I’ve been an Accountant with my current nonprofit organization since March 2019. I was hired as full-time Staff Accountant at $25/hr. After the first year, our organizational budget doubled and we realized we needed more bodies on the finance team.
To reward my competence, i was promoted to a managerial role (now making $26.89/hr full-time) and CFO hired two women with whom she had worked with at a previous company and who are fiercely loyal to her.
Before hiring them, she assured me that they were highly qualified accountants (45+ years of combined experienced) and that one had a Master’s in Accounting! Okay wow! Bring them in!
Y’all… OMG! The worst employees I’ve ever had the displeasure to work with. I cannot count how many hours I’ve dedicated to train/guide/think for these women. Mind you, I’m 20 years their junior and they are sweet but it has been exhausting. The one with the Master’s degree, I mentioned? Oh yeah, her masters is from DeVry —- this is information I had to ask for because the CFO intentionally hid that from me. Also, as someone who grew up with developmental disabled family members, I clocked some of the characteristics in her when we first met ——side note, I’m not saying that she doesn’t deserve to work, but it is concerning to see constant mistakes, faux pas’s and an inability to understand fundamentals. The other lady has straight up short term memory loss from time to time which means that you have to constantly direct her to create “cheat sheets” and refer her to her archive of notes otherwise it’s like teaching her something from scratch.
On top of managing two employees who require micro-management otherwise nothing gets done (totally not my management style), I was dealing with a controlling CFO who had no respect for my time (she would blow up my phone after hours), my efforts (I would complete projects, submit for approval and she would not get around to reviewing my work despite my constant reminders and nudging. I can’t tell you how many deadlines I’ve missed just because my boss never got around to approving my work in decent time), and my ideas (I’ve received verbal coachings just for having differing options).
To make a long story longer, I couldn’t handle the pressure. I asked to be demoted to what I am now, an accounting analyst with no subordinates. I stayed at the same hourly rate, but now she has me working 25 hours a week so she could bring a full-time Finance Manager at $68K salaried managing the three of us. Of course, that felt like a slap in the face for many reasons but I stayed because I didn’t have nearly the amount of stress and I cared about our mission (and I’m dumb..)
When our Manager started, he didn’t have as much experience with non-profits so he relied on me very heavily. That was to be expected in the first couple months. Then came 6 months. And then a year.. and my boss still HEAVILY relied on me to guide him to do his job. This was frustrating for so many reasons given my Part-Time role.
Now he‘s informed us that he’s resigning. He’s leaving for the same reasons I shared with him about my previous frustrations with the CFO and incompetent subordinates leading to my voluntary demotion.
Recently the CFO sat me down to ask if I could work an extra 3 hours each week to pick up his duties once he leaves. For all my normal hours worked, I would get my normal rate $26.89/hr and for the 3 extra hours, I would get $28.89/hr. Now, I’m an accountant so it’s not like I can’t do math. I’m appalled at this offer. It makes me feel like she doesn’t view me as someone who has worth. Even if were to accept, twiddle-dee and twiddle-dum would still make more than me which is the biggest disappointment given that I am far more highly qualified as a CPA with an accredited college degree.
Good news, is that I am resigning and I am a top candidate for a wonderful opportunity where I can make a salary I am worth. I just had to share!
TL;DR: I demoted myself from being a Manager ($26.89/hr for 40 hours/week) to an Analyst ($26.89/hr for 25 hours/week) due to a controlling boss, incompetent subordinates, and an impossible workload. New manager comes in making more than me (even though I’m more qualified) lasts a year, and resigns. While we wait for a replacement, my boss asks me to work extra hours doing Manager tasks at a higher base rate ($28.89/hr) but with the new rate applied to hours exceeding 25 hours. Also, she doesn’t want me working more than 3 extra hours a week. Unbelievable…