How do I tell my boss I hate my job . . . productively?
February 9, 2010 9:40 AM   Subscribe

I want to talk to my boss about getting more work that is aligned with my skill level than what I am currently doing. However, I'm not sure how to go about doing it. My boss is a very reasonable person, and I think of I can make a strong case, he will be inclined to oblige if he can. Help me make that case please.

I started a new job just over a year ago as an in-house web designer in a medium-sized corporation. At the time, they weren't looking for someone as skilled as I am, but were impressed with my skills and experience, and decided they wanted to offer me the job, with the notion that I would handle their more involved, bigger projects that weren't getting done. Fast forward to a year later, and I'm doing very junior level work like banner ads, email blasts, product image cropping, etc . . . and only on rare occasions do I get a bigger project. And when I do, I'm bombarded with the same junior level requests, making it hard to work on the other projects anyway. I'm getting extremely frustrated because I'm not doing the work work I thought I would be doing. That, and I'm genuinely afraid they'll realize they could have a fresh collage graduate doing the work for a fraction of what they pay me.

Part of me thinks I should just find a different job better suited to my skills. The thing is, I like the company and I like the people I work with. I'd rather pursue what I can do to make the job better before bailing. I've thought about approaching my boss and suggesting that I be assigned more work that is in-line with my skill level. What I fear that would mean though is just more work assigned on top of what I have to do, not a shift into more appropriate work, and the work I want to do would continue to be low priority, just a longer list of it.

One factor that plays into this may be that my boss is not the one that assigns the daily workload, it's the senior most designer that does this. But the senior designer doesn't really have authority over what my role is in the company. I've talked to him about getting help with daily work when I have other projects, and he either gets defensive or agrees but then an day or two later (while I'm still working on said projects) he's back to assigning me other work. My boss is likely not even aware of how tasks are being assigned. In fact he probably has no idea why the work I'm doing is less desirable than the work I thought I'd be doing. The other part of the problem is that bigger projects tend not to be considered a priority. And this is generally company wide so I'm not even sure there is much that can be done. On top of that, some of the work I thought would be exclusively assigned to me based on pre-hiring conversations has either been spread out between the designers or is contracted out to other firms.

I'm really not sure how to approach my boss. I am trying to think of how to put it in terms of this is why its good for the company and not just complain about how I felt the job isn't turning out the way I want it or how the work I'm being assigned is crap. I would really appreciate suggestions about how to frame the conversation.

I'm also wondering, I have my first review in a couple months. Should I wait to talk to my boss until then, or should I do it right away. My gut is right away, but I know my review will include conversations about my job so may lend itself to this type of conversation.

Available for followup at: srslyhatemyjob@gmail.com
posted by anonymous to Work & Money (5 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow, I am in a very similar boat. Same creative design waters, even- just different jobs. So, I don't really know the answer because I've been trying to figure out the same thing.

But for your specific question:
I think an email or quick conversation to the effect of "Hey, with my review coming up, I would like to address taking on a more complex role within the company. I would love it if I could take on full responsibility for X project [one of the bigger jobs you mentioned] and then we could specifically evaluate my performance and duties when it's time for my review." I think framing it like that makes it an easy decision for your boss--and also maybe include the design supervisor--you've already given them the exact job you want, made it easy for them to evaluate a specific job that they would otherwise not be knowledgable about, and you've brought it to their immediate attention that you need to be challenged.

At least see how that goes and then have a more in-depth discussion during your review.
posted by Eicats at 9:51 AM on February 9, 2010


You're on the right track. The trickiest part is to not be perceived as tattling on the Senior Designer. You can go that way and ally yourself with your boss, but it could have some political repercussions.

The easiest approach might be to enforce some boundaries with him. "Shall we try to set aside 15 hours of my time a week to work on this?" ... "Sure, I can do that email blast. Since Thursday and Friday are my Big Project days, I'll send it out first thing on Monday."

Another option you could do would be to talk to him about how you wish you were able to do more on the big project (phrase this as a dissatisfaction with your own level of progress there), and suggest you have a bigger-picture conversation with your boss about how to move that project forward. But I wouldn't do that if you think they might say, "honestly, the email blasts are our biggest priority now, so...sorry."

