Hello Everyone! I really appreciate all the blog comments and e-mails that come my way with questions and specific scenarios for advice. While I can’t always answer your requests within 72 hours due to my heavy travel and speaking schedule, I do get to them. Here is one such request. I’m sure many of you can relate to Under a Bushel’s situation.
“I enjoy your Monday Motivator messages, and often share them with others on staff in our office. I have a very sensitive topic that I suspect may not be a concern held by myself alone that I’d like to propose for a morning message.
With the job market as troubled as it is right now, many of us have a daily mantra that's a variation on the theme: “I’m grateful for my job, at least I have a job, I do to love my job” …and most of the time we do. However, due to budget constraints several of us are taking on additional duties, covering unfilled positions, or have been working outside our job classifications for undetermined periods. As administrative support staff, most of us are accustomed to taking on whatever tasks are necessary to keep the team on-track, normally for relatively short-term assignments.
Duties-as-Assigned have always been the forte of the outstanding administrative assistant, but there used to be an undercurrent of security and appreciation for the additional effort. Now in a period of forced retirements and suspended recruitments—and as low man on the totem pole—the overwhelmed assistant is in no position to decline additional long-term assignments, especially if that assistant has hopes of moving up the ladder when economic times improve.
Please don't misunderstand; the additional challenges can be quite invigorating, and increase job satisfaction as well as appreciation for our coworkers. I myself am loving being more challenged by my work. While the opportunity to shine while fulfilling these duties is undeniable, it is an uncomfortable reality that speaking up to actually request proper compensation for this extra work seems almost disloyal, and at the very least, can bring an unwanted spotlight onto us, our positions, or our managers. It’s not exactly prime time for talk of increased compensation or title changes. We all know to track our accomplishments and record achievements - but how valuable is that information if it is to be kept under wraps indefinitely?
So I suppose my inquiry is, where is the line between taking on extra weight for the good of the team and being taken advantage of, and how does one get middle management to go to bat on our behalf, when they themselves are feeling insecure? When does pitching-in become martyrdom?”
Wow! This is a great topic, UAB (Under a Bushel). You are right on target with everything you have written: your daily mantra, additional challenges can be invigorating, and especially the part about speaking up to actually request proper compensation for this extra work seems almost disloyal.
I can give you advice from both sides of the desk. Let me start with my side as an employer. Times are extremely tough for everyone. Just about every industry is struggling to stay in business. Lately, I know of a few corporations who are cutting the work week to 4 days, 8 hours a day; the 5th day is a mandatory no-work day with no pay! While there are very tiny signs the downturn in the economy is starting to plateau, we still have a long way to go. All businesses are being very cautious. If you have a job, it is a good thing. And if you have a job with paid vacation and benefits, it is a very good thing.
Top leaders and business owners recognize good employees. Those individuals want to hold on as tight as they can to their good people and have good intentions of rewarding them as soon as they can financially do so. What kind of person do you work for? Do you personally work with a manager you know will go to bat for you when the time is right? Or are their other managers or executives in your organization who see your work and know you would be a good person to have in their department, but they have to bide their time?
This would not be the time to ask a manager to go to bat for you unless your organization is experiencing a wonderful upswing in business. Now is the time to put a strategy in place for yourself. If I were you, as an employee, I would stay right where I am, continue to do a great job and be a loyal employee. I would build my career portfolio. Additionally, start keeping a log of the quantity of work you produce in major areas such as telephone, meeting planning, travel planning, email management, etc. Quantity is important. You would keep this log for at least 3 weeks tallying every day for each main area. Then at the end of 3 weeks, you would have an average. For example, “I manage an average of 300 emails per day, mine and my executive’s.” You see quantity speaks volume, not that you do the work—that is expected.
Now you will have specifics to use when you are ready to go in and ask for more money or a bonus or even to justify a raise this year. (A lot of companies are not giving raises this year or they will be quite slim.) You will use this information and your career portfolio to sell yourself. The good news is by doing this you will also have powerful ammunition if you look outside your company for a job.
Getting middle management to go to bat for you is a little harder than when you work for an executive or Vice President. The size of your organization will also have an impact. Middle managers lost in big organizations don’t have a lot of power when it comes to increasing pay; in a small company, they can be more effective. The main advice I have is that you have to give them enough facts to work with and present your information in a persuasive, logical format. They have to be truly convinced before they can move forward. It can be done because I did it as an executive assistant.
Martyrdom? I believe you will know in your heart when you feel like you are being taken advantage of – and that can happen. If you know the company well enough and the top management – their values, etc. – you probably have a good feel whether it is worth hanging in there or not.
I hope this helps! I’m sure hundreds of employees across the country can relate to this timely topic. Thank you for writing me and best of luck.
Joan Burge