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I work in a small IT business (15-20 people) as a team leader. My last pay review was 6 months ago; it’s now the start of the new financial year.

One of my team members has not continued on with his contract, meaning that his work will now fall onto the rest of us. As far as I know, the position will not be filled.

Are these suitable circumstances to ask for a raise, given that my company is now saved the expense of paying the discontinued employee?

TRiG
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Notaras
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    You can always ask and see what happens :) But remember you will need to justify it first. Quantify the amount of extra work and how that equates in extra responsibility and remuneration for you. – Jane S Jul 02 '15 at 23:09
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    And show that you will actually be doing more work, rather than galling behind on both yours and his. – keshlam Jul 03 '15 at 03:14
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    Not sure using this is good reasoning for a raise. For example, if your company hires a replacment later, is that a suitable circumstance to revoke your raise? Using personal and company targets and meeting them, annual reviews, etc., are probably better reasoning for everyone. – Brandin Jul 03 '15 at 06:18

1 Answers1

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Short answer: It never hurts to ask, but you will have to justify it to your employer.

If there is a reason they don't intend to fill the position, then clearly the work that person was doing will have to be picked up by the rest of the team you lead. What you will need to do is demonstrate that:

  1. Firstly that you are the right (and perhaps only) person to pick up that work;
  2. That it increases your load significantly that you need to be remunerated for the extra work; and
  3. That you are capable of fitting it into your work schedule and not start to miss deadlines.

The first one is perhaps the key to the second. If you can demonstrate that you are the right person, and quantify how much extra work you will need to perform the task (ie number of hours, expertise, and so on), then you can try to make a business case to your bosses for a correlated extra pay.

Jane S
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  • ...but be prepared for your employer to agree with points 1 and 2, but decide that instead of giving you a raise, they'll shift other work from you to another employee. – Dan Henderson Jul 04 '15 at 01:45
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    It is also most successful if you pick up work at a higher level than what you were doing before, such as taking on team lead responsibilites you did not have before or learning a new skill. – HLGEM Jul 06 '15 at 17:54