Background: I am a consulting engineer for a MEP design firm. For starters, I really do like my job and company that I work for. It's not a large company (~120 total staff), but been around for over 25 years with an established clientele that I like working with. Are there things within my department that aren't perfect? Of course, but none of them bother me to a significant degree. I have all intentions to stay here for the rest of if not most of my career, provided all things go well. So I really do want to stay and see no reason for leaving. (Am I blind? Please let me know.)

Situation: We've had 3 EIT/Engineers leave within the last calendar year, so my workload is increasing naturally. Additionally, there is another engineer planning to retire later this spring. I'm definitely putting in more than 40 hours a week at this point to keep up with my work. Have I been most efficient in my time management? Absolutely not, but I feel that's normal. The final thing is, yet another engineer has stated he is leaving. My department head/supervisor came by to inform me of that's and let me know that they would be sitting down with each of us to discuss compensation adjustments to account for the added workload on the rest of the team.

How do I approach this discussion to properly advocate for myself? Myself and my boss are very nonconfrontational, so it's not like me to suddenly speak up about salary (I don't complain at yearly reviews/discussion). Again, I do like where I work and don't anticipate leaving, so taking that into account in the discussion, I also don't want to put a bad taste in anyone's mouth and sour any relationships within my company.

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AutoModerator t1_jacxs8e wrote on February 28, 2023 at 3:22 PM

#2,107,507

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Win-With-Money t1_jacyqg7 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 3:28 PM

#2,107,800

Have you received any raises since you have taken on more work currently?

If not that needs to be addressed. Your salary requirements need to be adjusted depending on how much work you will be taking on.

This an extreme example to keep my math simple: if you had to double your hours and/or workload, you should receive AT LEAST double your income (not accounting for bonus or overtime).

If you have to take on 1 or 2 extra client projects then you can factor that in much easier to your pay requirements.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that you are a valuable resource to this company. Even more so since other engineers have left. You have more leverage here. Whatever you decide to do, be confident and stick to your decision.

Levertki1 t1_jacz0ol wrote on February 28, 2023 at 3:30 PM

#2,107,893

In your mind figure out what is a “fair” week of work, look at what you are continuing to do and adjust accordingly. Ask for more than you’ll accept. Your not walking so it’s just a nice discussion. Remember when overhead goes down profits go up and you want to share in that.

BeeeeefJelly t1_jaczh0g wrote on February 28, 2023 at 3:33 PM

#2,108,009

You have an incredible amount of leverage. The company needs you right now. You need to take advantage of that- they are your employer, not your friend- get what you can from them. You don't need to be over the top, but the fact that they are approaching you about a pay increase shows their desperation to keep you. Ask for a little more than they offer- they will almost certainly match if you don't ask for a massive increase.

zaggie16 OP t1_jad0ufc wrote on February 28, 2023 at 3:42 PM

#2,108,423

Replying to Win-With-Money (#2,107,800)

I have not received any raises since these changes, and I think this discussion is to remedy that. I can directly quantify the projects that I took over from others, but need to look back to see what a "normal" workload would have been, as it fluctuates by project size and timeline. We are also entering a busy year, that is hard to factor in. Additionally, I did just receive my license, so it is hard to judge what my baseline workload was before to what it is expected to be now. I'll look into all these factors, and try to come up with a % more work that I am doing to look for.

Would it be a bad idea to discuss with some co-workers that I trust what kind of baseline to think about and what that compensation would be?

Win-With-Money t1_jad1rn8 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 3:48 PM

#2,108,752

Replying to zaggie16 (#2,108,423)

I think that is a great idea to discuss this with trusted co-workers. Maybe even contact someone in a related field to see what they think outside of your firm.

alaskanassasin21 t1_jad2ic4 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 3:53 PM

#2,109,029

Get paid the salary those other engineers were getting on top of your salary until they hire more engineers.

I put this is in one of my contracts and was making $16k a week when we had two people leave. HE hired two new employees within 7 weeks.

zaggie16 OP t1_jad2mxq wrote on February 28, 2023 at 3:54 PM

#2,109,073

Replying to Win-With-Money (#2,108,752)

Awesome, I will do that. Sadly a lot of my closest coworkers are the ones leaving, but I have some others that are good people that I can have these discussions with. My best friend is also in an adjacent industry, so I'm going to pick his brain for information.

Honestly, I'm kind of closest with the people above me at this point, so I probably need to start thinking like them in some ways too. That also bodes well for my value and their desire to keep me around. I've only heard positive things from higher ups when things are discussed. I'm definitely trying to keep my sporits up about all this work by looking at it as an opportunity to show off within this company.

zaggie16 OP t1_jad423q wrote on February 28, 2023 at 4:03 PM

#2,109,535

Replying to alaskanassasin21 (#2,109,029)

I'm not sure that's exactly apples to apples, as there are still 7 of us here, so at best it'd be their salary divided by 7. That may be a decent way to look at it though, however, I haven't personally taken on an equal amount of their projects, but this can factor in.

I know the last departure put a fire under them to hire soon, but I'm sure that seat is scalding now.