So I’m in a bit of a pickle. I’ve worked for this company (for sake of ease, I’ll refer to it as X) since March of this year. I was hired part-time as a retail worker, but my manager resigned pretty soon into my tenure and I was offered her role by the CFO. All of this was rather jarring since I had only planned to work at X part-time while I looked for full-time positions in my field. As manager, I was given a salary, benefits, and a measly amount of PTO time.
For background, the family that owns X also owns another company that I’ll refer to as Y. X and Y sell the same products to the same consumer base with Y using X–the larger, more lucrative company with a brick-and-mortar location and warehouse–as its distributor, however the connection between the two is meant to be kept under wraps (I don’t fully understand why but the secrecy feels icky at best). Y is fully online and is run out of the basement of X as the companies’ owners also own the building. Y is run by a family member and it’s my understanding that they’re the only employee.
Recently, the CFO met with me to offer me the family member’s position running Y in addition to my existing role as manager. My hours would still be 40/week, but I’d have significantly more work to do. The CFO gave me the classic “we don’t want to lose you” and “we know that you’re smart and a do-er, so we think you’d be a perfect fit.” I would complete a week of training and ultimately be responsible for the following: receiving, packing, and shipping orders; maintaining and ordering inventory; creating and distributing marketing materials via email; writing website copy; advertising through Google Ads and other channels; and customer service duties (phone calls, email, reviews, etc.). When I asked about compensation, I was told that there would be none. The CFO quickly tried to caveat: “there’s more opportunity for growth with Y than there is with X, so there’s a possibility we’d be open to compensating you down the line.”
I completed training this week and have two full days of the additional role under my belt. It’s a lot of extra work that I only have about 3-4 hours to complete each day (I’m the only employee at the store M-F until mid-afternoon when a part-timer comes in to join me). It goes against every belief I hold to perform labor without fair wage compensation, and I just feel extremely disrespected by the CFO, the owners, and the company altogether.
I meet with the CFO again today for a check-in and plan to ask for a 20% salary increase (a lot, I know, but I’ve been given a literal second job for ANOTHER company and have been expected to do it for free). Posting this to vent a bit and also ask for advice in this situation. I’m a recent college grad and in my early 20s so I don’t have too much experience with salary negotiation… I’m not really in a financial position to resign at the moment either. :/
TLDR: My employer gave me a second job for another company owned by the same people and expects me to do it for free. Looking for salary negotiation advice and a lil space to vent.
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UPDATE: I spoke with the CFO early this afternoon and the conversation didn’t go well, but I’m proud of how I handled things. CFO began our chat by asking how training and my first few days went and I responded by saying that training was good and that I have a strong grasp on the responsibilities at hand. I pivoted the conversation from there and told them that due to my being given a second job (with, technically, a different company), I deserve fair compensation. The CFO spoke up before I could continue and told me that the store is “losing [the company] massive amounts of money” because sales are low (CFO acknowledged that this is not my fault–they’ve been dismal since they opened because the owners neither know the area nor understand the absolute lack of need for their products here) and that in order to “make up for” my salary, they needed to justify my employment by giving me another job/more work. This was never a job offer. I was given a second job to make up for their poor business management.
CFO asked what I considered fair and I gave my number, citing the financial info that I’m privy to in Shopify. They said that the number was unrealistic considering they’re doing a round of layoffs tomorrow. CFO then followed up by saying they’d crunch the numbers to see what they’d be able to offer me and that we’d regroup in two weeks. I was insistent upon my number and ask that they keep in touch.
Long story short, I’m now looking for a new job. This shit as shady as hell and I refuse to continue to be exploited so flagrantly.
Thank you all for your advice and words of encouragement!!