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Getting a bad raise due to idolizing the job too much
(Some details omitted/modified for obvious reasons.) I'm a member of a research project, which is a collaboration between a university and a company working on extremely state-of-the-art technology in my field. Objectively speaking, the majority of results obtained in this project originated from my work. In addition to this, during the course of the project, I have filled in for other project members, assuming roles that might be categorized as "managerial". Also worth noting that I have responsibilities elsewhere, but have been putting an insane amount of hours into the project, multiple times what my contract calls for. The company is very pleased with the project and looking to renew the project for another three years. Given my performance and dedication, and a certain upgrade in my academic standing. I was told both by the project owner and the company itself that I would receive a good raise when the project renewed. Being aware of what others in the project make, in some cases well above my own salary, I had a very reasonable, conservative even, expectation of at least a doubling in salary. This would still be less than what some other members of the project make. However, I've now been told my number of hours will be cut, but despite that, I will still get paid more in a monthly basis than before -- it's just that the new value is much closer to my current total salary than the doubling I was expecting. And of course the number of hours is a myth, as they are well aware that I work much, much, much more than what my contract states. My position is not helped by the fact that I've never complained about my current salary, and also often state that it is a privilege to work in this project. I'm afraid that I have given the project owner the impression that I will keep working in this no matter what, and so rather than giving me a better raise, they can use that money for other purposes. The negotiations are still under way so I can try to plead my case to be paid closer to twice what I currently make, rather than this "symbolic" raise. However, I'm trying to come up with a strategy for this, but I want to avoid things that are, at least the way I see it, unprofessional: "Person X makes much more than I do, and my results are much better than theirs, I should get paid at least as much as them" "Since you're cutting my hours instead of giving me a good raise, expect me to actually work these hours and these hours only, and my output to decrease accordingly" Going over the project owner and talking directly to the company, saying that such a small raise has impacted my morale and motivation to keep putting so much into the project Perhaps it would be ideal to just say, of course using the appropriate language, that "given my results and my dedication, I believe I deserve more than the raise I'm getting". Undoubtedly the project owner will agree, but because of points raised above about how I've behaved in the past, they may just come back and say "sorry I tried but it doesn't fit the budget", which I know for a fact is not true. In other words, I feel that some kind of a "threat" must be added to make the project owner afraid they'll lose their, by far, most valuable member of the team. The best I've come up with so far is along the lines of saying, of course with a lot of sugarcoating, "Since I'll have many free hours from now on, I've officially started to look for other projects to work in parallel to this one". Any suggestions about how to conduct this conversation? Edit: something I forgot to add is that this project is not my sole or even main source of income. I could actually quit it if I wanted to, and look for other funded projects to join, or even start a collaboration myself with another company in the same field. The problem is: it’s good extra money, it’s very interesting work, and it helps further my academic reputation, since I get to work with world-class people. Because it’s a niche field, it would be hard to find other projects to join (unless I branched out to a different field, which I’d rather avoid), and starting my own collaborations is definitely on my radar, but realistically it’d take a couple of years at least to materialize. So there’s no real downside to keep working with the current company for now (except I don’t feel I’m being fairly paid).
(Some details omitted/modified for obvious reasons.)
I'm a member of a research project, which is a collaboration between a university and a company working on extremely state-of-the-art technology in my field.
Objectively speaking, the majority of results obtained in this project originated from my work. In addition to this, during the course of the project, I have filled in for other project members, assuming roles that might be categorized as "managerial". Also worth noting that I have responsibilities elsewhere, but have been putting an insane amount of hours into the project, multiple times what my contract calls for. The company is very pleased with the project and looking to renew the project for another three years.
Given my performance and dedication, and a certain upgrade in my academic standing. I was told both by the project owner and the company itself that I would receive a good raise when the project renewed. Being aware of what others in the project make, in some cases well above my own salary, I had a very reasonable, conservative even, expectation of at least a doubling in salary. This would still be less than what some other members of the project make.
However, I've now been told my number of hours will be cut, but despite that, I will still get paid more in a monthly basis than before -- it's just that the new value is much closer to my current total salary than the doubling I was expecting. And of course the number of hours is a myth, as they are well aware that I work much, much, much more than what my contract states.
My position is not helped by the fact that I've never complained about my current salary, and also often state that it is a privilege to work in this project. I'm afraid that I have given the project owner the impression that I will keep working in this no matter what, and so rather than giving me a better raise, they can use that money for other purposes.
The negotiations are still under way so I can try to plead my case to be paid closer to twice what I currently make, rather than this "symbolic" raise. However, I'm trying to come up with a strategy for this, but I want to avoid things that are, at least the way I see it, unprofessional:
- "Person X makes much more than I do, and my results are much better than theirs, I should get paid at least as much as them"
- "Since you're cutting my hours instead of giving me a good raise, expect me to actually work these hours and these hours only, and my output to decrease accordingly"
- Going over the project owner and talking directly to the company, saying that such a small raise has impacted my morale and motivation to keep putting so much into the project
Perhaps it would be ideal to just say, of course using the appropriate language, that "given my results and my dedication, I believe I deserve more than the raise I'm getting". Undoubtedly the project owner will agree, but because of points raised above about how I've behaved in the past, they may just come back and say "sorry I tried but it doesn't fit the budget", which I know for a fact is not true.
In other words, I feel that some kind of a "threat" must be added to make the project owner afraid they'll lose their, by far, most valuable member of the team. The best I've come up with so far is along the lines of saying, of course with a lot of sugarcoating, "Since I'll have many free hours from now on, I've officially started to look for other projects to work in parallel to this one".
Any suggestions about how to conduct this conversation?
Edit: something I forgot to add is that this project is not my sole or even main source of income. I could actually quit it if I wanted to, and look for other funded projects to join, or even start a collaboration myself with another company in the same field. The problem is: it’s good extra money, it’s very interesting work, and it helps further my academic reputation, since I get to work with world-class people. Because it’s a niche field, it would be hard to find other projects to join (unless I branched out to a different field, which I’d rather avoid), and starting my own collaborations is definitely on my radar, but realistically it’d take a couple of years at least to materialize. So there’s no real downside to keep working with the current company for now (except I don’t feel I’m being fairly paid).
