my boss is going on maternity leave in about 3 weeks, and my employer is expecting to divide the duties among a few of us foot soldiers, rather than hire somebody to fill the gap.
i'm new (3yrs) to the office/corporate world in my field and don't know what expectations are from management, but i need some input from people with similar experiences.
context: i work at a small land developer/home building company in yyc.
am i obligated to accept any additional roles or duties they push my way? do i have the ability to refuse additional workload without being 'blackballed' (for lack of better term)? should i be expecting any additional compensation for any extra duties i incur? am i a fool for considering rejecting an increase workload/responsibility?
all constructive input welcomed!
I was in a similar position, I took on a role in addition to mine for a 6 month (ragged out to 2 year period).
This role allowed me to leap frog many in front of me for another role when the opportunity came up. Had I not jumped at that opportunity, I wouldn't have had my name and work known when a promotion came along. That 6 months translated into a higher role and 25% compensation bump.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Corporal Jean-Marc H. BECHARD, 6 Aug 1993
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
Just ignore me...I'm in a mood today.
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I was in a similar position, I took on a role in addition to mine for a 6 month (ragged out to 2 year period).
This role allowed me to leap frog many in front of me for another role when the opportunity came up. Had I not jumped at that opportunity, I wouldn't have had my name and work known when a promotion came along. That 6 months translated into a higher role and 25% compensation bump.
Glad to hear it works for some. Were you the only one that had the opportunity or did coworkers also take on extra work?
On a side note, if you do take on the extra work as a team, be sure your work is noticed and seen. Don't hunker down and do it quietly. Those who make a bigger show of it are noticed and get the reward, regardless if your own work possibly had a bigger impact.
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Last edited by BlackArcher101; 01-29-2020 at 01:13 PM.
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Given the industry you're in and the state of affairs, this doesn’t really sound different than a lay-off where they are reducing staff, due to the slower work load. In that scenario you’d be glad to have made the cut; and fortunate for the employer that they can perhaps defer a layoff due to normal attrition for the time being.
Everyone had the opportunity to take on the work, I saw the opportunity coming and raised my hand early and often.
Some other took on work, some decided not to take on work.
When my current role came up I know that another guy (who is qualified) put in for it, but he declined to be involved earlier when i put my hand up.
Sounds like a sort of different scenario than OP then, as the bosses workload will be spread among others as well, and probably not looking for volunteers. In that case, not everyone can get that promotion (if it's one role) and some will certainly felt taken advantage of.
I guess what I'm saying is, do it to save your current role, don't piss anyone off, but don't do it for the sole reason you expect a promotion.
Sounds like a sort of different scenario than OP then, as the bosses workload will be spread among others as well, and probably not looking for volunteers. In that case, not everyone can get that promotion (if it's one role) and some will certainly felt taken advantage of.
I guess what I'm saying is, do it to save your current role, don't piss anyone off, but don't do it for the sole reason you expect a promotion.
Opportunity comes in all shapes and sizes.
__________________
Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Maternity leave can be up to a year? This is not just a couple weeks of giving up your free time; be prepared to be challenged and do your best no matter how it rolls out. Win or lose you always feel better if you played your best.
Maternity leave can be up to a year? This is not just a couple weeks of giving up your free time; be prepared to be challenged and do your best no matter how it rolls out. Win or lose you always feel better if you played your best.
That's crazy advice. Put your energy into your friends, family and your health. Don't put your energy into some company without fair compensation. You have a finite well of energy from which to draw. I don't know how you can feel great about giving too much to a business to make someone else rich without getting your cut.
If you want a challenge, challenge yourself to camp more, or ride your bike more, or have more parties or to leave your desk and your work behind at 4:30 everyday to the extent you're able to do that. Challenge yourself to work less this year; not more.
Go talk to anybody retired and ask them about the good ol' days. Exactly zero will talk about how they liked working super hard and 100% will talk about friends, family, and cool crap they did.
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Make yourself indispensable. This will help you gain leverage and put you on the map. If you ask now, you might get a marginal raise, but not sure it does any long term favours and could put other people ahead of you.
Make yourself more attractive, and then when you have more leverage, ask for the promotion and corresponding raise!
Figure out the work you/your boss did that no one actually asks for or needs, or is redundant. Stop doing that work so you can effectively do the new stuff. Then brag about how great you are at cutting red tape and finding efficiencies.
