— पांच हजार आठ सौ बानवे —
I already
posted last night about all the goings-on of my weekend. I did this both to save myself time today coming back after a day off, and to give me some time and space to share about the pretty notable thing that happened at work on Friday.
Gabby and I had our weekly 1:1 meeting over Teams, and she gave me quite the pleasant surprise: she has already put in the request with HQ to give me a promotion, at least in title and accompanying raise.
She was very sweet about this, because I have been very vocal for years, since long before Gabby came along, about my lack of ambition and my zero interest in, for example, ever becoming a Merchandiser. I don't want my job ever to become something I can't just leave behind when I go home from work. I don't want to be on-call on weekends, and I don't want to be managing anyone. Perhaps most importantly, I'll never go in any direction that would necessitate getting a car. Back when Scott was still here and the Associate Grocery Merchandiser position was going to be open, he even came to me to ask if I was interested. I really appreciate that gesture, but I still said: "Would I need a car?" He said: "Probably." And that was the end of that.
Gabby's a bit different, though. She's guided me into a position of far more responsibility than I ever expected just in the couple of years she's been here. It's mostly been fine, but I'd be lying if I said it never occurred to me to wonder if perhaps I should be put into an officially different position to reflect this, and maybe get some kind of componsational acknowledgement of it. And that is precisely what she is trying to make happen for me here.
As it happens, I had not that long ago reiterated to her in passing that "I don't want a promotion." So the biggest reason she wanted to let me know she had done this was so that I wouldn't feel like she was going against my wishes. But, as long as it's simply a promotion in name (and wage) but with no expectation of changing the way my job is already working, then of course I'm not going to argue with that! "This was a pretty pleasant way to end my week," I said.
Gabby did stress, and therefore I should really stress here, that nothing has officially occurred beyond her putting in the request. It sounds like she has spoken to Dave (her boss, the VP of Merchandising) and he has no issue with it. The sense that I got is that if there is any rejection of this proposal it will be budget based. She doesn't want me to get my hopes up, but naturally I'm a bit hopeful.
That said, several years ago, when Eric was in the position Gabby is in now, he actually tried to create an entire new position for me. This presumably also would have involved a raise of some level. That totally fell through. I did mention this to Gabby, and she noted that she's different from Eric. This is absolutely true, and Gabby has a tenacity unlike anyone I have ever known. (Granted, she also tried once to create an office position for one of the store POS admins, and that also fell through—but also was a very different circumstance. That guy was not one of her direct reports; it was much earlier in her tenure here; and presumably she has a much better understanding of official protocol either way now.)
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— पांच हजार आठ सौ बानवे —
We even talked a bit about what my new title should be. She seems to have settled on "Pricing and Promotions Analyst," which is the title Amy has had for a while now—although she focuses far nore on promotions than I do, and on different types than I have ever worked on. My current title is "Center Store Support Specialist," which I only just realized after opening my document tracking these things is what it's been now for nine years—the longest I have ever had one title, incidentally. Also, if you don't work in Grocery, you're not likely to know what the hell that title even means. I even
quipped about it on Facebook.
Mind you, even this is the fourth title I have ever had here. None of my title changes, to date, have been actual promotions—they've really just been an evolution of my role. Which this change would be reflecting too, except, hopefully this time it'll actually be registered as a promotion. Anyway, I started as a "Merchandising Assitant" (2002-2008); then was switched to "Merchandising Specialist" (2008-2012); then was "Assistant Merchandiser" (2012-2016); and then "Center Store Support Specialist," which felt a little like a demotion to be honest, even if only in title. But, this was reflective of the corporatization of our structure when Cate came on as our CEO (she left ages ago, like shortly after the pandemic hit in 2020).
Gabby clearly understands the impact of language, though, and specifically said, "I think you've outgrown the 'Specialist' role." I wouldn't particularly argue with that.
The somewhat curious part about all this, assuming it actually goes through, is the relative expectation that a raise would go into effect in January. Without the idea of any kind of promotion, I was already not expecting any kind of wage increase until April—we were all informed long ago that, for the first time ever, our wage increases will be tied to our annual review, and those happen at the beginning of the year. In the past, we were given cost-of-living increases (if nothing else) that went into effect in January, even though evaluations were not due until February. Gabby always found this odd, and sees this change as moving toward industry standard. That all makes sense to me, although it's also worth noting we were told whatever raise we get in April will be retroactive to the beginning of the year, so we'll get a lump sum when it starts in April—but that's the only time that will happen; going forward any raises tied to evaluations will just start in the spring.
What this means for me
if I get a promotion, though, I don't know. Would the increase I would otherwise get in April be ignored if I get a presumably larger one for a promotion in January? Except I would still be going through the evaluation process after that, so who knows? I have no idea. Whatever might happen next year would just be icing on the cake, if this promotion actually gets approved.
Naturally I'm hoping it does. I guess I'll have to temper my disappointment if it doesn't. It's still a few months away though so I'm not going to spend too much time worrying about it. My budget is so tight now, though (due to major travel plans over the next couple of years), that it would sure be nice to have the ability to loosen that tightness a little.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ बानवे —
[posted 12:30pm]
