I (22F) found out that I’m doing the work of 2 jobs, and being paid for one. Should I try to negotiate a raise with my boss (56M)?
Several months ago, I (22F) was hired at my first “real” office job after graduation. At my time of hire, the company was hiring for 2 job positions – a payroll position and an assistant position.
I was hired to be the assistant, as their current one was moving on to another job. It’s important to note that I am receiving the salary that the job was posted with (which I of course agreed to).
With such a vague job title, I’ve been doing a lot of different things around the office; including a lot of payroll tasks. I wasn’t sure what was part of my job description and what wasn’t; I’m able to get it all done, so I don’t mind too much.
But I noticed a couple weeks into my job that the company had taken the second job posting down. My boss had also mentioned when I first started that he would “love to get someone else in here, too” so I assumed that they had just decided that adding to the team wasn’t a priority at the moment.
But then, a few days ago one of my coworkers mentioned a previous employee who I hadn’t heard of (it’s a very small company, and everyone is usually pretty open with talking about people who used to work there).
I asked who she was, and he said that she was the “old” payroll employee, “Anna” . I then realized that the payroll position my boss had been hiring for wasn’t an addition to the team, but was actually because of a vacancy.
I also realized that, either when they couldn’t find someone or discovered that I could do those tasks, they had delegated all of this Anna’s old tasks to me, in addition to the tasks of the job I was hired for.
Essentially, I’m doing the duties of 2 jobs, and getting compensated for one.
I feel a little bit deceived, because I was hired with the understanding that someone else would be joining me, and now instead I’m doing their work as well without the pay increase.
I won’t say what my salary is now, but it is not much at all. My boss is a little bit particular, and I’m worried that if I approach him so early on about a raise, he’ll be upset at me (especially because I don’t think I’m supposed to know about Anna). Should I try to negotiate a raise?