Definitely take on the additional responsibilities. Also, if your boss didn't have confidence that you could do it, he/she would not have suggested you.
That's crazy advice. Put your energy into your friends, family and your health. Don't put your energy into some company without fair compensation. You have a finite well of energy from which to draw. I don't know how you can feel great about giving too much to a business to make someone else rich without getting your cut.
If you want a challenge, challenge yourself to camp more, or ride your bike more, or have more parties or to leave your desk and your work behind at 4:30 everyday to the extent you're able to do that. Challenge yourself to work less this year; not more.
Go talk to anybody retired and ask them about the good ol' days. Exactly zero will talk about how they liked working super hard and 100% will talk about friends, family, and cool crap they did.
I am retired and am proud of how hard I worked and how much fun I had doing it. Time off was definitely focused on quality family time so I feel I got the best of both worlds. It’s all about attitude.
I am retired and am proud of how hard I worked and how much fun I had doing it. Time off was definitely focused on quality family time so I feel I got the best of both worlds. It’s all about attitude.
It's not all about attitude. You can't attitude your way out of an unreasonable work/life balance and you can't attitude your way out of unfair compensation.
In this post it sounds like you had a good job since you had so much fun. Most jobs are so much work, especially when you propose taking on more work to add to your work because work is its own reward. Barf.
I'm trying to guide my kids into careers where they don't have to work as hard as your average chump. We talk about being a teacher a lot in my house and my daughter even has a little fake class she teaches in her room complete with a whiteboard, lesson plans, etc. I'd kill to see them having summers off, winter vacation off, spring break off, only having to be at their job six or seven hours a day (I realize there is marking on some nights, but every job will have that bit extra that needs doing), and then retiring early with a bulletproof pension and insane benefits.
Maternity leave can be up to a year? This is not just a couple weeks of giving up your free time; be prepared to be challenged and do your best no matter how it rolls out. Win or lose you always feel better if you played your best.
Maternity leave can be in excess of 18 months via the government mandated 18 months plus several months of short term disability if there are pregnancy complications (ie: preeclampsia).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sliver
It's not all about attitude. You can't attitude your way out of an unreasonable work/life balance and you can't attitude your way out of unfair compensation.
In this post it sounds like you had a good job since you had so much fun. Most jobs are so much work, especially when you propose taking on more work to add to your work because work is its own reward. Barf.
I'm trying to guide my kids into careers where they don't have to work as hard as your average chump. We talk about being a teacher a lot in my house and my daughter even has a little fake class she teaches in her room complete with a whiteboard, lesson plans, etc. I'd kill to see them having summers off, winter vacation off, spring break off, only having to be at their job six or seven hours a day (I realize there is marking on some nights, but every job will have that bit extra that needs doing), and then retiring early with a bulletproof pension and insane benefits.
Agreed. But let's not over berate a good working man attitude.
Attitude can only go so far and now there's so much weird social flexing that is also required as part of the political games and gymnastics that is prevalent in so many work places. People will not automatically sing your praises for you. You must either find someone who will sing them on your behalf, or get others to notice you so that you get the appropriate recognition.
Hard workers with their head down get turfed for stupid reasons like, not a team player, kinda an awkward person, didn't know anything of what they were doing, barely even saw them around the break room etc. That's definitely a shift from before. It's sadly a lot about how visible you are these days.
Then it's not about results but hard work image. Perhaps call it attitude of others to you. Someone can sell their soul to the company and do 16 hour days to finish the work because this person is an idiot who spends more time spinning their wheels on futility, and that person is considered hard working. This vs the "lazy" but competent person who finishes the same work in 6 hours and goes home on time. It's stupid.
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Good for you, my mother spent 35 years in a classroom and was a highly respected icon of the community, mostly because of her attitude. I was a blue collar worker with many different jobs, some not quite as much fun as others because of the attitudes of fellow workers.
“Weird social flexing “ ran into some of that on my last job when I was getting too old to give a damn. Annual employee assessment asking where you want to be in 5 years, home in bed was not a viable response.
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“Weird social flexing “ ran into some of that on my last job when I was getting too old to give a damn. Annual employee assessment asking where you want to be in 5 years, home in bed was not a viable response.
Was it something like this scene, replace "crime" with "hired" and "rehabilitated" with "retirement"?