More light at the end of the tunnel!

Today was my review. I was on pins and needles. I knew it wasn't going to be a bad review because they've consistently been telling me what a good job I have been doing. What was concerning me was if I was going to get dissed again on my raise this year.

I work for a small company, and there is not a lot of room to go anywhere. My actual job title is receptionist, although I do SO much more than answer the phones. The president of the company calls me his "special projects girl" and is constantly trying to find ways to give me more work "so he can give me more money". Well, he found a way when Laverne was out in December and I took over her job for 3 weeks. I now do the majority of the billing for the Service Department in addition to everything else I do, and I'm starting to feel pretty comfortable with it.

They gave me a really nice bonus in December, which I now understand was more than what I would usually have been given, and 3 months early. Then they gave me another small bonus totally out of the blue last week when everyone else got theirs. Being the pessimist I am, I was concerned that the bonus was going to be a way of pacifying me because my raise was going to suck, again. When you don't make a lot of money, and your job title is technically "receptionist", the standard 3% of nothing is pretty much nothing.

I decided in December that I wasn't going to push the issue. Hey, I'm lucky I have a job! I have good benefits, it's a great company to work for, and I'm 3 miles away from either my house or my son's school. I keep reminding myself of these things because jobs are not easy to come by these days. They have also been letting me take classes on their dime at a local training facility they have a contract with. I'm toying with the idea of asking them to pay for me to go back to school for an accounting degree.

Anyway, back to my review. My direct supervisor gave me a glowing report. He said he's seen a marked change in me since the HR girl left in October. (I honestly think I've also been changing personally due to this blog, being able to vent about what I need to, and the support I receive from the people reading it.) He said I've become more mature, more stable, more reliable. My attendance has improved, my demeanor has improved, and my willingness to accept more responsibility has been noticed. While I've always been one to cover for other people and help out in any way I can, the way I stepped in and calmly averted what could have been a really bad situation for the company spoke well of me.

Then he got to the raise part, the part I was dreading. I had in my head an hourly rate that I would honestly like to be at, but when I calculated it, it would have been an 8-1/4% increase. I knew that I could not realistically expect anything like that. No matter what I had in my head that I was going to say about how my job title doesn't convey what I actually do, the duties I am responsible for, I knew that I wouldn't contest whatever they gave me too much. What was I going to say in this economy when people are being asked to take cuts in pay just to retain their jobs? I knew in my heart I wasn't going to threaten to quit, that would just be stupid.

My supervisor explained that corporate had allotted them a pool of approximately 2% per person for raises. I kept my poker face and waited for him to go on. He then told me that both he and The Prez had rallied on my behalf to corporate because I had essentially taken on a new job. They took me out of the 2% pool and treated it like a promotion. My paycheck tomorrow will reflect my 9% raise! 9% in this economy! I almost kissed the man on the mouth, but then remembered my new more mature demeanor and kept my emotions in check and shook his hand!

Tomorrow, I will be at an HTML class, with a follow up on Monday so I can start to take over the company website. I'm starting to feel like not much can hold me back, right now.

Actually, I'm starting to feel like Ethel Merman - check this out: