Promotion & Salary Negotiation

LegacyUser

I've recently been promoted to a management position within my company, looking after the the company's billing of monthly revenues running into seven figures.

I am inexperienced in the role (as in the management role, but I'm in the department for a number of years) and reliant on my own manager at the minute for guidance etc, so early discussions with my immediate manager lead me to believe that initially (this month) I'd be looking at a salary increase circa 20%, and then a few months or so down the line when I know the role I'd look to increase that again by another 30% or so to bring my salary more in line for someone in my position. This I have no problem with. However, it looks like the MD is considering holding off on any increase at all for another month or two. This, I have a problem with.

To give some background, in the last year I've taken on the duties of another person in a different, though not completely unrelated, department. I was to take that on full time but management decided they weren't going to replace me in my current department, so I've since being doing both roles, and for this I got a 12.5% raise. When given this management position, I had assumed someone would be taking over this other role that I had taken on. Turns out that it not the case, so in reality I now have the duties of 3 different roles, my original job in my current department, the role I took on in the last year, and now the management role. The salaries of the people I've replaced probably amounts to 70k+ per year, so you can understand why this potential delay in salary increase is all the more annoying for me, considering how much they're saving because of me.

I'm concerned that they may delay an increase now, and then in a month or two it'll get delayed again and it'll carry on like that. In the mean time I'll be vastly underpaid for a role that has huge responsibilities! So I'm really just looking for opinions on my options, if they decide to delay an increase then I'm tempted to just turn the job down completely. Which means they'll have two options, A) Bring someone in from another dept who has zero experience in our billing processes, or Hire someone externally who has management experience and have to pay them handsomely for it, but still has no experience/knowledge of company wide processes.

Thoughts?

Some pertinent info: My employer has also very recently made a contribution to my college fees, it amounts to a few hundred. They might try and use that as an excuse to keep my salary as is, but I personally see this as a separate issue. If that's their excuse then I think it's cheeky.

tenifan

There is no way we can judge whether you're underpaid as we don't know the work you do or your salary. However, it can be difficult to get promotions any higher than 10% from an employer. Many people who entered training contracts know that, once qualified, you often need to jump ship to get a decent salary.

Bit of a reality check though: You're not doing the jobs of 3 people. The fact that your employer managed to cut excess staff is not really your achievement. Your "huge responsibilities" are actually additional responsibilities delegated to you by your manager, who has compensated you with a 12.5% payrise. You're also inexperienced as a manager and being trained into the role.

You're not irreplaceable. If you gave your manager an ultimatum, you'd probably find he would actually "bring someone in from another dept who has zero experience in our billing processes", train them in the billing process, and let them get on with their job, while he still manages the process and delegates responsibility.

I think you're being given a good opportunity. Don't blow it by being impatient.

If you want to find out what you're really worth, interview with other companies and get an alternative job offer. See if your current employer will match it.