Following Edge

Yesterday was the much-anticipated meeting with my boss, where I risked my job in hopes of finding something better. First, I told him that a 20% raise is critically important to me. He doesn't want to hear this, because after 18 years with the company and 11 years in my senior position, I'm making more than he wants to consider already, and the company is so dependent on me for basic operations that they can't give me a take-it-or-leave-it response. He was grateful that I made the discussion easy for him and said he would get back to me soon, but, like I said, he didn't want to hear this and was concerned when I said that I was eager to keep the discussion brief because the second discussion would be something he really didn't want to hear.

Next, I told him that, even with more salary (or any salary), I won't continue doing 80% of the work I currently do. Further, the company would need to hire two people to do that work, including one relatively expensive experienced IT manager. While I was beginning this discussion, I was scared by his facial expression. It appeared to be a combination of deep gut pain and trying to divide 14-digit numbers in his head. As frugal as our company is, the thought of dramatically increasing IT expenses is not something easy to consider.

Let me review this disussion... I need a big raise. You need to hire some people to do my work. Hmmm... do you still have a job for me?

Due to some combination of my well-thought-out discussion, my day of studying David Lieberman's "Get Anyone To Do Anything", and (most prominently) my boss' wise business sense and clear decision-making, he agreed that the company would move ahead quickly with hiring the new staff and told me that he was sure he wanted me to continue with the company doing the programming and project management that I want to be the focus of my career in the future.

Whew! This really limits the odds of looking for a new job later this year, which I was preparing for. Unless the company refuses my raise or unless we can't hire and orient the staff to take over my current work, I expect that I'll be into a more tolerable job (turning the 10% to 20% of my work I like into 80% to 90% of my new job) in 6 to 8 months, as opposed to starting a job hunt. Plus, the company will be able to move forward on badly needed technology improvements made possible by the expanded staff. I'm keeping my fingers crossed optimistically.

In a certain respect, I'm proud of having the guts to risk my job to get what I needed ("I need a raise, you'll need to hire some people to do my work, and do you have a job for me still?"). But, on the other hand, my life has become so difficult and stressful that I had very little choice if I wanted to preserve my health and family. As you can see from my many gripes over the life of this blog, I could have known to do something much sooner. I thought for a while that it was just my health problems, but after I was feeling better, I discovered that I still felt like my job sucked!

Now to get through the next few months doing my job and helping to hire and orient my replacement. As everyone knows, it's easier when there's a light at the end of the tunnel.