So I manage annual renewal contracts for an IT company. During 4 month span, this can range between 400-500 individual contracts ranging from a couple hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands. I’m paid hourly, and my only extra compensation is THE PERCENTAGE of contracts I close in a quarter. Nothing to do with contract growth, etc. each contract could go to $1 and I’d be paid the same. Whole other convo… for context, I have the highest % wins on our teams dashboard. I hate the job due to compensation but I try not to let it effect my ethic.
One of my fellow team members quit. He’s been building a van to travel so he’s been mentally out mid the door for months. Boss asked me to take on one of his territories with the option for OT, and I accepted as I rather often complain about compensation, and I expected maybe an additional 50-100 contracts.
They moved all of the accounts to my name on Monday. I found my effective renewals count went from 470 to 670. I was shocked but I signed up for it.
Not just the volume, but these contracts have not been touched more than once. Overdues from December, some for may not sent yet. And I was left no communication to follow up on. I was proactive and set meetings with all of that teams members, got a game plan, etc. it’s manageable, but I know it’s going to require 10-15 hours extra a week at least to get them to a state of approval for whoever gets these accounts next.
I had a one on one with my manager scheduled yesterday. I went in assuming he knew the condition of the contracts and the number. He didn’t. So I slowed down, and showed him the increase, and let him know I’m needing to have at least 8 more meetings per week to keep up and understand the accounts and account managers. So then I followed that up with “so how much OT do you think will be appropriate?”.
“2-4 hours extra a week should do it.”
I took a beat, mainly because my jaw dropped. I said now hold on… you understand how little the previous guy did, correct? You understand my effective work increased by nearly 40%, all of which I will be going in cold and from scratch? And you expect me to treat these the way I treat my normal book? So I am only expected to give an additional 5%?
I told him this is not me complaining about the extra work. It’s me telling you I know my value, and I know I’m not even close to being paid what I believe I’m worth even now, and the OT pay I’m expecting is still not even close to what I believe I’m worth. If my workload is increasing by 40%, I expect near equal compensation. 10-15 hours and I’ll tell you exactly what I did on top my of normal day. Or I’m not doing it. He didn’t quite say yes but he knows if he disapproves of my hour input, there will be a large problem.
My boss isn’t a bad guy. Sometimes you have to realize your worth and shouldn’t be afraid to tell people what you are worth.
But seriously fuck this place.