I am a freelance worker, but usually work 5-8 months on a certain project. I usually work under the same person as part of her team.
This person brought me onto a new project in February. We worked together on a year long project recently where my responsibilities quickly outgrew my title. My direct supervisor ended up being very bad at his job and I took over his responsibilities. For taking over one man’s entire workload I was compensated an extra $150 per week. He continued to make $1k more per week than me (he’s also the CEO’s brother so he could not be fired- that’s a whole other thing).
For this new position in February I was given the title bump to “manager”, but was largely doing the same work as before. My new rate was also a slight increase with an extra $300 per week, however I no longer made overtime.
I had talked with the new company and it was supposed to be a fairly easy project, not too much overtime. That ended up not being the case.
In April and May I had one day off, and on that day off I had to move because my lease ended. So it didn’t feel like a day off. In any case, the job was stressful and I was working lots of OT.
As June came up we were starting a new phase of the project which I really didn’t have any experience in, so they wanted to bring in a co-manager. At first my pride was hurt that they didn’t trust me to be able to figure it out, but I also was happy to spread out the workload.
This phase ended up being even worse.
The person who was brought in had the 4-5 years of experience on me in the title and was making $700 more per week than me. We have the same title. I would say did a good job of dividing the workload. I was definitely miffed at his larger paycheck, but I learned a lot, and I was actually very grateful to have him as my teammate.
We were both overworked at the start.
Now, the company switched him over to a different project, but this difficult phase is still ongoing.
My boss asked me if she thought I could handle the work myself or if this co-manager needed to be replaced.
Apparently, despite my co-manager and boss having confidence in me to be able to finish the project on my own my boss’s boss does not. They want to bring in another person to fill in this co-manager slot.
I asked if my rate would be increased if I took on all the responsibilities myself knowing that my co-manager was making a lot more than me. She said no. I asked if the new co-manager would also make more than me. She said yes.
I’m really confused by this whole situation. It just in no way seems fair to me.
I’m really not sure why they are asking me if I want another co-manager. First of all, if I have proven myself to the point where my current co-manager says I can do it, I can do it, and I think so, shouldn’t I be able to do it? But why would I do so without getting compensated. In terms of working with a co-manager or doing the work myself, the question is a no-brainer. Spread the workload. F that budget.
In terms of a project that ends in a few weeks, this seems so unfair that I should quit, or am I not valuing those years of experience? I’m sure I’ll make mistakes, but so does everyone even when they have those levels of experience.
Sorry if it's too long and boring. Just like my work.
TLDR: Company is either going to hire a co-manager at a higher rate than me, or not while my rate remains unchanged no matter if this person is brought in or not.