Wow, thank you everyone for such helpful replies! I really appreciate all of you taking the time to see what you think of this situation.
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Originally Posted by hvert
Hmmm, this struck me: this company almost lost a major client because they let an unsupervised (probationary?) employee handle a major account? And what they learned from that lesson was that they should hire someone on a trial basis and pay them even less money to do that work??
It sounds like you are very good at what you do, but it is a very strange thing (imo) for a company to place this much power in the hands of a probationary employee who has never been in the business before. To me this signals that they either have a problem paying people or they have trouble making good decisions. It sounds like you are making a lot of outside contacts in your position, which will be great for finding a new job.
This sounds like the kind of company that would give you a raise to 32k a year, 3 days vacation, and switch you to a salaried position (no overtime).
Trust your gut with these people. From what you've said, you have every reason to be wary. You have a right to ask for clear information about your situation and to ask for it in writing.
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I think their reasoning was that they didn't want to go through as much damage control. They changed quite a few things from when the last person was hired to try to prevent the position from having that much power. For instance, they come out and see how I'm doing every once in a while, double-check my work to make sure there are no mistakes, etc. I do think they have trouble making good decisions sometimes, but like brainhi says, it's small company and you can't expect them to run the business perfectly. But it is a reason to be careful, I'm learning!
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Originally Posted by Perna
Salaried people do not get overtime, just their salary. That is one reason they probably have the job as hourly; they know it requires a lot of time and/or don't want to have to hire another person to help you (as, even at $8/hr. or something for an assistant, they'd be paying $16 actually for tax, tips, and gratuities of hiring the person). After a year or so you might want to talk them into hiring someone part-time to help you; use your wages/hrs. to show how it would not cost them more or much more and you would get a built in person to "supervise" which would look wonderful on your resume (if you could manage without overtime for six months to a year and/or get another couple dollars an hour or more schooling paid for (even just a supervisory course or something).
It's hard when you are a whole department yourself. I had to run a non-profit and my first chore, which were overdue, was the payroll taxes which I'd never done before! Fortunately I had had a couple semesters of accounting and I had the contact number of the person who'd had the job before me, the first person to have the job at all, but she was out-of-state. I called and talked to her and she was vague and clueless (probably why she'd quit the job) so then I realized I was truly on my own and could do whatever I wanted  That was $8 an hour but in the mid-90's. |
They are planning to hire a part-time unpaid intern for me soon, as the workload is about to pick up. I'm not sure what the expectations will be for supervising/training them. I was going to ask for more clarification on that when the time comes.
Your experience sounds very similar! Billing was a stinker to figure out. I've thought of contacting the first person to have this job, whom they really liked, but I haven't worked up the nerve! It is nice to realize that, with the structure being so poor, you do get to call the shots more than most people probably do. Thanks Perna!
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Originally Posted by IceCreamKid
You've gotten some good answers but let me add my 2 cents worth...
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This was really useful advice, thank you for adding your 2 cents.
I will start keeping better records of what I am doing and planning for the future that may not be at this company. I had hoped at the beginning that I'd grow with the company and stay a long time, but I'm not sure that will be possible.
I'd talked to my mother about this finally, because she understands professionalism very well, and she made similar recommendations as this. What you're saying strengthens my resolve to write a reply letter, very respectfully and showing my gratitude for the company thus far, to get the vacation/sick leave and other questions cleared up.