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I understand that job duties can be added at employer will, and I accept that, but this one has me in a tizzy...

...I accepted a job 3 years ago and negotiated salary based on the fact that I would not be doing a specific duty. I was assured the company had other resources to take care of these duties so I negotiated my salary as such (if I am responsible for this, I want more. If I'm not, I'll take less.)

Fast forward a couple years, now I'm doing these duties because the other resources do not complete the tasks at hand or bill us for work being done on site or after hours. I'm being asked to do these jobs to 'save the company a buck', yet I am declining responsibility because I was told I would need to worry about it plus took a lower salary because I shouldn't be doing it in the first place. The money I've been saving them has been huge in some cases, so I asked for a slice of the pie to compensate for my time and fixing what our resource has broken.

I've made this issue clear with management and asked for a raise to reflect this, but I get responses like "That's out of our budget, why can't you do that?" which is frustrating because they know why. I'm not the guy who should be doing this. Just because our resource isn't doing it's job, why should I be responsible for picking up their slack when I was told I wouldn't have to? I've been more than patient with them on this, but it's affecting my work quality because I'm doing 30-40% of their job and 60-70% of mine. I feel like I've been lied to and they are just going to make me deal with it. They're ignoring the issues at hand and I'm eating their mistakes basically. I've asked them to bring someone on site to take care of these duties but they can't adjust the budget or have some excuse....

How can I respond to make it clear that I expect a higher wage since this is contrary to the scope in which I hired?

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    Was the result of your negotiations committed to a written document & signed by all parties? IOW, do you have a contract that states that these duties are not your responsibility under your current arrangement? – alroc Apr 9 '14 at 19:47
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    I second @alroc's comment. Even if you have an email chain showing this, you have justification here to complain. Unfortunately, that may be all you can do, complain, because you may be given the option of "do this new thing, or we'll find someone who will". – Garrison Neely Apr 9 '14 at 19:50
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    I do not know that there is much you can do beside find a new job but lets hope someone else does! You may want to clarify if you are unwilling to consider that option. Otherwise I fear you may end up with a handful of just quit answers. – IDrinkandIKnowThings Apr 9 '14 at 19:58
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    possible alternative point of view: My job responsibility is more than is noted in job description. How do I decline these additional responsibilities? – CMW Apr 9 '14 at 20:52
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  1. Make sure that the caveat about your responsibilities is properly included in your contract or agreement.

  2. Document your time - what portion of your time is on your actual responsibilities, and what portion is on the extra stuff. Make sure it is documented - don't just go in with a fuzzy "30-40%".

  3. Take your contract and time document to a meeting with your management and ask for a raise. You probably won't get a raise unless you can also demonstrate that the extra work requires more skill or effort than your regular work.

  4. Either be happy with any raise they give you along with an updated agreement to include the new responsibilities, or update your resume and start looking for a new job

Chances are, your company is of the opinion that what they get you to do with the time they pay you for is up to them and not you - leaving you with the choice of doing it for no extra pay or moving on to somewhere else. If it's only a rare or irregular thing (you could be overestimating the time spent because of your dislike), then stay - if it is 30-40%, as you say, then it's time to go.

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It is clear they have no intention of resolving this to you satisfaction based on what they have told you so far.

You have two options.

  1. Threaten to quit
  2. Quit.

The best recourse for you at this point is to find another job (number 2). In doing so, you should assume that your responsibilities will grow and you should get as high a salary as possible. If you threaten to quit, and get your demands met, you will damage your reputation with management and have issues down the line. I can already sense in the wording you have used that you may have already damaged your reputation.

I personally think your mistake here was taking the "lower" salary in the first place. Having been in that situation myself, the only way I was able to rectify that problem was to get another job that better met where I was in my career.

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