At the Office

July 2009:
I was working in a cinema company and was ready to quit my job because my manager was clueless, underperformed and he made me do my colleagues’ and his work because he knew that I was the only person in that department who would get things done.

August 2009:
That manager got sacked so I spoke to my CFO regarding me getting promoted and he seemed to keen with the idea. I was jumping in excitement thinking that this might be the time for me to shine. Until that CFO quit his job and the new CFO, AA, came for replacement.

October 2009:
In the beginning, AA seemed to support me with the whole promotion idea.
Me: So how and when do we start the probation? Have you discuss this with the HR Department?
AA: Who needs the HR Department when we have the CEO to back us up?

He added some extra work to the job, such as being his messenger to the COO, who he didn’t want to talk to, and spying on several people in the office on his behalf. It was outrageous, but I took it on my shoulder anyways because I wanted the promotion. I finished the probation after three months in January 2010.

AA: There’s a problem with your probation. I’m having difficulties with the HR Department and they want you to have another three months probation.
Me: WTF?!! I thought the CEO would back us up?
AA: See, the problem is you’re not the only one who’s getting promoted. There are several people from another department and they deserve to be promoted as well. And the HRD have decided that all of you will get promoted altogether by April 2010.
Me: How much will I be getting anyway?
AA: Ummm…20% from your initial salary.
Me: But that is not the standard salary of managerial position (head of department) and that wasn’t even half of the former manager’s salary.
AA: Well, we’re not really looking for the managerial position. What we wanted is you to “act” as a head department like what you’ve been doing so far.
Me: But the work itself is “real?”
AA: Don’t be childish. Sometimes things aren’t always fair.
Me: (*swearing inside my brain)

A week later, I gave him my resignation letter and gave one month’s notice. After I quit, I found out that he lied to my CEO when my CEO asked him of what has happened.  He told him that he tried to lure me with a bigger package, but that I just wanted out. I knew that because I got the forward email he sent to my CEO by a person who was also cc’d in the email.

Comments (12)

JeffOctober 8th, 2010 at 7:12 am

I don’t know how many jobs you’ve had, but there’s no rule that you have to make the same salary as your predecessor when you get promoted. If you are less experienced and/or less credentialed they are usually going to pay you less. But it sounds like they just wanted to add responsibilities to your original position and pay you more to compensate. Nothing wrong with that either. Still, if you felt you’d been mistreated why didn’t you go straight to the CEO yourself rather than just quitting after putting in so much hard work?

really?October 8th, 2010 at 8:54 am

Reading comprehension isn’t your strong suit – is it, Jeff? Being condescending on every post is, but apparently not reading comprehension. The OP rather clearly stated that, in addition to his or her responsibilities as a new manager, the CFO tacked on additional job duties.

And there are some companies where is there IS a rule that you have to make at least a comparable salary to the other managers; otherwise you run risk of pesky discrimination law suits when they find out all the white males are making twice what everyone else makes.

nachturnalOctober 8th, 2010 at 9:01 am

Jeff, dunno about you, but generally speaking there IS a rule that says you should make comparable money for comparable duties. If OP is competent enough that they’re getting extra duties anyway, and doing them successfully enough to be handed more, I see no reason why they shouldn’t get extra pay.

Maybe I’m being “childish”, but that seems like it’s “fair” to me. And personally, if I was in a job where I was being treated unfairly, I’d want out too.

saywhutOctober 8th, 2010 at 9:49 am

Jeff did state that they tacked additional duties to the LW’s original job. Maybe you need to work on your own reading comprehension and condescending attitude.

MMMichelleOctober 8th, 2010 at 10:02 am

I love being childish if being paid for amount of work done is indeed that.

tronnerOctober 8th, 2010 at 10:20 am

don’t be too hard on Jeff, @really? … I think maybe YOU missed the part about the CFO just wanting her to playact a manager. Maybe that’s what Jeff was referring to, I dunno. However, it does sound like the OP was doing the job of manager (not his/her old job) plus the added sneaky behavior.

I concur on the rest of the post :)

TanekOctober 8th, 2010 at 11:09 am

Sheesh, all this fuss to become senior popcorn butterer

MaryOctober 8th, 2010 at 11:18 am

lol Tanek!!!!

Donald UrquhartOctober 8th, 2010 at 11:34 am

Most jobs do come with a pretty standardized salary band. If you’re new and/or barely qualified for the job then you’ll usually make something at the lower end of the salary band in question, but that range is always there in every job I’ve ever seen. Still, the question of why you didn’t jump your new CFO’s head to go to the CEO instead of just quitting does come up. If the CEO was also a moron, then yes it’s time to change companies. The only exception to that would be if you had a much better job than the managerial position you wanted already offered to you somewhere that didn’t have this level of political games.

GeoffOctober 17th, 2010 at 9:30 pm

OP, you have a problem differentiating between a promotion and a probation, and it A) makes your story slightly harder to read and B) seems to implicitly justify your failure to obtain a promotion.

rajNovember 4th, 2010 at 12:26 am

I think the cfo is just a dumb bitch who likes to enslave his/ her employee without logical justification of the employee’s job description

PuzzledNovember 29th, 2010 at 4:44 pm

Why didn’t you discuss the details of the position, including pay, before beginning probation for the new position?

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