How to Ask for a Raise in New Job (Is It Warranted?)

February 21, 2022 6:57 PM

In my third week at a new job, was asked last week to train a new colleague. Also been assigned tasks that are more involved than what was discussed in the interview, and they are growing in complexity on a daily basis. Do not mind the work and do not struggle with it, but desire adequate compensation. Am I already receiving adequate compensation, or is asking for a raise warranted? If so, how do I do this when it is only Week #3?

I just had double-jaw surgery last month, and am taking a leave of absence from my job as a high-school mathematics teacher through the end of the academic year (June). Due to my benefits soon expiring, and needing to ensure that my follow-up orthodontic work would be covered by insurance, I got a new job in early February at a tax firm (woohoo!).

The job is going very well, and today begins my third week there. When I interviewed with the company in January, they told me that my duties would include general office admin work, as well as basic data entry from client taxes into our tax program. They were excited about me having a mathematics degree and previously teaching, and also said that I would be doing basic work with numbers. I signed an offer letter with the job title of 'Tax Admin Assistant' (no job description listed, only what we spoke about in the interview). I agreed to a compensation of $23.00/hour (I am in California), as this is just slightly less than what I was making as a teacher. I can also set my own schedule as long as I work at least 30 hours per week (full-time).

During my first week, everything was making perfect sense, and I was able to complete the assigned tasks quickly and efficiently. My boss and supervisor were both impressed with how quickly I was catching on, and in my second week (last week), they asked me to train a new colleague. This took over 2 full workdays of training, and during this time I was not able to complete my own assigned tasks. My boss seemed irritated at this when they asked if I had completed the packages that they assigned earlier those days. I explained that I was helping the new colleague enter and complete their packages, and later asked them for clarification on how they would like me to prioritize my time.

Aside from training a new colleague while still in the process of learning the job myself, I have also recently been assigned various projects that involve deep critical and mathematical thinking. While I enjoy this work and do not experience difficulty with it, it is something that further takes away time in the tax entries that I was originally assigned. Although it is only the third week, there seems to be a pattern wherein my boss and supervisor recognize my abilities, and assign me more complex work. Again, this is not a problem. However, I am wondering if it is warranted to earn a raise for this?

As a teacher, I was conditioned to keep working before the workday, after workdays, and weekends without compensation. This was an expectation that I succumbed to out of fear of not being a good teacher ("But don't you even care about the kids?"), and then finally had enough. It is abusive the way teachers are treated in my district, and it is a toxic environment that I was no longer going to enable for myself. In 2020 during the pandemic, I finally started setting boundaries. I started asking my principal for timesheets that I could submit for compensation for my extra work time, and they made excuses that the district wouldn't be able to pay for it. So, I stopped doing it. I have often felt like a magnet for being taken advantage of, simply because I am "able" to do it. Because I am genuinely happy to be doing the work and will do a good job, many employers have interpreted this as a way to take advantage of me financially. I do not want to under-represent my abilities, and I want to be compensated for the hard work that I am putting in. Now that I am finding a similar pattern at this new job, I am not quite sure how to navigate the situation. Should I even be asking for a raise? If so, how do I do this after only 3 weeks? I do not want to seem ungrateful, but at the same time, some of the tasks they are assigning seem to warrant a bit more compensation.

posted by Jangatroo to Work & Money (15 answers total)

Should I even be asking for a raise? If so, how do I do this after only 3 weeks?

Yes, you should ask for a raise if you think the work is beyond what your employer expectations of the role are.

No, a raise request after three weeks on the job is unlikely to succeed - I would try after three months.

A potential middle ground is asking your manager what that the process for promotion/advancement/career development at your company is. Most all managers when asked that question will have a decent idea of what you're looking for.
posted by saeculorum at 7:20 PM on February 21, 2022 [9 favorites]

You should absolutely be fairly compensated for the work that you're doing, but given your very short tenure I would be concerned with such a request making you seem difficult. Try telling your manager that given the wide scope of your job responsibilities, you'd like a performance evaluation at 12 weeks. During such an evaluation you can talk about a wage that is more commensurate with your duties. And get it all in writing!

