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Compensation for additional Responsibilities?

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by carole-y

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I began working as Network Administrator for a small company. Regular business hours, 9-5. Prior to having in-hous IT staff, they used consultants and were kind of used to waiting for answers/support.
Recently they gave me a cell phone and told me I needed to be available for after-hours and weekend calls and service. I view this as an additional responsibility beyond what I was hired for, and beyond what I have been providing for the past year. In my prior experience, on-call hours were compensated. However, I am a salaried employee and not willing to risk my job by being a "squeaky wheel" .
Do additional on-call hours merit additional compensation? If so, how can I bring this up with management in a positive way?
My managers have never mentioned additional compensation for this, but they did publish the cell phone number to the whole company!

Thanks for your advice in advance.

4 replies

by thechas

Compensation for this kind of extra duty varies a lot from company to company.

I recommend that you approach your supervisor and work out a comp time agreement for your off hours duties.

Typically, companies provide 1 hour of comp time for every 2 hours of extra work.

This would also be a good time to formalize what situations require immediate response, and what personal obligations allow you to continue to have a life.

Chas

by oz_media

You'll need to check with local Employment laws but in BC, Canada, if you are even called for a single second while away from the office, you are allowed to bill for 2 hours (I love that one, especially when they call with a dumb question like "should I push th epower button after it says it's ok to shut down my computer, ka-ching)

If you turn up for after hours or unscheduled work, the MINIMUM time billable is two hours (If you don't actually work), if you start work, it is billable as four hours and if you work more than 4 you can bill for 8.

These are Employment standards so pushing them on an employer is easy. as for how to ask for compensation for YOUR work, I'd at least put it on the table and say that seeing as you are supposed to be on 24/hr call, you will neeed further compansation.

I know you don't want to blow a job, but if you're good at what you do, you'll have no problems. Employers LOVE it when staff is afraid to approach them for a raise, it's usually just a scare tactic and your job is more secure than you thought.

I worked for one company that NEVER offered raises. There was one guy who'd een there 8 years at the same salary, he figured he may lose his job if he pushed for moe money. When I got my SECOND raise in six months he asked how I did it, I just said that when they ask me to do more, I ask for more too. He asked for his raise and got it without question. Makes you wonder how much he'd be making if he'd done this for each of his 8 years with the company.

Don't be afraid to ask for awhat yo're worth, too many people nowdays are scared to approach the boss. He/She is just a person. Like in dating, if you don't ask for a date, you don't get a date.

Good luck!!
OM

by prefbid ii

In the US, it depends on how firm your classification is as a salaried individual. If you are salaried because you control your own hours - then no, you won't likely get any compensation change. If you are salaried because you make more than the "majic threshold", you may have a case for more compensation (mainly because the company is on shaky ground for having you salaried in the first place).

If it were me, I would wait to see how often I got called and what the typical problem was. If I am getting junk calls, then I would see the boss and say "either the stupid calls stop or I get paid more to answer the phone." However, if the only calls you get are to fix your system because it broke, then I don't know that I would complain.

I once got a cell phone with a company because I was to be available 24 x 7 - got a grand total of 7 calls in 2 years. I actually just split the cost of my cell phone with them. I was happy because I got a personal cell phone cheap. They were happy because they could get ahold of me if they needed me.

by maxwell edison

I've found that, in most cases, if you show an effort to take care of the company's needs, they'll reciprocate by taking care of yours as well. You mentioned that you're a salaried employee, so they really have no obligation to compensate you for the additional hours - either in comp time or additional overtime pay. However, this doesn't mean they can't. It also doesn't mean that the compensation for the things you do now won't be paid sometime in the future. One of the previous suggestions said to just wait and see how much you get called, which is a wise thing to do. After all, you don't want to come across as complaining about what may or may not happen.

Let it play itself out for a year or so, and you'll get a better idea of what the additional responsibilities really entail. Then, in your next review, you'll be better able to show your full contributions. Just because you're a salaried employee, per se, doesn't mean that you can't get fair compensation. And the annual review is a good time to determine what that fair salary is when compared to the full scope of your contributions. Bigger raises are indeed handed out to those who've made more of a contribution in the past. Moreover, there's no rule that says a salaried employee who goes above and beyond the call of duty on occasion won't get a bigger bonus than the rest.

So give them what they want, and, most likely, in the end, you'll get what you want. If, after some time has passed, you find that you're being taken advantage of, you can then re-evaluate whether or not you really belong there in the first place. But you need some time and experience behind you to make those determinations.

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