You could also "run into" your boss, bring it up as an issue ("I'm really enjoying the work, but ... I do feel bad I'm not able to move X forward more quickly.") and then suggest you sit down together with Senior Designer. This starts to have the repercussions as above.

Generally, it sounds like you need to do a few things:

1) build demand for the big project to move forward. Look for allies elsewhere in the organization: who will benefit? One option might be to find a deadline. "So-And-So says they need this Big Project done by May, and at our current rate, we won't finish by then." You will know you've succeeded at this step when you have the key stakeholders agreeing that it's a problem that it's not moving forward, or that it would really bring in a lot more money if it did.

2) Bring this Problem to the Senior Designer and/or your boss. You are trying to help them solve this problem. Get agreement that it should be a priority for your time (does your boss have authority over the SD?).

3) Brainstorm how the more tedious work can come off your plate (here's where your observation about how cheap it would be to pay a college graduate to do it would come in handy).

If you do end up a few months from now not having done all this, I'd present it as part of comparing your work and your achievements to the expectations you have for yourself. "Here is where I spend my time. Here is the full picture of what we've discussed being part of my responsibilities. I could do these Big things, which would have these benefits XYZ, but as this time record shows, these urgent things often come up and pull me away from it, so..."

I feel like this advice is kinda scattershot; hope it helps.
posted by salvia at 12:01 PM on February 9, 2010


Do the larger, more complicated projects exist, or is the work they're giving you to do the work that needs to be done? If there are complicated projects going on that you're being left out of, all you really have to do is make it known that you have the chops and that you would like to be given a chance on one of those projects to show them what you can do. Then when you get the chance -- make sure you deliver.

But if the more complicated work just doesn't exist, it is pretty hard to make it exist. You can do it -- "hey, we should be doing this! And I'm just the guy to make it happen..." But if the company doesn't see the same value in it than you do, their perspective will be, "why isn't he doing what we're paying him to do?" So, choose wisely. If the work you want simply doesn't exist at this company, the easiest thing to do might be just to move on.
posted by spilon at 12:46 PM on February 9, 2010


If they could have a fresh college grad doing your work for a fraction of what they pay you, then maybe you could pitch it along the lines of "So I've been thinking about efficiency and I'd like to propose that I take over X work that is being contracted out and/or Y work that isn't getting done but could bring Z results to the company. Of course, to do this, I wouldn't have enough time to do A (or "could only do # hours of A a week") but I think an entry-level person at an entry-level salary would be capable of doing A under my guidance/lead/supervision. It seems to me it would be a great move for the company, because just for the cost of an entry-level person/part-time entry-level person, we could save what we're spending on this contract/we could get Y done and therefore make $Z." (Obviously there's some risks if you really think this might lead them to recognize that they could just get rid of you entirely for an entry-level person. But you can play up the more complicated parts of what you're doing, and if you're thinking about leaving anyway it certainly seems like it would be worth a try.)

Or else you might want to consider a two-stage thing where first you ask for the higher-skill projects (and try to get some agreement in principle, even if you know it'll fall apart in practice, that they are higher priority than the low-skill work and thus the low-skill work will get done slower) and then you come back and say "So we talked about doing this in a certain way and it seems like I'm still getting bogged down in the low-skill stuff rather than focusing on the high-skill stuff the way we planned. I'd like to suggest that we hire an entry-level person to..."
posted by EmilyClimbs at 2:45 PM on February 9, 2010


Oh or could you even propose an intern to take over some of the easy low-skill stuff to free you time up for the things you want to work on? I don't know what your field is like, but presumably that would be even cheaper for the company, and might allow you to make clearer distinctions about why you're still valuable (maybe everything you do could be done by a fresh college grad, but you could honestly say "an intern could cover C and D that I do, although we couldn't expect them to do E and F, but I can fit in E and F while also working on the bigger projects"?)
posted by EmilyClimbs at 2:51 PM on February 9, 2010


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