I’ve hit the pay ceiling – can I progress without becoming a manager?
I’m a 31-year-old public sector worker employed by a research organisation as a website and social media account manager. I’ve been in post for just over two years and have been demonstrably very successful in managing and promoting the organisation’s online brand, to the point where I am often asked to lend my expertise to other parts of the sector I work in.
I’ve reached the top of my salary band and, while I love my job, I am also looking to the next step in my career. My problem is that the level I am on seems to be the limit for doing the specialist online work that I enjoy. I have been looking at other jobs, in both the private and public sectors, but in order to advance it seems I would have to give up a lot of what I like and venture into management territory. However, I have no interest, skills or experience in that side of things. Am I being naive to think that I can advance without also having to manage people eventually? Any advice on what to do next?
Jeremy says
I can easily imagine a great many Guardian readers groaning in sympathy. It’s an all-too-familiar, Catch-22 type of predicament that a lot of talented people have to come to terms with.
You’re lucky enough to be particularly skilled in a specific area. You enjoy what you do, but because it’s a job that you do yourself – a personal, hands-on job – your productivity is limited by the hours you can devote to it.
And employers are understandably reluctant to pay people more and more for doing much the same job, particularly when they seem to resist the idea of what employers see as promotion.
To most employers, promotion – and a higher salary – make sense only when the person promoted takes on ultimate responsibility for more and more high quality output: and that, almost inevitably, means that dreaded word “management”. Instead of doing it all yourself you step back a little, with at least some of the day-to-day work being done by others, but under your supervision. And that, by definition, means managing other people.
That’s precisely the situation you currently face – and precisely why you face it. You won’t be the first to wonder at a system by which the only way able people can progress is for them to stop doing what they’re good at and enjoy doing in order to take on a quite different role for which they may not be in the least suited.
However, in your case it may not be quite as black and white as I’ve made it sound. You say that you’re extremely reluctant to venture into “management territory” as you have “no interest, skills or experience in that side of things”.
Yet you’ve already demonstrated that you’re perfectly capable of sharing your expertise with others and actually seem to enjoy doing so.
So rather than thinking that “management” is the only way forward, I suggest you think more laterally. By continuing to practise the online specialist work at which you excel, but at the same time, and rather more formally, you volunteer to help train others in the same skills, you demonstrably increase your value to your company and your salary band no longer needs to be so rigidly applied. There will, of course, be an element of management – but it will be mainly skill-related, which you seem to enjoy.
Readers say
• Progressing into management is not for everyone, and there are a lot of bad managers in their role purely because it was a means of advancing. You have recognised that you have no interest in progressing into management when often so many assume they’d make good managers. As you appear to have gained a name and reputation within your field and gained contacts, have you considered going freelance and/or setting up a consultancy? walkinginthesand
• Have you thought about finding a new job, perhaps part-time, that would let you do freelance work as well, so that you have a guaranteed core salary on which to build? Porthos
• Why do you want to “advance”? It seems you enjoy your current job, so do you need more money, or just feel you should be moving into a job where you earn more because that’s what you’re meant to do? pollystyrene
After taking a new role I find colleagues who joined after me are earning more
I took on the role of shift manager at my work in February 2014. The company has recently taken on more shift managers, same job, same pay grade. Two of these were within 12 months of my appointment and they are being paid a higher salary. I understand you can’t give legal advice, but based on your knowledge and personal experience, do I have a case for discussion with my senior team? Or do I just forget about it and crack on?
Jeremy says
Most companies do everything they can to keep their salary lists discreetly hidden away. This is not (necessarily) because they set out to pay different people different amounts – as little as they can get away with – for doing exactly the same job. It’s more usually because it’s almost impossible to keep a salary sheet absolutely “fair”. When certain skills are in short supply, for example, it may be necessary to pay newcomers more than those already on the payroll. If companies gave all their incumbents automatic rises to make up the difference they’d not only be unusually saintly, but the process could soon become extremely inflationary.
In any case, it’s seldom sensible to base a request for a salary review on comparisons with others. Even if you’re correct in thinking that two of these new shift managers are paid more than you are – and rumours about salaries are notoriously unreliable – you risk prompting the perfectly reasonable response from your company that they value these two rather more highly than they value you.
Much better to have a discussion about your salary with absolutely no reference to the pay of others. Your senior team will be well aware of any discrepancies – if indeed they exist – without your raising the matter, and will almost certainly take them into account when salaries are next reviewed. So any case you put for an increase should be based more on the contribution you make than on possibly suspect comparisons.
Readers say
• Some businesses have set grades and salaries within that grade. Others operate differently. When we employ someone their current salary has a large bearing on what we pay them, within the parameters of the salary for the role. It could be that the new shift managers were earning more in their previous jobs, your employer really wanted to take them on and had the scope to pay them more than you, so did so. You can ask for a pay rise based on this, but you may not get it. ID0228872
• The company is simply giving a straightforward message – it is quite happy for you to plod on, but if you want to earn more move ASAP. BeckyP
• So if you had instead found out that they were being paid less than you, would that have made you happier? moneyallgone
Do you need advice on a work issue? For Jeremy’s and readers’ help, send a brief email to dear.jeremy@theguardian.com. Please note that he is unable to answer questions of a legal nature or to reply personally.
