One possibility is that I will become the group leader for the SAP department. The senior SAP developer is mostly just that a developer, he's not interested in being a leader. As the boss wants to expand our department to more than just two of us I may end up with that role.
Who leads now with the two of you? At this company, I used to lead the graphics dept, so anything would come to me from the boss and I'd "delegate" to the graphics guy/gal. Since I've left and returned, they have more responsibilities that don't affect my projects, so I really don't know who he answers to now
I think he has three bosses (myself being one of them) but ultimately the boss has the final say of course. Where this falls apart though is two areas:
First, his priorities, at least as far as my needs go. I just assume he's working on something more important (I'm just working in a dev environment, I don't care if it's ugly and buttons are on the screen where I thew them) and that causes projects to sometimes get held up because I've finished but he still needs to pretty it up.
Second, he does know a touch of code, mostly js/jQuery for doing fancy things on screen, and if he gets stuck he's the type to keep researching/testing/etc till he figures it out. In theory that's great, but when he can just ask me and save a few hours, not so great. Since I'm not keeping tabs on his projects, I never realize when he's doing that, and I'm not the type to constantly ask "what are you working on?"
Not exactly what I expected but I'd be willing to do the job.
With a small team it shouldn't be so bad, especially if you are doing it as you grow the team. I seriously need to figure out something for this company, we're starting to drop the ball in places... at least I finally got the boss to update the "new client on-boarding checklist" since sales has a bad habit of telling people it does everything and more (which is typical of sales) and the department that trains & helps set up the software isn't aware of what has been sold. (But all of that is really outside of my scope as a developer... and an indicator that I'm not just a developer (although I would like to be))
In any case it looks good, and I'll finish my probationary time at the end of May, get a little raise (he also said that I'll probably get that anyway) and then I nice two week vacation in June.
Very awesome! I forget how much vacation time I get since it's pretty laid back here. I've already taken 8 "half" days so far (and have at least three more) with dental work
I've also taken at least 1 full sick day. The office manager says he really only bothers when a person starts taking off a lot. Speaking of things the office manager keeps tabs on... we were discussing previous employees once and got to the topic of unemployment benefits. He keeps a log of some sort in the event a person is let go and they choose to fight the request (kind of :poop:ty, but as a small company it does jack up their taxes considerably)... I attempted to pry for him to tell me what's in my "file" (or better yet, that I don't have one) at least twice and he changed the subject each time...
While it's nice you and your boss get along together, if you are not being paid a fair wage for all that you do, then he's technically taking advantage of you.
I fully agree and I try not to think of it that way (or it will make me angry/resentful) and rather stick to the "we're a small company that isn't making what a larger one would" (as well as the laid back attitude (for the most part, there was that dust up about Saturdays just a month or so ago) where I could simply decide I have things to do elsewhere and take off right now). I do have a bit of access to the numbers (I did write the system that invoices our clients) but I'm not sure what our overhead is (like rent, servers, employee salaries) so I can't say. I do know he "poor mouths" quite a bit (like there is a part of his car needing repair, but since it's aesthetic he's waiting for our high season) or saying that he's not getting paid this month... (which I think he could be doing to make us not ask for money, but it doesn't help morale
)
Of course he's not going to give you a raise just for the heck of it, you'll have to ask. Give him an email to set up an appointment do the asking face-to-face. Mention in the email that you have a lot of responsibility, and you are currently paid below the average for your position.
Yup... I'm going to try to set aside some time to work on that this weekend.
During the personal discussion you can mention all the things you do for the company, and show him that for someone with your experience and responsibility you should be making on average X amount.
I do have some data that recruiter acquaintances have sent me, not sure if I should print that out or just verbally mention since if he needs proof he can easily search it. I also can't decide if I should "undercut" myself right off the bat... of course I think everyone would say not to but I think the first number I'm going to throw out (33%) might be a shock
So I'm thinking something along the lines of "Only considering my programming and not the other responsibilities or off the clock items I handle, the average salary for this city is [33%] but to be honest I would be happy with [20%]." Because honestly, I would be (and hopefully it is received as "
, 33%? I can't afford him, he's going to leave, what are we going to do!?! Oh wait, 20%, it'll be tight but we can manage it.". Sure I would be ecstatic with the 33%, but at 20% I can still bitch that I'm underpaid when I need to
This is like when someone tells a graphic artist "hey, I want you to work on my project, but you'll be paid by letting people see what you can do." nope that's not the way to go.
lol yeah, no, I have 20'ish years experience, I don't need more "exposure" or "internship."
[snip]
So where does bonks go when he's not here?
Speaking of dental work... I probably mentioned it (actually last time it was an issue was around the time this place started, so maybe not) but when I had my wisdom teeth out in 1997'ish, the Dr "broke" my jaw (nothing major, just splintering of the socket, not very common but does happen)...
At the time, I thought I was getting strep throat as it hurt to swallow... turns out there was a piece of bone jutting out and was stabbing my tongue when I swallowed. I called up the dentist (I was kind of mad too) so he had me in the next morning to "round it off" and eventually it came out on its own.
Then in about 2003 it happened again... Although this time I took matters into my own hands (literally) and with a bit of cutting & prying managed to remove it myself.
And now... it appears to be back... not as bad as the previous two times (yet) and not through the gum (yet) but the side of my tongue is a bit raw... I texted my dental student (who is actually done with me, my last tooth will be done by someone else there) and she said she will ask her faculty what I should do and get back to me today... so we'll see. [UPDATE] Won't be able to be seen till the 28th... They do have an emergency number if I need, but I think I'll be ok, I've a pretty high pain tolerance. [/UPDATE]
Last night was the 6th sitting of my chest tattoo (not counting the two skulls done in one sitting each) and the background is finally done! Only thing left is to color the skull on my left (which he'll want to re-outline as it is nearly 20 years old but should only take one sitting):
http://imgur.com/a/GBiBPI have a couple shows tonight, there is a big event and one of my favorite local bands is playing (last) but somehow I don't care for any of the other bands
so I'm going to one venue for most of the night, then popping over there for their set. They are holding two t-shirts for me (they were printed right before they went on tour (like hours before) so I had them set me some aside and this will be the first time catching up with them since they got back a couple weeks ago) so I kind of have to go
Not sure about tomorrow though... the calendar looks bleak :tumbleweed:
