My company sells lots of materials from flooring to cabinets. One of the roles here is a kitchen and bath designer, or K&B. Around the beginning of last month, we lost both of our designers to better opportunities, so we were left with positions that needed to be filled.
In order to understand what happens next, I need to divulge in what’s happened with me at this company for the past 3 years.
Year 1: I was working in the accounts payable department, then approached by our HR/Controller. She asked if I would be interested in becoming a K&B designer. I gladly accepted because it was an awesome job that allowed creativity. So in order to transition, they needed to place me in a different position at a different location, but this position isn’t what was discussed. Basically, they needed an administrative assistant at this location, and sent me over there but didn’t tell me that this is what I would be doing instead of designing. I asked about this, and was met with “you need to learn this position first before we can let you become a designer.” Which I later learned the 2 positions don’t even correlate. I was in this administrative role from Sept 2020 until June 2021. The transitioning out of the position I was in was not due to me pestering upper management, this was purely their decision.
Year 2: I moved locations after transitioning out of the administrative role, which was a significantly longer drive than I wanted. I received a $1.98 raise for the transition. And to summarize what happened in this new role, I sat there and stared at a laptop screen all day. Doing. Nothing. I forced myself to at least take notes about designing. The notes weren’t even instructed for me to take. I took it upon myself to do so. I was finally in the K&B department, but I was just an assistant designer. This went on from June 2021 until Sept 2021. They needed help with their administrative desk at this location, so they moved me from the physical K&B spot and placed me at this location’s administrative desk. I was doing this administrative role as well as the assistant role at the same time. No pay increase to do 2 jobs. I guess that’s fair since I wasn’t doing anything. However, we hired new designers while I was at this desk so the jobs started pouring in. I wasn’t designing anything, but I was doing the paperwork for these jobs, on top of doing administrative duties.
Year 3-Current: From Sept 2021 to Feb 2022 I was still at the administrative desk. Now, it has to be mentioned that I’m driving far now to this location that’s about 50 minutes away from me from a location that was only 30 minutes away from me. So that $1.98 raise was eaten up by gas. I went from filling up once a week to 2-3 times a week. I was still doing administrative duties as well as K&B assistant duties. I was called into the office and they offered me a position at another location to be the administrative assistant and K&B assistant. But they were offering me a $2.50 raise, which to me, was a significant amount. The new location I moved to was 35 minutes away from me. So it’s like I was saving a bit of money too. I believe this is the only good decision they made so far. I was at this position from Feb 2022 to Feb 2023. Being at this location wasn’t stressful, what was stressful was trying to keep up with K&B duties at the same time as administrative duties. Because we had designers, jobs were pouring in left and right. I was constantly getting bitched out over minor mistakes that could easily be fixed, and I brought that up to my manager. Her response was “what seems like a minor mistake to you, could mean something bigger to the customer.” So, it didn’t feel like she had my back in this. It felt like she was against me and didn’t believe in human error. I didn’t feel needed or appreciated. I was waiting for my time to come, whether it be with a new job elsewhere or new position, watching the revolving door of designers come and go, becoming bitter because I was supposed to be the one designing. So a few positions opened up in the company, and I applied for one. Administrative Assistant Manager. I would be over all the administrative assistants at all stores and since I was forced into that position, I knew it inside and out from having done it the past 3 years. They accepted my offer and told me they would get back with me. They came back and pretty much said “we have a better fit for you: Scheduling and Purchasing Manager.” Which basically is scheduling a customers installation of materials and ordering said materials. It isn’t what I wanted, but I was not appreciated where I was, so I needed a change.
I moved back to the far location. I now earned a salary of $42,000 a year, or an equivalent of $20.19/hr (I received 26 payments a year instead of 24), which was a raise of $2.19. Long story short, job consisted of 2 seats of which I had to somehow how do simultaneously, stressed me the fuck out to the point that I wanted to just quit and walk away. I was 30 weeks pregnant and trying to buy a house all at the same time so my anxiety was through the goddamn roof. I took maternity leave (unpaid) for 8 weeks, but worked from home for the last 2 weeks because I was getting no income whatsoever and I had $13 in my bank account. When I returned to work, I was talking to another manager about how I don’t fit well in the seat that I’m in and would like to move elsewhere. It wasn’t what I wanted, it wasn’t what I asked for. So they did move me, back the original administrative assistant role at the first location. I got to keep my pay, but I went from being salary to hourly.
All I wanted was to design, and I wasted 3 years of my life at this company to achieve that. I finally told the K&B manager that instead of looking for a new designer, I would like to move to that position. I’ve been wanting to be in that position for the past 3 years. I have the minimum experience they’re looking for on their Indeed posting. The minimum pay for the position, according to Indeed, is $45,000 which is already more than what I’m getting now. I was optimistic I’m thinking maybe I might get a little more because of my experience in this department.
I’m officially a K&B designer after 3 long years, and just signed my papers yesterday to switch back to salary. I asked about the rate, and if it will change. “At this time we are just going to leave you as is, because we want to see how you grow into the role and if it’s a good fit, we will look at increasing the salary.”
This was a phone conversation. I tried to choke back my emotions as I hung up the phone. I went to the bathroom and just cried. Why would they not consider giving me more, despite me working so hard for this? Despite their minimum for this position (minimum skilled, I might add) being $45,000? $42,000 may seem like a lot, but I recently turned 26 and had to enroll in my own insurance through my job because I would no longer be on my parents’. After insurance and taxes, I make the equivalent of $15.18/hr. Being a homeowner, having 2 kids and one of them only being 4 months old now, I don’t know if I can keep this up. I’m so stressed.
TL;DR – I was promised a position/promotion, finally got it after 3 years, but was given no raise with it.