On preview, basically what saeculoum said.
posted by mezzanayne at 8:13 PM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

It may be early for a simple raise, but it’s not too early for a promotion—if they’re edging you into a role where you’re doing much more valuable work than what they hired you for. You should try to find out if they have a defined position for what they’re having you do, and see if it’s possible that you could be reassigned. I think it’s a long shot, based on how companies typically work, but you never know. Anyway, even if they won’t do that, don’t let them pretend you’re not extra valuable to them.
posted by skewed at 8:30 PM on February 21, 2022

Keep bugging them for how they want you to prioritize and always put your simplest work first.
posted by bleep at 8:31 PM on February 21, 2022 [7 favorites]

> finally started setting boundaries
> later asked them for clarification on how they would like me to prioritize my time.

this is great, good for you! keep it up

also - re: boundaries, if you're not already doing it, i strongly recommend keeping all work documents, calls and emails to work-only devices (e.g. a work laptop or work phone), then you can turn all the work things off outside of the hours you are paid to be on call to answer them.

re: the money

it might be helpful if you can gather information about what market rates are for the same role or different roles with comparable skillsets and experience with other companies. e.g. you might learn that 5 peer companies of your new employer pay at most $24 / hour for someone performing your role with a year of experience -- in which case maybe you're basically fairly paid -- or you might learn that one of the peer companies would happily pay you $35 / hour to bring you on right now, which might be useful information to bring to a performance & salary negotiation --- assuming you don't immediately jump ship!

If you're able to get in touch with contacts (friends, family, former colleagues or classmates) who are familiar with your new industry, they might also be able to help clue you in on how much roles typically pay and how progression and advancement usually work.

For what it's worth, in my field (the wonderful world of software) there's usually a pretty big jump in value and pay between a fresh graduate with potential but no industry experience and the same graduate after a year or two experience on real projects -- the latter can typically expect to see a pretty significant pay rise, but they might have to switch employers to obtain it.

Also, if you're at a tax firm, another angle to consider might be what role you play in helping the business make money. Maybe they hired you for office admin and data entry, to support the people finding work and grinding away delivering it, but now they've figured out they can actually use your quantitative and analysis skills to grind away and help deliver some more valuable chunks of billable work for their clients. In which case maybe they're getting you to do some billable work that would usually be handled by some kind of analyst role (??).
posted by are-coral-made at 8:39 PM on February 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

You'll probably have better luck if you wait until the first performance appraisal and hopefully time it at a fiscal budget timing. You collect these things for a while and then present them at the right time. Then you get the raise or the promotion. Too soon.

Unless it's totally out of your range of expectations of performance. Prove you're worthy and can handle outside things with grace. Wait a while before starting to press.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:15 PM on February 21, 2022

during this time I was not able to complete my own assigned tasks. My boss seemed irritated at this when they asked if I had completed the packages that they assigned earlier those days

Do the job you were hired to do first, unless you have written correspondence which clearly labels the tradeoff: "Dear Boss, per our conversation today I am delaying completing items X, Y, and Z to train new person/do something else. Sincerely, Jangatroo". When bosses say "can you train person?" they're usually thinking an implicit "and do everything else you previously agreed to on time" because, like all of us humans, they're optimists or stupid depending on your POV.

I'd make sure I'm consistently doing my main work well first before branching out (3 weeks, and you're already falling behind/mismanaging expectations at least once) and would pump the brakes on them assigning more complex work.
posted by flimflam at 10:07 PM on February 21, 2022 [11 favorites]

It does sound like you merit a raise but 3 weeks is a bit early. I'd ask around 2-3 months in.

