I've been in the same role (title/pay) for my current employer just shy of 11 years and am very frustrated. Get a cup of coffee; this is a long post.
Anonymous
I've been in the same role (title/pay) for my current employer just shy of 11 years and am very frustrated. Get a cup of coffee; this is a long post.
I had hopes this would be my last employer (5-7 years to go to retirement), but am starting to interview outside the company - and may be in the position of receiving an offer in the next couple of weeks and having to make a decision. Is this just a case of be thinking the grass is greener on the other side though?
Frustration points:
- Pay has not kept up with inflation over the years. Applying the consumer inflation index, year by year to my starting salary to now, shows that my purchasing power has declined to about 85% of what it was. As a single mom with no other income, I'm feeling this. (If my salary had just kept an even pace with inflation, I'd be earning about $15,000/year MORE than what I'm earning now - which also would have a positive effect on my retirement savings).
- I've tried making the case to my current AND previous managers (team managers changed) - and everytime it's "You have all the skills and experience needed to be promoted, but there's no headcount or open req to allow for that". I've been hearing that same line now for several years! Even when someone on the team who WAS at that level left, and I thought I would be able to apply for that vacated position at that level - it didn't happen - the previous manager posted the position at my same level, instead of at the level it was when the team member departed.
- The previous manager's position was at least two levels above me, so there was room in the grade-level chart to move up, just no open requisition for a spot to move into. The current manager's position title is lower than the previous manager - and actually the level I'm trying to get promoted into. I feel it's unlikely that my current manager would ever promote me to the same grade level that she is at.
- I've tried posting internally for other positions at the next rung up. I get shot down. Reasons like: "You don't have SmartSheet training", "You don't have project management experience (even though I've successfully managed projects up to $1M), "we identified another person for the role before we even posted it internally". In that last situation, I was promised that I'd be seriously considered for the next opening, which we knew was coming because a person had left. That second opening hit our intranet this week; and the hiring manager called me to tell me that another person was already identified, so I could apply, but the decision was made (again) before the posting hit the intranet. This has now happened to me THREE times.
- The nature of my duties has substantially changed over the last 11 years. It's become less traditional BA and solution design analysis, and more "implement and configure" to a software package that is NOT sold elsewhere, so there's no external career growth by becoming an expert in this homegrown software system.
- It's also unsatisfying being told to do my best to shove a square peg in a round hole - to "make the client's data work" in a system that wasn't necessarily designed for the client's particular data.
- Despite increasing profits, my employer has been quietly cutting costs: letting people go without announcing a downsizing, cutting fringe benefits such as tuition reimbursement (in the middle of a semester, jamming up employees who were expecting to be reimbursed), wellness benefits and employee award programs. Merit increases for years now have been typically between 0% to 2%, even for workers meeting or exceeding expectations. They even took several medications off of the formulary in the middle of 2025, leaving those employees who need those medications in a financial jam.
That's not all of my dissatisfaction, but it's enough to have me looking elsewhere. But I do have concerns on the current job market.
- My current position is a permanent "employee" position. I am seeing that the vast majority of opportunities right now for both BA and/or PM work are contract positions, with some promising "temp-to-perm" options. As the sole income of my household (and I do have some health issues, well-managed with expensive prescriptions), I feel I can't risk taking contract roles, especially where health insurance may not be affordable (or comparable) to what I currently have. So that significantly limits the opportunities I am willing to look at.
- I am also trying to get to a point where I can save more proactively for retirement. Currently, I'm able to (barely) put 6% aside into the 401k (employer matches 50% on the first 6% of employee contribution). If my pay had kept up with inflation, I'd be able to put more aside for retirement - or pay down mortgage debt. Some employers don't match (or don't vest on the match) for up to three years after employment begins - I'm not at a position where I can afford to skip out on the employer match for 401K contributions.
- I also recognize that I am fortunate the my current employer puts a pay credit equal to 6% of my gross wages into a corporate pension plan - and it seems most companies no longer offer pensions. That's an important consideration too.
- I feel my age (and disability status) are factors for some recruiters/hiring managers; early '60s. I want to be able to retire by age 70, and my disability is currently well-managed with medications. I think some employers view that as a double-risk or whammy. For some positions that I have applied online for, where I indicated that I have a disability, I've gotten notification that they are going with another candidate, sometimes within just a couple of hours of submitting.
- The specifics of any medical insurance plan, and the prescription formulary, is of great concern to me. One of my medications retails for about $3,400/month, so ensuring that is (and remains) covered on the formulary is pretty darn important for me.
The risk of the "grass is greener on the other side" - there's no way to know for sure if I do receive and take an offer elsewhere, if I'm just trading myself into a similar situation.
At least where I am right now, if I were to be "downsized", I might potentially get 20-22 weeks of severance pay to float me while job-hunting. If I take another position and it doesn't work out - there wouldn't be any severance pay to fall back on. I am seeing others who were in my position still trying to land a job 12-18 months after being downsized. I literally can't afford to be out of work more than a month or two at most without risking losing my home (or having to raid my relatively meager retirement funds).
I'm considering that IF I do get an offer elsewhere that might be good enough to take that risk - of possibly first talking to my manager and my manager's manager to ask them if there is anything they can do to make it worth my while to refuse the offer and stay with my current employer. It's a strategy that I have never used before; and I know that if I play it, I have to be willing to take that job offer if my current employer isn't willing to do anything to keep me.
Thoughts?
How have others used the "job offer in hand" strategy to successfully negotiate to remain with their current employer?
And how to ensure that the employer sticks to whatever they might agree or promise to keep an employee from taking an offer?
Am I being foolhardy to even consider trying to find another job at this stage of the game? Should I just "hang in there" with my current employer/role until I either retire in 5-7 years or I am eventually downsized whenever my employer chooses to go that route? (Also-when they downsize an employee - they are gone that same day. There's no orderly transition of project work to remaining team-members.... you're just... gone.)
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