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I FINALLY found a job!! After two years of applying. Wow. I must have sent out at least a thousand resumes. I had only about 4 interviews.
Anyway, it is a non-profit organization and I agreed with the CEO that I am starting out as her Executive Assistant and after 6-12 months we look at my performance and if everything goes well make me Operations Manager. I told her flat out I will not start if there is no possibility to move up and she agreed that I am overqualified for an EA job.
CEO told me the finance people will send the offer letter tomorrow and then she goes on vacation for three weeks, hoping I'll start the day after her return.
So she is gone and the finance people sent me the offer letter, nowhere stating anything other than Executive Assistant.
Can I insist on the term "Reevaluation of performance after six month with the possibility to be promoted to Operations Manager?"
Can I? If so, is there a better wording and what if they say they don't know anything about it? The CEO is out of town and I will not quit my job before the new one is certain.
I FINALLY found a job!! After two years of applying. Wow. I must have sent out at least a thousand resumes. I had only about 4 interviews.
Anyway, it is a non-profit organization and I agreed with the CEO that I am starting out as her Executive Assistant and after 6-12 months we look at my performance and if everything goes well make me Operations Manager. I told her flat out I will not start if there is no possibility to move up and she agreed that I am overqualified for an EA job.
CEO told me the finance people will send the offer letter tomorrow and then she goes on vacation for three weeks, hoping I'll start the day after her return.
So she is gone and the finance people sent me the offer letter, nowhere stating anything other than Executive Assistant.
Can I insist on the term "Reevaluation of performance after six month with the possibility to be promoted to Operations Manager?"
Can I? If so, is there a better wording and what if they say they don't know anything about it? The CEO is out of town and I will not quit my job before the new one is certain.
Do NOT quit your current job unless you have a written offer letter spelling out exactly what you agreed to.
The offer letter needs to state exactly what was agreed on, or it is meaningless. I don't like the verbal mushy language of 6-12 months, there needs to be a set time. They have deadlines to meet, no reason they can't set a deadline for a performance review for you.
The offer letter must state that you begin on a specific date, with the job title of EA for $X and who you report to. It must include that after a successful performance review at six months to occur on XX/MM/YY, you will be promoted to Operations Manager with a new salary of $X reporting to X. Reporting is important because you don't want them inserting someone else who is a Sr. Operations Manager where you have nothing but a job title of Operations Manager and you are still doing the same EA job.
Anything less than this isn't professional. I am more than a little concerned that the six month review and promotion wasn't mentioned at all in the offer letter. In fact, I would turn this down without an offer letter that contains the detailed I mentioned above. Again, Do NOT quit your current job.
As for the CEO being out on vacation for three weeks. Nonsense, they can contact the CEO at any time and ask a one minute question. Also, I never heard of a CEO not being reachable even on vacation. Also, a good organization would leave someone else in charge to handle this.
In summary:
You are right to be concerned with this not in your offer letter. It needs to be.
I don't like that it wasn't included.
I don't like that the CEO is out of town, so this is forcing you to accept something which you know in your heart is simply wrong and needs to be corrected.
Do NOT quit your current job unless you have a written offer letter spelling out exactly what you agreed to.
The offer letter needs to state exactly what was agreed on, or it is meaningless. I don't like the verbal mushy language of 6-12 months, there needs to be a set time. They have deadlines to meet, no reason they can't set a deadline for a performance review for you.
The offer letter must state that you begin on a specific date, with the job title of EA for $X and who you report to. It must include that after a successful performance review at six months to occur on XX/MM/YY, you will be promoted to Operations Manager with a new salary of $X reporting to X. Reporting is important because you don't want them inserting someone else who is a Sr. Operations Manager where you have nothing but a job title of Operations Manager and you are still doing the same EA job.
Anything less than this isn't professional. I am more than a little concerned that the six month review and promotion wasn't mentioned at all in the offer letter. In fact, I would turn this down without an offer letter that contains the detailed I mentioned above. Again, Do NOT quit your current job.
As for the CEO being out on vacation for three weeks. Nonsense, they can contact the CEO at any time and ask a one minute question. Also, I never heard of a CEO not being reachable even on vacation. Also, a good organization would leave someone else in charge to handle this.
In summary:
You are right to be concerned with this not in your offer letter. It needs to be.
I don't like that it wasn't included.
I don't like that the CEO is out of town, so this is forcing you to accept something which you know in your heart is simply wrong and needs to be corrected.
Do NOT quit your job.
Thank you. That's exactly what I wanted/needed to hear.
Location: In a city within a state where politicians come to get their PHDs in Corruption
2,907 posts, read 2,070,571 times
Reputation: 4478
Quote:
Originally Posted by oh-eve
Hello,
I FINALLY found a job!! After two years of applying. Wow. I must have sent out at least a thousand resumes. I had only about 4 interviews.
Anyway, it is a non-profit organization and I agreed with the CEO that I am starting out as her Executive Assistant and after 6-12 months we look at my performance and if everything goes well make me Operations Manager. I told her flat out I will not start if there is no possibility to move up and she agreed that I am overqualified for an EA job.
CEO told me the finance people will send the offer letter tomorrow and then she goes on vacation for three weeks, hoping I'll start the day after her return.
So she is gone and the finance people sent me the offer letter, nowhere stating anything other than Executive Assistant.
Can I insist on the term "Reevaluation of performance after six month with the possibility to be promoted to Operations Manager?"
Can I? If so, is there a better wording and what if they say they don't know anything about it? The CEO is out of town and I will not quit my job before the new one is certain.
