I have recently been offered a job extension from my company. My manager said it’s been a great moment to work for them due to growing business and because they have a lot of ongoing projects.
He gave me one day to accept or turn down the offer. That looks quite a short deadline to me, but I didn’t pay much attention because the manager looked optimistic and so was I. So I signed the offer, turning down other opportunities.
However, a couple weeks later, my colleagues and I started to see indicators that raise some concern about the actual financial situation of our company:
- some of the main activities have not secured funding yet. That news totally came out of the blue, from senior employees. It was never discussed before, until funding was not secured within the expected date.
- even worse, we came to know that new employees are being hired for lower salaries and reduced benefits.
- a series of other small things that taken alone would not bother me much, but which are coming together with all the above (e.g., the prices at the company’s canteen have suddenly increased).
Now, these indicators don’t seem to be really coherent with my manager claims of growing business, projects and opportunities. Management couldn’t NOT know already of these things. Looking back on it, even the fact that they wanted my answer straight after the extension offer, is making me think. If I was offered the same offer today, I would certainly want more information before accepting and turning down other places.
What I am worried in particular, is that a bad financial period could hurt my future chances of salary increase (and eventually promotion). They cannot cut my salary, by law of my country, but they can certainly offer lower or less frequent increases.
Given that my manager’s claims were a decisive factor in deciding to stay at this company, and given that some other opportunities could still be available, I would like to understand better what’s going on.
Considering that my manager may have already sweetened the pill once, do you have advice on how to approach him on the subject?
A note: they didn’t raise my salary with the extension offer because increases and promotions are determined at the end of the solar year. For the same reason, I will have to wait till December to see if and how much will I get.