Proposing a new job role in a company I don't work for
August 15, 2015 10:33 PM Subscribe
I currently give my time to benefit families of employees of a large international company. I think it's time I was compensated for my work, given the benefits I provide both the company and the families. I'm writing a draft proposal right now. Help me make it awesome!
Right now I lead a community of ~600 spouses and partners of Company X's international employees. I facilitate social and professional networking opportunities, organise education seminars on local schooling/childbirth/insurance/financial advice, act as a sort of helpdesk to answer questions about in-office topics (mostly about benefits or other logistical things that directly or indirectly impact spouses) and have overseen or organised personally many other events or activities, as well as liaising between the company and the spouses/partners.
I hope to convince the local office leads that this would be a valuable role to provide. I rely on a few key employees to support us, which takes away from their day-to-day work, so one benefit is freeing up their time to perform their actual jobs. Another is the more subjective employee happiness that goes with happy spouses and families. I would also be able to support employees who have other support roles (e.g. organising and scheduling language classes and seminars). Finally, there's the PR benefit of being the first of their many international offices to create such a role -- we already are the first and largest of these communities of spouses and have been a model for other offices.
I have a long list of past achievements in the role, and some good data to back up my proposal in the form of growing attendee and membership numbers, biennial "happiness survey" responses and feedback from events and activities. I have good relationships with employees and know of a couple at management level who would probably willingly endorse this proposal.
I'm using this basic framework to set out the proposal.
My biggest struggle will be convincing them that, after 2.5 years of working for free, it's worth their while to make this a paid role.
Lastly, I would really love to work for this company in particular, and doing this role because I love doing it.
What magic words can I invoke to make this happen?
Right now I lead a community of ~600 spouses and partners of Company X's international employees. I facilitate social and professional networking opportunities, organise education seminars on local schooling/childbirth/insurance/financial advice, act as a sort of helpdesk to answer questions about in-office topics (mostly about benefits or other logistical things that directly or indirectly impact spouses) and have overseen or organised personally many other events or activities, as well as liaising between the company and the spouses/partners.
I hope to convince the local office leads that this would be a valuable role to provide. I rely on a few key employees to support us, which takes away from their day-to-day work, so one benefit is freeing up their time to perform their actual jobs. Another is the more subjective employee happiness that goes with happy spouses and families. I would also be able to support employees who have other support roles (e.g. organising and scheduling language classes and seminars). Finally, there's the PR benefit of being the first of their many international offices to create such a role -- we already are the first and largest of these communities of spouses and have been a model for other offices.
I have a long list of past achievements in the role, and some good data to back up my proposal in the form of growing attendee and membership numbers, biennial "happiness survey" responses and feedback from events and activities. I have good relationships with employees and know of a couple at management level who would probably willingly endorse this proposal.
I'm using this basic framework to set out the proposal.
My biggest struggle will be convincing them that, after 2.5 years of working for free, it's worth their while to make this a paid role.
Lastly, I would really love to work for this company in particular, and doing this role because I love doing it.
What magic words can I invoke to make this happen?
Can they easily replace you with a paid (lower) professional? Or would you be genuinely difficult to replace in this market? Because giving them an ultimatum which is pretty much the only way to turn a volunteer position into a paid one when there's no incentive for them to otherwise pay for free labor is smart, but they can equally turn around and say okay, thanks for your service, we're hiring Ms XYZ to professionalise the position as you recommended.
So in your ultimatum, make sure to emphasise or spin what makes you specifically very difficult to replace and that you are excellent value for your services.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 12:12 AM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
So in your ultimatum, make sure to emphasise or spin what makes you specifically very difficult to replace and that you are excellent value for your services.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 12:12 AM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
How about you don't present it as an option between doing or not doing it, but between doing it as choice you could step away from, and as a career where you have the ability to improve your efforts?
