So, I wanted to get an opinion on asking for a raise or if I should do something different? or get any feedback or tips...
I've been with my company for 9 years and have never asked for a raise. I've been promoted throughout my time at this company and made it through rounds of lay offs, my manager and director frequently tell me I'm doing a good job and that they appreciate all that I do.
2 years ago I joined a team where all members were very high performers. On previous teams I was always the "lead" or the highest performing member. Last year the company merged with another and a lot of my current team was let go and only three of us were offered positions in the "go forward company" . The two other woman that stayed played hardball and acted like they wanted to leave the company so management decided to give them a pay increase as an incentive to stay. These two woman were analyst level II at that time and still are. During that time I made it very clear that I wanted to stay with the company and loved my job, when they offered me a position going forward I took it, without any negotiation. They offered me an Analyst level II position(from a level I) and included my year merit increase with that pay raise, which did not put me at the same rate as the two other women when they first became Analyst II (only 6 months prior). This was a little frustrating but I was happy to keep my job.
In the past year I have taken on lots of new projects and tasks. The two other women on my team do not like to travel for work so I am left to do all of the traveling. Often times the other two women give me their busy work, which I do and then also do my regular tasks and my special projects. A lot of what I do is train other people on processes and systems while the other two women have more tangible projects/measurable results. I believe that we all perform in the same capacity. I don't think any of us does more/less than any of the others (besides travel), we just have very different tasks. I don't want to seem whiny, but I feel like our pay should be on par.
I'm nervous to talk about pay with my manager. I have a great relationship with her and she is super easy going, but this is something that just makes me really uncomfortable, but I feel like it is something I need to do. maybe instead of asking for a raise I should just ask for more work or larger projects that will have higher visibility and then hope a raise will follow?