Even if the wording you have in quotations is included in the letter, it is near useless. It isn't binding, and wording is vague enough for it to really mean anything. My advice to you is don't go into a job like this with inflated expectations. These bait and switch tactics have been used numerous times to lock in people like yourself.
Even if the wording you have in quotations is included in the letter, it is near useless. It isn't binding, and wording is vague enough for it to really mean anything. My advice to you is don't go into a job like this with inflated expectations. These bait and switch tactics have been used numerous times to lock in people like yourself.
You are right but I would take it even if I don't get promoted. It is $10k/year more than currently and currently I am bored at work all day. Even if I am just the EA, it would be better than my current job and I'll just keep looking while working there.
But since I had that talk with the CEO about the promotion, I'll do my best to have that in the offer letter. Well, she did NOT guarantee the promotion, we said it is depending on my performance and we did not talk about how much my salary will be once promoted.
You are right but I would take it even if I don't get promoted. It is $10k/year more than currently and currently I am bored at work all day. Even if I am just the EA, it would be better than my current job and I'll just keep looking while working there.
But since I had that talk with the CEO about the promotion, I'll do my best to have that in the offer letter. Well, she did NOT guarantee the promotion, we said it is depending on my performance and we did not talk about how much my salary will be once promoted.
Yes, they can change things at any time with a whole host of seemingly good excuses not to give you what you were promised or expected. But the fact remains, if they didn't at least put it in the offer letter then they have no real intention of coming through with what was discussed. Because if they were, they would have put it in the letter since it cost them nothing to do so. Them not putting it in there I'd consider that inaction a red flag.
Keep in mind, they are asking someone who is gainfully employed (even though you are currently bored) to quit, so they need to pony up with a solid letter at the very least.
Of course, at any time things can change in any organization. The CEO could leave. They could lose funding. They could merge with another organization and layoff staff including you. But the offer letter needs to have job title, compensation and who you report to and about the possible promotion with likewise information along with what conditions need to be met.
Remember, an offer letter is an employment contract. So it is a contract and you need to think of it that way, even if they try to treat it as a simple welcome to the company memo.
Yes, they can change things at any time with a whole host of seemingly good excuses not to give you what you were promised or expected. But the fact remains, if they didn't at least put it in the offer letter then they have no real intention of coming through with what was discussed. Because if they were, they would have put it in the letter since it cost them nothing to do so. Them not putting it in there I'd consider that inaction a red flag.
Keep in mind, they are asking someone who is gainfully employed (even though you are currently bored) to quit, so they need to pony up with a solid letter at the very least.
Of course, at any time things can change in any organization. The CEO could leave. They could lose funding. They could merge with another organization and layoff staff including you. But the offer letter needs to have job title, compensation and who you report to and about the possible promotion with likewise information along with what conditions need to be met.
Remember, an offer letter is an employment contract. So it is a contract and you need to think of it that way, even if they try to treat it as a simple welcome to the company memo.
This is a small non-profit and I know two people wo work there. Those people are happy and it seems the organization is on the uprise and honest people work there.
I am 90% sure they do not purposely want to switch and bait me and then I get stuck as an EA. However, I don't want to be an EA and then in half a year I ask about the promotion and the CEO tells me I do such a good job, she doesn't want anything to change. Or someone else has a friend whom they refer as operations manager and they forget I was next in line.
I am not even sure if the financial people who created the offer letter even know what the CEO and I have agreed to. I had the first interview with the two financial people and we only spoke about the EA job. When I got called for the second interview with the CEO only, I told her immediately I need a place where I can grow and advance and she agreed to it. She may have never communicated to the financial guys. I do not know.
Location: In a city within a state where politicians come to get their PHDs in Corruption
2,907 posts, read 2,070,571 times
Reputation: 4478
Quote:
Originally Posted by oh-eve
You are right but I would take it even if I don't get promoted. It is $10k/year more than currently and currently I am bored at work all day. Even if I am just the EA, it would be better than my current job and I'll just keep looking while working there.
But since I had that talk with the CEO about the promotion, I'll do my best to have that in the offer letter. Well, she did NOT guarantee the promotion, we said it is depending on my performance and we did not talk about how much my salary will be once promoted.
Actually, this is a great attitude to go in with. Good luck, and congratulations.
I am not even sure if the financial people who created the offer letter even know what the CEO and I have agreed to. I had the first interview with the two financial people and we only spoke about the EA job. When I got called for the second interview with the CEO only, I told her immediately I need a place where I can grow and advance and she agreed to it. She may have never communicated to the financial guys. I do not know.
It should be a red flag, but a different one. That they don't have very good management there and lack simple internal communications. Obviously the CEO didn't let anyone else know about this. All it would have taken from the CEO is to send e-mail stating what the terms would be for your offer. That isn't a minor thing to overlook. It is something people take personality, because they are professionals.
The thing is, they know once you leave your current job, if things don't work out, it isn't like you can easily switch back and keep looking. You'd be stuck there looking for another job again. That doesn't sound like a good situation to go into.
It sounds like from your experience that doing a EA job is not going to be enjoyable to begin with. I frankly don't get why you need to work in that role first and can't start as an Operations Manager if the CEO already agreed you were overqualified.
If you really want to work there, consider writing back to them in e-mail saying that after considering their offer and based on the interview with the CEO about your qualifications, you feel you could better serve the organization starting as an Operations Manager at $X salary reporting to Y.
This 6-12 month thing under the best of circumstances is for entry-level positions or people completely switching careers. Not someone who the CEO feels is already overqualified.
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