If it works in your office culture, I would start sending your boss a weekly or biweekly email with a list of all the projects you have on the go, and the status of each. It keeps your achievements top-of-mind and is easy evidence that you deserve the raise.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 12:06 AM on February 22, 2022

Another perspective: they were starting you slow and warming you up. Maybe it's only now that you are working at their expected rate.
posted by Thella at 12:51 AM on February 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

Honestly if it's only a short term contract in between your teaching jobs, is it really worth the headache of asking for a raise? They know you are not planning to stay long term, so it's unlikely they will grant the raise, and it will just create an awkward vibe for the rest of your time there. I know it's hard, but maybe just try not being the best possible employee evar, save your energy for your time outside work. I can tell you are a passionate person, which makes you probably a star employée. But taxes are not your passion! So save your hardest work for when you go back to the kids and use this time to focus on things outside of work.
posted by winterportage at 6:55 AM on February 22, 2022 [8 favorites]

To be blunt, I don't think they're going to give you a raise or promotion but at the same time you shouldn't volunteer to work beyond the capabilities of the job description that was offered you. Whether you want to have a heart to heart with your manager on, "what I'm being asked to do is far beyond what I'm paid to do - do you want to consider putting me into a more appropriate position (with a raise)?" is far more subjective than we can really weigh in on. But going far above and beyond early in a new position, per my experience, will only get you taken advantage of.
posted by Candleman at 9:37 AM on February 22, 2022 [3 favorites]

No, I wouldn't ask for a raise - way too soon (you've only actually completed 2 weeks), they know you're just a temp and so aren't going to feel like they benefit from developing a sense of loyalty in you, and it doesn't sound like you're actually meeting their expectations.

But most importantly - this seems like more an issue of workload than pay. I'd communicate with your manager in whatever medium is most comfortable to you, and make it clear that in 30hrs, you were able to accomplish all the work handed over to you in week one, but in week two the amount of work was too much to accomplish in 30hrs. And then see what the manager says. Maybe they'll say "Ok, we are willing to pay you for more hours" or maybe they'll say "Okay, we'd prefer to just give you a set weekly rate rather than an hourly rate" or they'll say "Tough, the workload of week 2 was the actually workload, week 1 was just a warm-up." If their answer is unfavorable to you, your best option is likely to apply to other jobs.
posted by coffeecat at 11:45 AM on February 22, 2022

Another though I just had - I wonder if they perhaps wrongly assumed that because you have teaching experience, you'd have an easier time training a new employee, not realizing that in teaching, new "preps" are always much more time consuming. Again, something worth clarifying with them.
posted by coffeecat at 12:13 PM on February 22, 2022

Training someone while being new yourself is pretty common. As mentioned above, you help the person while still focusing on your primary duties. Most managers would not expect you to stop doing your regular tasks. I am usually showing the new person how to do things by having them watch me work while I explain the steps or they work alongside me.

If you have assigned tasks (entering tax data) and the new tasks are keeping you from doing that, I would bring that to your manager's attention. Can you gauge whether the more analytical work will be ongoing or occasional?

Job descriptions never include all duties but if you feel like you were hired for job A and are now doing job B, you should have a frank discussion about it.
posted by shoesietart at 7:16 PM on February 22, 2022

Response by poster: Thank you all so much for your helpful responses. This is why I love Metafilter! Everyone is always thoughtful in their answers, but at the same time says what needs to be said, versus what someone might want them to say.

I will not be discussing a raise with my boss this early on, per folks’ advice. Two or three months down the line is a reasonable feat. And I didn’t clarify this earlier, but I do not plan to go back to teaching in August. I told my boss this last week, as in my interview I was still undecided. They were happy to hear it, which makes me feel more secure in knowing my value there (and knowing that they know my value, too).

Yesterday my boss and I were discussing an Excel project that was heavy on accounting skills. They said that I would make a great accountant, and suggested taking online classes through a local community college. I asked, “Do you have any scholarships?” to which they responded, “We can definitely consider that.” So, to me it seems like they do know my value and would be willing to pay for me to further my skills.

But then today, they assigned me an even more accounting-heavy project. I thought to myself, So they know I do not have much accounting experience but work well with numbers and learn quickly, and are basically assigning me work that an accountant would do, without having to pay me an accountant’s salary. Am I imagining this or taking it out of context?
posted by Jangatroo at 5:12 PM on February 24, 2022