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I am currently working as a sole contributor from offshore. There are 4 more team members on-site. My employer is impressed with my work and wants to add more engineers like me. He wants to increase the offshore team size.

If we get a new engineer then I would have to spend considerable amount of time beyond my work hours to train the new guy. I have learnt current work the hard way and no one has spoon fed me. My salary negotiation would be coming for discussion in the next few months.

Is it possible that I can negotiate something in return for onboarding a new engineer?

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  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – enderland
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 19:49

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Why would you spend "considerable amount of time beyond your work hours" to train the new guy? Just ask your boss how many working hours you should spend training the new guy, and do as he says.

Training new team members is also work. The company trains new people because they hope to gain from it, it is not a leisure activity done after work hours. Naturally, that comes at a cost, the cost being the current team member's time, which the company should be willing to bear.

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    +1 You need to come up with a plan your bosses agree with to use Work Time to get the new guy up to speed. You need to treat this not as a hindrance, but something that will help you be more productive later down the line. If this goes well and you recruit more, you could be seen as a "Team Leader" or something and that would help with salary reviews. Simply showing a new guy the ropes isn't doing anything other than your job
    – Andrew Berry
    Commented Mar 2, 2017 at 8:42
  • "...the company should be willing to bear" but they wouldn't be the first company/manager to ask a worker to do more without any additional compensation.
    – user8365
    Commented Mar 2, 2017 at 17:24
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    @JeffO Right but that doesn't mean the OP should volunteer to work for free without asking. Also, there are plenty of companies which consider training to be actual work, so ...
    – Masked Man
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 1:06
  • I agree the OP shouldn't volunteer. You don't ask, you probably don't get in this world.
    – user8365
    Commented Mar 6, 2017 at 18:52
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You seem to be viewing your new duty to "onboard the new guy" as a negative thing. It's not, it's an opportunity to:

  1. Demonstrate your value to the company as a leader.
  2. Provide value to the company by helping the new guy become productive more rapidly.
  3. Give you something else to leverage when you try to negotiate higher salary and/or position.

So what if no one spoon fed you? My grandfather used to have to walk 10 miles to school, uphill both ways, in knee deep snow...even in summer. But he'd drive me to school in his car.

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  • I am not entirely seeing it as a negative thing. I have a leverage now and I want to use it. Adding value is good but I need to get something in return, right? Nobody has told me yet that I would get a bump in salary and role. If new engineer get productive within 3-4 months, I could loose my leverage. I agree that we're standing on the shoulders of giants. This is business i.e. there is some give and take.
    – mystic
    Commented Mar 4, 2017 at 5:45
  • If I haven't learned things myself then no one from offshore would be working on it. If I haven't done quality work then nobody would have thought expanding business. In this transaction, I must help in onbaording. There is nothing said explicitly what would I get. Can I make it explicit?
    – mystic
    Commented Mar 4, 2017 at 5:45
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I see this as cutting both ways. There is an initial time investment in getting a new teammate up to speed,http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/getting-new-hires-up-to-speed-quickly/. But even if this person does require training, the ultimate result is that the available manpower that can be devoted to the workload at large has doubled. As a result, I imagine it is possible the boss could resist this line of reasoning.

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