Six months ago I joined a small company as an area assistant. Two months after starting, my area manager was made redundant and I ended up with his workload as well as my own.
He was asked to leave because our company has been purchased by a multinational. The new boss of our company has been working with me for the past few months and I’ve been praised for my work many times.
However, my duties are obviously way beyond what I was hired to do and I have landed up with an incredible amount of responsibility. I am now doing exactly the same job as the “redundant” area manager but am still, on paper, an “assistant”.
My co-workers also seem to resent the fact I have a good relationship with the boss and I feel this gets in the way of my work. I suppose this is a hangover from the takeover, which caused a lot of worry and was unsettling for everyone.
I like my position and the upside is that I get to learn and be challenged more than before. However, not surprisingly, I want a pay rise. My boss seems reluctant to discuss this. I only mentioned it once, saying I expected a rise at some point, but that’s all.
What should I do? I can get another job for double the money (I am not exaggerating!) but I enjoy what I do.
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.
