Dear J.T. & Dale: I asked my boss for a raise, and he said the company isn’t doing well this year and that he can’t give me one. Then, two weeks later, he hired someone new to do the same job as me. Why wouldn’t he just offer me more money and I could do the extra work? — Ginger
DALE: I’m getting an unpleasant feeling about this situation. That feeling starts with your boss’s assertion that the company isn’t doing well, and then it gets magnified by your belief that your boss should know that you could readily handle double the workload. If that’s true, that means that you are vastly underutilized.
J.T.: I share your apprehension, but not so much about the work to be done — it could be that your boss knows that the workload will be increasing, and that it wouldn’t make sense to give it all to you. However, I’m also concerned that he said he doesn’t want to give you a raise and then hired somebody else, someone who is likely making less money. It could be a situation where he feels that you are being overpaid and that he now has somebody he can pay less to do more.
DALE: I hate to encourage paranoia, but it isn’t uncommon for a boss to hire someone new, let the old employee train the new one, then fire the original employee. Let’s hope that isn’t what’s going on, but you need to put together a contingency plan.
J.T.: My advice would be to have a conversation with your boss about how this new person impacts the ability to grow and what you can do to help maximize the growth so that you can eventually earn that raise. It’s best to have an open and collaborative conversation together about how you can both get what you want.
DALE: Hold on. I wouldn’t be quick to bring up some eventual raise. That could just make the boss more determined to let you go. Instead, I’d focus the conversation on how you’ll maximize the contribution of the new team. See if you get a sense of his having plans to increase the workload and thus having the new hire make sense. If you get a feeling of relief, that’s when you might start to talk about your growth path, including the path to future raises.
