I took a job offer recently in a new field for a business that was willing to train for the right individual. Everything began great. My job requires me to understand a lot of softwares, heavily technical information, and perform it to an incredible accuracy. They provided online training courses for me to get accustomed to the softwares, and had me shadow an employee a few days in order to see how it translates into the work that gets done.

Everything started out great. I was in complete control of my training, and they were aware it was going to take a long time to be fully proficient to be able to take over for the two employees there currently, as they want to retire. As I began to learn, and ask questions about how things are done, it became very apparent that the two older employees there don’t actually know very much about the softwares, or how things work in the office. They are only trained to know the very specific information to do their portion of the work within them, and there is no one else to reference. They simply just don’t know and make workaround when they run into problems because they don’t know how to fix or utilize some really basic features.

As I’ve become more proficient, I’ve been their go to for office and software support. I’ve created new standards for things as complex as how we produce manufacturing reports, down to as simple as file organization within their companies server, as they have none. It’s truthfully been a lot more work than I expected for a company that has been in business since the 70’s.

When I was first employed, I agreed to take a pay cut for the position due to needing to be trained, however, at this point, I feel I do far more and above and beyond work than my position should require, especially how new I am to the company. They introduced me to a field of work that needs to be done to train me, but as I began to optimize it, I was put directly in charge of doing all of it, which is a full time job. This has left me with little to no time to conclude my training. I believe they count this period of undisclosed time working with their company as training. I have essentially turned into their IT, Quality Assurance, Developer, Systems Manager, and Business Developer, with no time to do anything other than everything thrown at me, which is everything. I fix every error that comes through my office, I identify issues with softwares, servers, reporting, and business coordination and make fixes and tweaks to optimize business. They are terribly mismanaged.

I feel I deserve a raise, even though I’m not properly trained for my title yet. I’m performing a different job entirely it feels like.

Now, any other position, I would have no problem just scheduling a meeting with my superior in charge of of my pay, going over these details, and discussing the options. However, my superior, the president of the company, is a severe micromanager, believes he’s the only one who knows everything, consistently belittles everyone, and firmly believe I know nothing at all. He has consistently made me a scape goat for issues and errors that I don’t make, but correct. He is constantly throwing busy work at me, and when I give him the time frames to get things done, he gets upset because “it should be easy”. This is due to him micromanaging to a point that he doesn’t know how to work is actually done, only that he wants it done. His direct involvement often complicates the process, causes error, issues, and delays in everything that we do. He refuses to slow down, let anyone else make are a decision about how it should be done, because as he puts “I’ve been doing this a long time, I’m the only one around here that knows how it’s done.” Everyone in the office who has worked for him for the last 40 years all let him push them around. They’ve brought up these things and he agrees with them but refuses to change because “That’s use the way it works around here”. My lead developer wasn’t allowed time off for medical complication, and worked 3 weeks straight for 80 hour weeks.

I feel completely drained, and I understand the solution is find new work. I have stood up to him a few times, but at this point, I feel he will simply laugh and belittle me for discussing an option for a raise for having been there for 3 months.

I am seeking advice if it’s appropriate to ask for a raise after 3 months (given the poor treatment everyone receives in the office), and if so, what can I say and talk about to help my case in receiving one?

Tl;dr – My boss is a micromanager and misjudges how much I know at my job, while holds me accountable for mistakes others make and has me fix them. He belittles his staff constantly, and I want a raise, but I. don’t know how to talk about it as it’s only been 3 months. The job is much more than I signed up for originally.