Web Developer for .Net / C# / VB.Net and pull a few tutorials off the web and work away.

2. Put your own CV up on your own site and use some cool HTML stuff to get an advert as to your skills. Include your CV on the site in it's enitrety.

3. Register with Monster, IrishJobs and / Or recruiters local or in Dub / Cork(assuming you're up for travel).

Good luck anyway...

FBP.

ron_darrell

Thanks FBP,

My skill set is already quite full. I'm 'fluent' in all flavors of HTML (HTML, XHTML, DHTML, XML, XSL), ASP, Vbscript, Javascript, CSS, PHP, SQL, Perl and TCL. Hell, I even know a little Java While I generally use ACCESS for databases (as the projects I've had to date have all been quite small) I can and have used MySQL in the past.

I've looked at ASP.NET (and hope to use it as part of the project I'm undertaking here if I stay long enough to finish it) and VB.Net as my language of choice when dealing with .Net (I probably should learn C# but it's been so long since I had anything to do with C/C++ that the learning curve might be too significant). I'm bi-os in that I can use both UNIX-family and MS-family OS.

The only web techs I haven't played with are Flash and Ruby. Should I take the time (and expense) of learning Flash given that any animation I need I general write in javascript?

Thanks again,
-RD