Career Advice - Am I being exploited ?

[Nyanko]

Hi
I could do with a bit of advice from others as to whether I'm being overly sensitive or have a justified reason for being upset.

I work in a HR office as a data analyst responsible for running reports and maintaining databases, admin etc. Since working in this department I have taught myself VBA whilst working on various historical spreadsheets (some very complex) and have become suprisingly good !!

Problem is that now I'm being used as a "magic wand" within the department to build excel spreadsheets capable of lots of intuative work thanks to the VBA I can program in. There's the expectation that I can solve complex issues at the drop of a hat with no acknowledgement of the skill needed to do it. People here are impressed that you can change the colour of cells !!

My main issue is that for bonus and paygrade purposes I am "just an admin" and am not eligible. So when my managers are using my work to fulfil their objectives, they get a big bonus, I barely get a pat on the head.

Things have come to a head now because I created a Recruitment Dashboard that records all the applicants we have and shows real time stats on diversity and agencies/costs used etc. It has been so successful that my manager has taken it to europe and now various european branches want to use it.

So now I've been asked to be on a project group to roll out my own work, but with others jumping in to be a go-between (so that the european people don't talk to me directly). So I get the feeling that, again, I'm gonna do all the work and others are gonna take all the credit. When the whole design, coding and impliemntation was 100% mine.

Am I being too precious about this ?

Should I put my foot down until they acknowledge my brilliance
or should I just do the work and be grateful for a job ?

I'm interested to hear opinions, good or bad, as well as suggestion's on what I should do ?

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

I think it's a phase that many of us go through. It's typical to be exploited in this way; I endured exactly the same. Is it fair that you develop a fantastic solution for little more tan a pat on the back? No, of course not! But I think you need to look at this from another angle:

Firstly you have been allowed to use your own initiative and given the time to develop this solution. Yes, the company benefits but some companies (managers) keep 'admin' staff on a tight leash.

Secondly you have been able to put those skills to use and in the process refine and further those skills.

Thirdly, hopefully there are a number of colleagues that are aware of your 'brilliance' (your word, not mine ).

I'd say you're setting yourself up nicely. Perhaps these skills that you are developing will earn you a bigger pay check in your next position? Perhaps you are ready for that step already; why not start looking and see if you can get a new job? And if you continue the way you are perhaps you will develop these skills to such an extent that you can offer yourself to the market as a consultant? And, perhaps, the colleagues I referred to in the 3rd point will pass work your way?

I say be grateful that you have had the opportunity to put your skills to use, and that you have had the opportunity to improve. I say a budding developer should favour experience and opportunity over salary / bonus. The money will come.

 

[RoryA]

I agree with Jon and would just add that "putting your foot down" would, I suspect, be a really bad idea.

 

[AMAS]

Hi,

My career path is a little different than yours, but I have had to struggle with similar inequalities over the years. There are two questions you need to ask yourself...

1) Am I happy (accepting at the minimal) that others are taking credit for my work, or at least can I live with it without being felt cheated.

2) If the answer to Q1 is NO, then can I afford to make the move to another company at this time.

I quit my long-standing, secure job many years ago because I came to the point that I was not only being promoted, but they began demoting me. I think they thought that this would be a way to keep me in check. I don't know. In any case, it was one of the toughest decisions I ever had to make because I have a family to support. I took me some time to get back on my feet, but the only thing I regret now is that I didn't quit sooner.

After leaving the company, I was free to work free-lancing jobs (or more realistically, I had to find a way to pay the bills). This opened up avenues I didn't know even existed and offered me the opportunity to further my formal education and experience.

Today, my old bosses come to me for professional collaboration instead of for coffee or other mediocre tasks. But again the situation is different for each person. The one thing you have to decide is that delicate balance between the known constants and unknown variable and take it from there.

One other last piece of advice... play dumb. If your job description is not a vba programmer then don't do it for free at work, unless of course its for your own personal projects. There is no reason for you to have to go above and beyond the call of duty everyday to resolve everyone else's problems. I personally have learned to do the opposite of what we tell our kids to do... I stopped sharing my toys.

My 5 cents...

Good luck.

AMAS

 

[AMAS]

Further, I think Jon roya provide good insight and advice. Experience can not be bought, it can only be earned....

AMAS

 

[Nyanko]

Thank you for your honest feedback. I was worried that Id do something I regret, it's so tough to see 90% of my direct colleagues on the bonus scheme and some of them getting great scores using my work while I end up with nowt !

But I agree that the experience has been invaluable, just wish that it was taken into account in my job role and at review time.

Because I have no formal computing qualification, no degree, and am part time I think the chances of me finding "the next step" in my career are slim. And in my (HR!) department and in this company promotion/development unless you are sales is borderline impossible.

I appreciate the feedback and guess I'm back to head-desking !!!

 

[RoryA]

At the end of the day, anything you create at work is company property so there's not much you can do about that, but you may want to make sure you add your name to every procedure in the workbook and ensure you are noted as the author in the workbook properties.

 

[SuperFerret]

Nyanko, I feel your pain. I'm at this point in my career also, and it is tough to see many people getting all the praise and recognition you feel should be yours.

I'm currently an administrator, and on less pay than 80% of the other people in our office, I'm full time and because I enjoy spreadsheets and VBA I have self funded Excel, Access and SQL courses to improve myself.
People from all over the company and all levels come to my desk if they have any 'projects' they need doing, from conditional formatting to full automation of spreadsheets and I barely get a cheers when it's done.
Now we have a new manager coming in, and we'll be steering towards being more Database Admin, and some people above me are trembling at the thought I may end up above them

The thing is, people notice... and you'd be surprised how many people will be singing your praises when you aren't there. I know this from personal experience.
Keep a note of all the projects you've done, and how long each project has taken to complete, that way at review time you have evidence of your hard work and the time consuming nature of some VBA

Keep strong, and keep smiling

 

[JamesW]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about this.

Companies can be funny like that. In terms of bonus payments it should all be in your contract.

Have you spoken to your line manager about the extra work you have been doing?
Explain to him that you feel like you are being taken for granted and that you have not received the credit you deserve for the dashboard you created (among other things). Also explain that you are thinking of looking around at other companies due to the above.

If he is a good manager than he will think "crap, he's right. If I don't do anything about this I'm going to lose this guy and the excel knowledge he has". Good managers understand how much value someone adds to the business, and if they lose that person they lose £XXX worth of value (value is not just your base salary, it can also be how much time you save for others - The more time a £100,000 a year manager spends on a problem that can easily be solved by you, the more money the business is wasting).

If he is a bad manager then, well, who wants to work for a bad manager?

If your job description is not a vba programmer then don't do it for free at work, unless of course its for your own personal projects

I wouldn't stop helping people. The more you go out of your way to help people the more they will respect you and think highly of you. These people then know how much extra value you can add to the business and this will help you in later life.

Think of it this way:

A recruiting manager has 2 applicants: Applicant A does his job and rarely does anything out of the norm, Applicant B adds alot of value to the business by doing XYZ on top of his day to day job. Who do you think the manager will recruit?

In summary:

Have a chat to your manager, trust me he problably has no idea how you truly feel.
Never stop doing extra things on top of your job. You may not realise it at first, but people remember how good you are at things, and this will be remembered in job interviews.

Take care,

James

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

Take a leaf out of Rory's book:

Don't let on what you can do with Excel. Just automate all of your own tasks, pretend that they took as long as though you were doing the job manually, and then spend most of your time in the nearest pub drinking guinness (yuk!).