This was the document in my hand as I was laid off. Returning refreshed from SXSW, I drew this up in preparation for my annual review. I thought these were all well-thought out and fair proposals. Unfortunately, none of them were ever communicated.
Salary
salary has not been addressed since I started at (company). As I recall, I was supposed to have a four month review followed by a raise. This review came after about 7 months, and no raise came with it, although J. made noises about one.
I'm going to come straight out and ask for what I feel is a fair amount: $35,000.00.
if at all possible, I'd like to be paid biweekly instead of monthly. Being paid once a month makes it much more difficult for me to budget. If this is not possible, how about being paid on the 1st of the month rather than the 15th? My rent is due on the 1st.
Telecommuting
I spent a lot of time in Austin with two women who work for a company in Dallas called (company). They're about our size, the difference being that ALL their employees telecommute. D. is the Creative Director and L. is their back-end programmer. The company bought both of them laptops and docking stations so that they could work at home. They come to the office for occasional meetings. That's it.
I'm not proposing something so drastic. I use the example because it shows it can work. My proposal goes something like this:
I work from home 2-3 days a week.
I call in at 9:00 am, 1:00 pm and 5:30 pm, so you know I'm working and also for progress reports on work we're doing.
my rationale:
My commute is almost three hours a day. I arrive at work already stressed and tired. I arrive home the same way.
In addition to $88.50/mth for my Metropass, I have to pay an additional $68/mth in extra bus tickets to get to (hinterland location of company).
Lunches out can be expensive and time consuming, as well.
I have equal or better computing power at home. I have a G4 at home with cable access to the internet. I have a G3 at (fiancée)'s with dialup (in case (roommate) is off school and working on his computer), and I have an iBook laptop with a modem. Cost to (company): $0.
I have all the software I need there, and can always reach you if I need to. I also have a cellular phone so you can reach me anywhere. Cost to (company): $0.
I'm closer to downtown in case we need to pick something up or drop something off at a client. If I'm in the office every second day, for example, I can drop stuff off or pick things up there, saving you a drive downtown. Cost to (company): $0.
For the next little while, anyway, the two of us will be SHARING a dialup connection to the Internet. This is a great opportunity for us to test this telecommuting strategy.
Professional Development
I'm becoming more interested in other aspects of the web design business, namely, project management. In light of this, I'm planning to take a course through the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies in May. This course is approximately $600. (Ed. note: The course was never taken, due to sudden unemployment and drastic reduction of income.)
I'd like to have some sort of professional development budget that I can use each year to take courses, buy books, attend conferences, etc. Being reimbursed for books I buy for (company) is not the same. I want to feel that the company is confident investing in my skills.
I propose a budget of $1000/yr. Anything not used should be able to be carried over. Payments would still take the form of reimbursement and a receipt would still be required.
For conferences, I'd like to be able to attend without taking vacation days. Maybe one vacation day charged for every two days of a professional conference? I would have felt much more comfortable representing (company) at SXSW if this were in place. As it was, I paid for the conference myself, and took my own vacation to attend. Accordingly, I wasn't there representing the company, just myself.
I'd like to take on an internal project of some kind where I can use my project management skills. One I've been thinking of is writing documentation for the processes we use internally for jobs. Sort of a procedural manual, I guess. This would let me use my writing and editing skills as well, and I could do some research into how other companies do this sort of thing. I could make it part of a larger manual on company policies and procedures, something that could be given to all employees when they are hired.