I apologise if this isn't the right kind of post for this sub, but there is no sub I want advice from more than this one. I feel that the true essence of antiwork isn't just “working is a sham”, it's how to stick it to the man and get what we are worth out of our employers.
My current job has become a nightmare, they increased my salary by a tiny proportion a few months before increasing my workload to 4x as much. To prove this is not an exaggeration (but without giving away too many identifying details), my company doubled in size, and my job scope expanded to more than twice the workload/responsibility within the original sized company, then extending to cover the same scope of the acquired business. What takes the cake is that the person who did my job scope at the new company was senior, but when I asked for a promotion, I was shot down. I need to leave. The job is bad for my mental health, and I am working most weekends.
I have found a job I really rather like (had 1 interview with them so far), and upon applying I was immediately sent an email about “being transparent, not wanting to waste anyone's time” – the job offers a max of, lets say 40k, when it's easily a 45-50k job. I am on 8k more than what the job is offering, and I was on this money even without the added workload. If we hadn't acquired the second company, I could have easily done the job. I am underpaid for the new added scope of my role, my current salary is fair for my old job which is comparable to this new job I am applying for.
My question is this – at which point can I bring up salary that will not cause them to just take me out of the process? The process from now is a second interview with other finance individuals, then another chat with the 2 who took my first interview (the people I'd be working with), then a chat with the CFO. I don't want to come across as calculating, but I don't want to take the job if it's offering so low, and I don't have it in me to wait for a better paid job to come around as I am miserable day to day.
In my country's current economy, leaving my job is a no-no