Bonus / Pay lower than call centre agents

[Stevehewitt]

Hi Everyone,

I'm after some honest opinions on this please. I'm not a greedy person after £££ all the time; I'm in IT because I love the challange and contstant learning that it rewards you with.

I current work in the first remote office setup by a medium (600 staff) finance company. This office had two departments in it - 5 staff working in commerical (getting the business for the company), and about 35 staff working in the call centre (including managers).
The job is average pay; but the company as a whole is very good, lots of recognition, lots of freedom - I like working here.

The problem is that I'm the only IT tech onsite, and the head office is based about 300 miles away. In head office the tech's all have one big office with 6 tech, network mngr, tech support / telecoms mngr and a helpdesk co-ordinator. They have their own room and simply go out when a user needs help.

I'm based slap in the middle of the contact centre; and because of this I'm a lot more involved in the operations of the call centre than tech's at head office. E.G. I go to the ops meeting etc.

The past 2 months call centre staff have beenn given a bonus scheme, which rewards up to £350pm extra ontop of a good salary. about 70% got this, whilst the rest got between £100 - £200 extra.

This put's their monthly take-home pay more than mine. Whilst I'm not trying to be bigheaded and say that I'm worth the most blah..blah..blah, I'm saying that I'm the lowest paid person in the entire office, but I have a huge amount of responsibility and technical tasks compared to call centre staff who read the script. (Just sales - not even Customer Services!)

Call centre staff don't spend another 2 hours onsite after they're meant to go home because there is office wide system problems; or come in on weekends to ensure that the project that goes live on Monday works 100%.

Is this fair? If not, how do I bring it up with my manager (Head office Tech Sup Mngr). Nice guy, but I don't want to look like a greedy arogant IT guy.

Any help appreciated on this.

Thanks, and well done on read all the way to the end!

Ta,







Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[deputydoofy]

I realize that but no other companies gave me any chance. So it was the choice of being low-balled or probably still sitting on customer service wondering if I'd ever leave that job. The lesser of 2 evils, I guess.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/doofymusic

 

[gpastorelli]

MDXer,
You are so right. I got low balled at my current job. I love the job, I just go low-balled b/c of my salary history. I was only making $17,000 at my last "kinda" technical job. When I asked what the position was willing to pay they said "Between $30,000 and $55,000" well let's just say when I asked for $45,000 I got more towards the low end b/c it "wasn't in the budget" which I didn't believe for a second b/c they said it was budgeted for $55k so why say it if it wasn't true....b/c like you said they seen my salary history and negotiated accordingly.

Eh, you live nad you learn.

 

[gpastorelli]

I forgot to reply to the original poster as well....

Stevehewitt,
As others had said do not mention another employees salary. I did that at my last job and it was not pretty. The test administrators (I worked at a Vue testing center/IT school) did NOTHING compared to what I did. To add insult to injury I was required to know there job so I can cover for them when they needed a day off or just felt like coming in late. They were making about 30-40% more than I was. I mentioned it and everything went to hell, my raise negotiations, work environment, etc.

Mind you I wasn't snooping, one of the test admins is a good friend of mine and told me during a conversation. I made the bad decision to bring it up during a heated discussiong w/ my supervisor regarding why I deserved more money. From my past experiences, always a bad move.

 

[Thadeus]

SteveHewitt,
Any updates on how this all has panned out?

~Thadeus

 

[Stevehewitt]

Sorry! Had an appraisal and it was good. Basically told that thats just the way it is, plus support staff get small perks like smoke breaks when we like, training etc. He did say that i should be getting a raise next year, and support staff have a career whilst call center staff won't get any further. Thanks for all your help guys.

Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[ChrisHunt]

Training is a perk? Time to dust off your CV, methinks.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[buck2506]

Actually, company paid trianing could be considered a perk, if the training is good. I have worked for several companies that left staff development up to the staff. The training was limited to first day introductions and this is your job, get to work. After that it was up to you.

So if the company is willing to invest the time and money to further your skills I consider this a good sign.
Remember they can slways show you the door.