I have been with my company for 17 years, and have become the company's resource for their lack of personnel.

Anonymous

July 18,2022 at 3:11PM UTC

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I have been with my company for 17 years, and have become the company's resource for their lack of personnel. I keep getting assigned short-term projects. The projects can last from months to even years. However, I don't receive extra compensation as they are short-term projects. I have requested an increase. How can I get what I deserve when they "can't justify a long-term increase for a short-term opportunity". Besides my day-to-day work, the extra assignments can consist of administrative to analytical; the field can range from accounts payable to financial rate structures, and C-level support. If I don't take the extra work, my supervisor micro-manages me and says I don't have enough work. When projects are piled on she doesn't micro-manage as those projects are not in her control, but with other departments and supervisors. My name does get thrown around a lot in meetings... We need help with XXXXX, how about (my name). It feels nice to be seen as an asset, but not as an asset that should be compensated. Suggestion on how to change that?

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Julie HumbirdJuly 18,2022 at 3:47PM UTC
You need an written offer to leverage a raise. Being somewhere for 17 years makes the likeliness that you are underpaid very high. Put yourself out there highlighting the projects you have delivered and processes improved. Document the number of years you have been given extra projects randomly. Even if each project is short-term, your ability to step-up has been long-term. It's insulting your leadership won't recognize that.
Liz PerryJuly 18,2022 at 4:51PM UTC
I completely agree with Julie here! Leverage an increase with another job offer, or, take the other job offer and go to a company where they are going to value you for what you are actually worth.
AnonymousJuly 18,2022 at 7:15PM UTC
To expand on what Julie said, you should also include which departments the projects are for. I've found that salary tends to be assigned to the budget of specific departments. It could be that each department is like you're only doing this one project for me so your extra salary shouldn't come from my bucket. I'm not saying it's right, but I suspect it is what they are doing. If you have this information, and have this information for at least a couple of years worth of projects, you can show a trend. This might help give you the leverage you need.
Another benefit of creating this list of projects (hopefully) is if you include your actual position duties, your manager might see that you do a lot and back off a bit on the micromanaging. She might not, but it's worth a shot. It would also be worth looking on something like Glassdoor to see what other people in your area are making.
The one thing that you need to be willing to do, if they deny you a raise, is start saying no to the projects. They need to know that there are repercussions, or they will not have the incentive to pay you more.
Good luck! :)
AnonymousJuly 18,2022 at 6:08PM UTC
I would design a tracker in excel to record what you spend your time on and include categories of complexity to illustrate your expertise.
If you track your work daily and then convert that data to graphs showing your ongoing work as well as completed tasks, leadership would be hard pressed to argue shirt term v. Long term responsibilities because the flow illustrates the volume of work and complexity as part of your increased contribution.
It's some work, but I've found that showing management a picture is a good way for them to see the resources/time investment to get your job done.
Audrey KirschJuly 18,2022 at 6:13PM UTC
Track when you don't have any extra projects. If that time is less than when you do have extra work, then you are doing a long-term project composed of smaller projects. A short-term opportunity implies the promise of more opportunity, such as a pay increase. Let them know that you are happy to do extra projects but would like to be compensated for them either with a raise or bonus for each project completed.