End of year reviews and when to ask for a raise? Or how I learned to love the unemployment line

September 11, 2007 4:32 PM

When to ask for a raise in the rush to the year-end-review. I've taken on quite a few hats in the last year and pushed myself quite a bit into more responsibility.

I work in IT, initially the lone IT tech doing desktop and server support. The end of this month will be my 3 year anniversary with this company (this is my first IT job). Now my responsibilities have gone from desktop and simple server support to a multitude of server platforms/vendors, virtualization, network administration and R&D, you name it, as well as working with the other IT guy, whom I 'mentor' 90% of the time.

I am building documentation of the projects I've completed this year as well as recently becoming an IT representative for our company during overseas meetings with a worldwide customer in the past month (during which I was complimented by the CEO who attended).

I plan on asking my manager for a decent raise that I feel is competitive for my job duties. I have always gotten a bump every year but I really feel I can seize this year's accomplishments. While our company is not huge, our department has been the money maker for the last 2.5 years, but they tend to underpay when you look at the average salary doing what I'm tasked with.

December is when we find out our bonuses, get reviewed and usually get a small raise. So, has anyone else "jumped the gun" on talking pay increase? I'm wise enough not to ambush him with this one :)

posted by ronmexico to Work & Money (4 answers total)

An intriguing question. Here's my take on it, but someone might have a good reason why I'm wrong:

Talk to your boss just before you fill out your self-assessment or what have you; say "You've been very fair to me in the past, and I've been very happy with the raises you've given me, and the feedback you've given both positive and negative. But this year, I feel like I really hit it out of the park; I did [this thing] and [that thing], and [that thing with the thing], and I'm really proud of those things. My self-assessment is going to reflect that, and I have no doubt that your feedback is going to be helpful and fair -- but I know you don't have absolute control over compensation increases and promotions, so I wanted to get a heads-up from you: assuming you agree with my assessment of my accomplishments this year, do you have the leeway to consider a larger raise and/or a promotion for me this time around, or should I start setting my expectations that anything like that may be deferred to a later time?"

Then again, I have a relationship with my boss -- heck, with almost every boss I've ever had -- where I can say things like that. Meanwhile, congratulations on an excellent year!
posted by davejay at 4:56 PM on September 11, 2007 [2 favorites]

I am a boss myself, and I really think davejay's response is a good way to go. In writing something like that, you aren't exactly complaining about your salary or threatening to leave if you aren't rewarded. However, unless your boss is utterly clueless, he'll read between the lines and see that you probably WILL be unhappy if you don't get an increase. It's up to him to decide how much your happiness is worth to him and to the organization, and from all the responsibilities you've described, he'll know (at least in theory) that it would be wise to keep you pleased and well-motivated. Good luck!
posted by sherlockt at 9:46 PM on September 11, 2007

You don't get a raise for taking on more responsibility; you get a raise for producing more results. How are you doing a better job with your responsibilities than any other warm body? THAT is the justification for a raise.

Put on your business hat and quantify your accomplishments. How have you positively impacted customer service, uptime, and the budget in numbers? If you're making the company money, you'll get more money.
posted by bfranklin at 6:07 AM on September 12, 2007

I patently disagree with bfranklin. As an illustrative example: If you "hang around the front desk and trouble-shoot people's laptop problems" and then go to a "run the entire company's technology infrastructure" position, you're going to (or SHOULD) get paid more. If you don't you should consider your options and potentially look for other work.
posted by mbatch at 10:00 AM on September 12, 2007