"I currently choose to volunteer some of my time to this effort, and I would like to transition from an unassociated volunteer outside the company, to a full time compensated role, working for the company directly, doing the same work but with increased resources and in a way that the company could rely upon and help improve."
posted by gryftir at 12:31 AM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
"I currently choose to volunteer some of my time to this effort, and I would like to transition from an unassociated volunteer outside the company, to a full time compensated role, working for the company directly, doing the same work but with increased resources and in a way that the company could rely upon and help improve."
posted by gryftir at 12:31 AM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
My biggest struggle will be convincing them that, after 2.5 years of working for free, it's worth their while to make this a paid role.
You're proposing a paid role. This is covered by your proposal. The magic term in the proposal is "a formalised role." The 2.5 years invested "proves the value" backed up by all the metrics you can lasso together. If the proposal is good, the value will be apparent against your suggested salary.
Do not threaten or detail what will happen if they don't take you up on this. It's not necessary and is sort of... bad form.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:10 AM on August 16, 2015 [10 favorites]
You're proposing a paid role. This is covered by your proposal. The magic term in the proposal is "a formalised role." The 2.5 years invested "proves the value" backed up by all the metrics you can lasso together. If the proposal is good, the value will be apparent against your suggested salary.
Do not threaten or detail what will happen if they don't take you up on this. It's not necessary and is sort of... bad form.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:10 AM on August 16, 2015 [10 favorites]
I think this depends almost more than anything else on the culture of said international company. Is it Amazon-esque in which families and petty social-stuff is just cruft that gets in the way of Progress and turning the cogs of the machine, or is it a more community-oriented improving the whole employee improves the company sort of place that has above and beyond paid parental leave and such, or did things like offer benefits to same-sex spouses before that was required or even suggested in their main countrie(s)?
I could see places at which they'd say like, yea this is helpful but that's the kind of work that doesn't count as Real Work, and i could also see places where they'd be super on board with this.
I got a little tech centric in there, but i've really seen companies that had cultures that would super support this being formalized, and ones that would see this as needless cruft or even something worse along the lines of womens work.(ugh)
posted by emptythought at 2:20 AM on August 16, 2015
I could see places at which they'd say like, yea this is helpful but that's the kind of work that doesn't count as Real Work, and i could also see places where they'd be super on board with this.
I got a little tech centric in there, but i've really seen companies that had cultures that would super support this being formalized, and ones that would see this as needless cruft or even something worse along the lines of womens work.(ugh)
posted by emptythought at 2:20 AM on August 16, 2015
This isn't the "right now" advice you're requesting, but I think you would find Etienne Wenger's Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity and Cultivating Communities of Practice a revelation.
What you're doing in your volunteer role exactly fits Wenger's definition of a community of practice, and I think you'll find a lot of help there describing the value that you create along with insights into the organizational architectures international corporations use to promote professional communities of practice.
It's not breezy reading--Wenger's work has deep philosophical underpinnings--but I found it very rewarding and think you may, too.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 3:45 AM on August 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
What you're doing in your volunteer role exactly fits Wenger's definition of a community of practice, and I think you'll find a lot of help there describing the value that you create along with insights into the organizational architectures international corporations use to promote professional communities of practice.
It's not breezy reading--Wenger's work has deep philosophical underpinnings--but I found it very rewarding and think you may, too.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 3:45 AM on August 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
It's not clear if you have this role because of your husband's (high) rank or duties traditionally including his wife doing this work, or if you took it on independently of your husband's position. If the former, it's going to be a hard proposal, in part because it would create an expensive precedent, and in part because your husband's pay and perquisites are traditionally seen to include compensation for his wife's work. (This is the case for wives of military commanders, for example).
posted by MattD at 10:13 AM on August 16, 2015
posted by MattD at 10:13 AM on August 16, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
"I regret to say that I will be forced to step down from my role as leader of [COMMUNITY] if [COMPANY] is not able to provide compensation for this role."
posted by saeculorum at 10:44 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]