I'll manage

Last weekend we were out of town at a niece's wedding.  Everything was lovely but I was chilly at the reception because our table was in front of a large air conditioning vent.  While waiting for the dance to start I asked R if we could go for a walk outside to warm up a little, so we walked a block to main street downtown. We stopped in a little shop that had everything from garden statuary to novelty items to interesting gadgets. I found a little bracelet with Chinese symbols on it that included the "double happiness" character as a good luck charm.  I figured it wouldn't hurt to wear a lucky charm, especially as I was trying to do double duty at two jobs at work.  Maybe the bracelet would help me figure things out.

It's a week later, and I think the situation has resolved.  Not the way I thought, but maybe the best way it could.  Friday the Director asked to speak to me after meeting with the VP about hiring me at the salary we had discussed earlier.  The VP had rejected the Director's request to increase my pay to the level I asked for, citing his inability to authorize a pay increase of over 10% without Executive Board approval, which the VP was not willing to pursue.  After verifying that offer was off the table, the Director told me they were willing to increase my pay the maximum 10% , but allow me to choose the position I wanted -- the new job or my current job. And in a year I would be considered for a second, similar pay increase based on merit.

This is the third year the university has foregone raises for staff, understandably due to budget and economic challenges.  I celebrated my third anniversary at the university just over a week ago, so my pay has remained at starting level.  The staff, my boss, and the Director all tell me I am the most grossly underpaid person in the office, and the Director worked hard to get what he could for me under the circumstances.  The Director told me that they hoped that the increase they could offer me would keep me at the university, because their concern was that I was reaching the point where I would walk away to something more lucrative.

I can't tell you how much that means to me.  I would have loved the increase that was discussed earlier, but I never really wanted the position in the other office.  It was a purely monetary decision to take that job.  Now that I don't have to take it, it makes my own job, the one that I really enjoy, even better.  I can keep my job and still get the maximum they are offering at this time, making the decision on whether or not to switch jobs a no-brainer. 

So I think the double happiness bracelet worked after all.  I was asked and I'm going to do what I can to help train the replacement in the other office, based on the minimal training I received before my co-worker left.  That will help me continue to understand more about the flow of the processes at the university which is not a bad thing.  I'm deep in my own work too, and am not sure how it will all fit right now.  But I'll manage.