A reader asked Work Friend: "I was laid off toward the beginning of the pandemic. Shortly afterward, an old boss offered me a position I had held the year prior. The salary was $13,000 less than I had been making, but I was told we could re-evaluate in six to 12 months as they couldn’t offer more based on the uncertainty at the time.
I have now been back at the job for nearly a year and am miserable. There’s little room for growth, and I’m being tasked with responsibilities I both dislike and am not good at. In a recent meeting, I told my boss that I would like to start the conversation about upping my salary, and was told that would not be possible to discuss until fall as budgets were already finalized and approved — and that I would have to work on justifications for a raise in 2022. I want out of this job, but I agreed to stay for a while when I accepted it. At that time, nobody was hiring and I felt lucky, but now I feel depressed and anxious. I feel financially undervalued and like I could be miserable somewhere else making a lot more money. Am I a jerk for looking for a new job so soon?"
Team Leader, Investigations, Law Society of NSW
1wDid they comment about the recent The Economist article about bias in the The New York Times Bestseller Book List as a conversation starter?