Hi Ladies, First post here!
I just need to vent. I finally grew into a perfect little position where I'm able to use a hybrid of my design and marketing skills, my technical skills, attention to detail and working with products themselves. I get a variety of tasks, get to use different parts of my brain, and I'm never bored. I'm even being asked to explore marketing efforts in Europe, which is very exciting. However, the micromanagement, low pay, inflexible hours and minimal benefits are really wearing me down. We've been in person since last July and business has taken off (due in large part to my marketing efforts, no less!). The inflexibilty is killing me. I want to travel and take time off but I hardly have time off. I didn't even get a proper quarantine after getting Covid, and I'm currently in a quarantine situation <again> since my husband tested positive and I'm not fully vaxxed yet - and it's being taken out of my precious vacation time!! I can work from home but my manager won't allow it. Here I am, just losing days off and it's incredibly frustrating - so here I am, starting the job search full force. If there are any creative and marketing recruiters in the bunch, or you have any friendly advice, feel free to reach out! Thank you! PS - I'm based in NYC. :)
What's the job you do? In my job, I get to do a lot of the things you mentioned, and I can do my job anywhere. I wonder if you could pivot into something similar but in a more flexible part of the company... or another company?
Its got to be another company because my current company is tiny - no other department to move to. The company culture in general is not a long term fit for me.
Might be worth looking into because there are a ton of places that need great talent, and most understand there's no going back to pre-covid attendance requirements.
Sometimes your answers get really clear when you wait for them to show up... meaning, check your pros & cons list, and if you haven't made one, then do so... personally, low pay, lack of benefits including Covid related are big red flags for me, but for someone else the preference is to work for a small entity where creativity is more important than financial security. Loyalty is also something to add to your list, and include how YOU feel THEY demonstrate Loyalty to their employees. Just some thoughts since it sounds like you've got more cons already outlined in your post than pros, thus the reason for looking at other opportunities! I'd be doing the same!
Have you exhausted all COVID-related paid leave time provided by FFCRA (federal) and NYS law? If not, that should be the time used for your quarantine, not vacation.
Absolutely. No, I haven't used that yet; at the time we chose not to. I will retroactively get it.
Very exciting about the work that you're doing, but jobs are holistic and you should be able to have flexibility, definitely with COVID as well. Is there an employee handbook you can reference when you bring this up to HR?
You might want to speak with HR, just don't bring up your manager--ask them about your COVID situation instead and make sure you say you're worried about infecting your other co-workers. Don't talk about your manager at all, make it a more general conversation.
There's no one else to talk to. It's a teeny company and the manager is basically the HR. The only other person to speak to is the owner of the entire company, and she'll just go directly back to the manager.