Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations MintJulep on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Being Assertive About Your Level of Responsibility vs. Compensation 1

Status
Not open for further replies.

Stringmaker

Mechanical
Mar 18, 2005
513
I'm an ME and I graduated five years ago. I presently work for a gas turbine aircraft engine company as a structures engineer/analyst. Since starting with the company about 3 years ago I have always received great reviews. Here is my dilemma:

I would like to receive a promotion but have not received what I have requested yet. I have had a couple talks with my supervisor about this and was offered a similar position in another business unit a few months ago but declined. In my company merit (yearly) increases were deferred until this September (we have yet to get final word that we will actually receive them however). Promotions are different than merit increases. I have heard of people receiving promotions - though not as often or generous due to the economic situation at the moment.

My day to day duties are comprised to two functions primarily. I lead the structural analysis work for the specific portion of the engine I am responsible for and also do a substantial amount of outsourcing oversight of the actual engineers doing the FEA in India. People of my labor grade are rarely capable of overseeing these responsibilities thus it is not expectations. Such responsibilities are typically allocated to those with 10+ years. I voluntarily stepped into this role a year ago thinking it would pre-empt a promotion. I'm still waiting for the promotion and frankly I do not find what I do fulfilling. I love the line of work but I would much prefer to do it rather than instruct others in doing it. We are in a very busy time now and have many final product reviews coming up in the next couple of months. Once things are closed out if I still have not received the promotion I desire shortly after I am thinking about sitting down with my supervisor to discuss the situation and request a more normal workload (for my labor grade) unless a promotion will be coming soon.

The truth be told I don't mind what I do now. However, I do mind doing it for the level of compensation I receive. I have no problems handling the added stress of the situation now but would appreciate something in return. On the otherhand, I would be more content (not to be confused with happy) staying at my present salary with lower expecations.

I know there are very few easy jobs out there and some would argue I should be happy to have a job. I am grateful for that but setting those aside how have others in a similar situation handled them? I'm curious to hear.

Regards.
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Sounds like your company is huge.

maybe you can move to a different area. Some bosses you give them the benifit of the doubt and if it does not, then move to another boss. Who says you have to get along with him/her. Going to work with people you like working with is the best thing in the world besides getting paid for it.

Otherwise, if you give that ultamatum then I think you should have a job lined up on the outside of this company or enough money saved up to weather it out for 6 months if you get let go.
 
This is sort of an update:

My manager and I happened to have an interim PFT (Performance Feedback ...) discussion this week and it went very well. I decided to proceed gently and ask questions. My manager acknowledged that I should be promoted to a higher labor grade and said that it "they" were trying to push it through. I think it's positive but no time table of any sort was given. I'm going to post for another job within the company (just in a different area of Engineering) if one I am genuinely interested comes along. Hopefully, things happen soon but I'm certainly not going to wait around. One can only reason that if another group is willing to offer a promotion I should be able to negotiate the same to stay where I'm at now. If not that's fine too...unfortunately we all have bills to pay!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor