Getting more pissed

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Ok, so everyone knows I'm quitting my job because I got an exciting new job in Hotlanta. What I don't think I said before is why I was looking for a job in the first place. Here's the latest. I thought I would feel better after telling my director every last detail about why I'm leaving. But I don't. In addition to feeling bad about leaving my team (they're up the creek) and knowing that the director blew it out of his ass, something is eating at me.

I found out a while ago that we hired someone in, with no experience, at a much higher salary than mine and at a higher position. That's been eating at me and I'm sure it contributed to my negative feelings about said person, even though I'm not the only person to complain. We have essentially the same function on the project, ie. same job. Well, I got a peak at some info that indicates that I'm probably the lowest paid developer on this floor. I take this very personally. I've never had this problem at other jobs. I've always known that I was valued equally to comparable employees at every other place I've worked. This place is the worst. So, I started perusing the site of the EEOC and I'm toying with the idea of filing a complaint for sex descrimination based on the "equal pay" clause. I'm torn about it though. For one, I don't know what I would expect to come of it since I've already quit and for two I'm not sure I have the energy to follow through on it. And lastly, I'm not even sure it would work. What if they came up with some convoluted justification?

But this is just eating away at me. I know I've got a new great job with a great company who is going to pay me what I'm worth, but I can't get over being told to my face how valuable and needed I am while being paid as if it were my job to clean the bathrooms. Ok, so I'm exaggerating a bit. All of the satisfaction I got by quitting is fading away while this sense of injustice just won't subside. Anybody want to talk me down? Please.

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I know nothing about your laws, so I will say nothing about running acase/not running a case.

But I can so see why it is eating at you.

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FreeDuck--

Ugh.

How much longer will you have to smile at these chauvenists?

Hold your dominion.

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While I wish I tell you to fight this through for the principle involved, I really think it's best it you just walk away and be glad you did.

The knowledge of being underpaid for equal work is eating you up, but it will eat you up for the long haul if you go after them.

I don't condone it, but you've already decided to leave. Leave with your head held high and know that they're scumbags and move forward. Getting and staying deep in the muck won't do your well being any good and will probably suck you dry. Are there other underpaid women you might pass the gauntlet to?

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I stopped smiling a long time ago. I don't actually think they are overtly sexist, but something's up. I think I just need to get over it but it is very personal to me. In my work, what you make is roughly considered what you are worth. If someone didn't know me and had never worked with me and knew only how much I made they would think I couldn't code my way out of a paper bag. Which totally isn't true, but they would be right that I'm stupid, because only a stupid ass would have taken the damn job in the first place.

Ugh. Four more work days. I can do it. Four more days.

I don't think I have it in me to file a complaint and I'm not sure it would make me feel any better anyway.

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Sihgh.

I hope you can let it go soon, and be a Free Duck indeed.

It is hard, though, eh?

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((FD)))))))))))))))))))))))))))

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Around here, they'd call what happened to you constructive dismissal and happy feeding for a good employment lawyer.

Big corps rarely let those claims get as far as court - a nice little payout might be in order.

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J_B wrote:

Are there other underpaid women you might pass the gauntlet to?

There's only one other woman developer and yes, I think she's underpaid too. I was thinking of going and talking to her about it. Maybe I will now.

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How were your wages set to begin with? Did you negotiate your salary when you started?

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I wish it was one of those things that I could set in motion but not have to stick around for, you know, kind of like filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Just lob and leave. Let them fight with someone else about it.

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fishin' wrote:

How were your wages set to begin with? Did you negotiate your salary when you started?

No, which was my mistake. There were two factors to that. The biggest one is that I moved from a high cost of living area to a low cost of living area, and thought that the salary, though low, was probably comparable to what others made here. Now I know that's not true. The other was that I had been out of the work force for two years and felt I wasn't in a strong negotiating position. But I've long since proven my abilities and my worth, and they've had two opportunities that I know of to correct it. And they haven't.

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Four more days? Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday?

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FD, youre in Pa no? Pa is a state that follows the policy of "at will" .
If youve resigned , youve lost any leverage that you may have retained if you sought a salary adjustment and made some demands first. Then, if they terminated you, you could have gone to the L and I Dept, (Labor and Industry) in Hbg.

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good luck to you and it sounds like the losers are your former company anyway.
Live well, and prosper.

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FreeDuck wrote:

fishin' wrote:
How were your wages set to begin with? Did you negotiate your salary when you started?

But I've long since proven my abilities and my worth, and they've had two opportunities that I know of to correct it. And they haven't.

Did you ask them to correct it? For a raise I mean...

Just from my own experience, people tend to either over sell or under sell themselves when it comes to salary. I have 12 people that I've hired in the last few years (all in the exact same job function) and there is a large spread in their salaries (more than $30K).

There is no sexism or racism involved. 99% of what they get paid is based on what they listed for their desired starting salary when they applied for the position.

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Basically Ms Duck, you should just mentally get the hell out of there with immediate effect.

Explain to your team why you are so pissed, so they will understand why you are not giving two hoots, and concentrate your time and thoughts on your new life.

Three months from now, you will have settled in to a new home, sorted out all the niggly things and have a new set of colleagues.

You will also be dressed like Scarlett O'Hara, stand on a mound in your back garden and shout "I shall never go hungry again".

Little tip. If you still feel anger when you have moved in to your new home, get a map and a compass and work out the exact direction of your ex bosses office. Every morning, whilst making the toast, you can face that direction and give him a symbolic finger.

P.S. The phrase "I am so pissed" in Britain, means that one is raging drunk. I therefore came here under false pretences, thinking that there was going to be some fun. I shall leave now, disappointed.

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fishin' wrote:

Did you ask them to correct it? For a raise I mean...

I did, twice. Both times I got a schpiel about company policy limiting raises to x percent, blah blah blah, platitude, platitude.

Quote:

Just from my own experience, people tend to either over sell or under sell themselves when it comes to salary. I have 12 people that I've hired in the last few years (all in the exact same job function) and there is a large spread in their salaries (more than $30K).

This is definitely true, and it's true that I've always undersold myself. It's just that in other places, the pay was still within the average range so there was nothing to complain about, and raises and promotions were forthcoming with merit. What I've found here is that the responsibilities increase with merit, but not the pay or the position. Truthfully, I'm mostly angry with myself for accepting it and allowing myself to be taken advantage of.

When interviewing for my new position, I did a lot of research and made sure to ask for something that was fair and that I knew was reasonable. That has made a huge difference.

Quote:

There is no sexism or racism involved. 99% of what they get paid is based on what they listed for their desired starting salary when they applied for the position.

In my case the company says they will pay within some certain range and then they determine where in that range you will fall based on some invisible criteria. Fine. But I'm very qualified for my position, more qualified than several who have a higher position, so what made them choose to offer me something so low, I don't know. I don't actually think they are overtly sexist, but there was a very subtle sort of assumption when I came on that I've worked very hard to disprove. I don't know where that comes from.

I'm actually embarrassed just putting it out here on A2K and I'm spouting off more than really planning to do more about it than I already have. It's my responsibility to ensure that I'm adequately compensated and I've taken action to correct it. But God, does it still ever piss me off.

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farmerman wrote:

FD, youre in Pa no? Pa is a state that follows the policy of "at will" .
If youve resigned , youve lost any leverage that you may have retained if you sought a salary adjustment and made some demands first. Then, if they terminated you, you could have gone to the L and I Dept, (Labor and Industry) in Hbg.

Thanks farmer, but that's ok. I wasn't really planning to do anything about it, it was just a momentary desire to get revenge.

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Lord E, you kill me. I have already mentally left the place, unfortunately. You'll notice that I've been on A2K a lot. But yeah, I do feel bad for my team.

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Back in the early seventies, perhaps even '70, a guy who I had done the nod for hiring and trained to help me, and then when I left took over what I did and had a helper and then I think two to help him do what I did by myself, got raised to a whole level higher than most techs, including me, in my next position, which had at least equal if not more responsibility.

This bugged me. I finally mentioned it to my boss, who laughed it off, which made me not laugh. Well, he said, I could apply for that too, it was involved to do that, a lot of trouble, you know. That's just him, don't worry about it, and so on.

Ok, let's do it, I said.

Time went by and I was upgraded. In that case, not so much trouble, some paperwork, and interview re my level of supervision of others, bla bla bla.

Ptui.

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Getting more pissed

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