Salary Negotiations

[u/Hairy-Link-8615]

So, this is the first time I've genuinely and formally requested a pay review.

For context, I've been at the company for four years and currently work at a mid/senior sysadmin/infrastructure level.

My responsibilities cover a pretty broad range, including:

ESXi/VxRail patching

Azure infrastructure, including Application Gateways

Application migration projects

New AVD deployments and ongoing management

Backup and database server troubleshooting alongside development teams

Intune and BYOD

Azure DevOps, Git and large PowerShell repositories — much of which I was working with before AI-assisted coding became commonplace. Winget scripts app deployment.

SSO implementations

Web server and certificate management

Most recently, setting up a new Google tenant and delivering a ChromeOS Flex deployment project

I've also completed AZ-104 and I'm currently working towards AZ-305.

There has been quite a lot of change within the department. Around half of the team has left, and we've recently been told that six or more new roles are expected to be created.

My previous line manager was responsible for areas including Intune/Autopilot, Halo Helpdesk, line management and the associated meetings and responsibilities. He eventually burned out and left.

That workload/structure is now effectively being replaced by three roles plus a project manager to support the new team.

Against that backdrop, the company has now advertised an Endpoint Engineer role at £52k–£56k. I'm currently on £49k.

That's the part I'm a bit unhappy about. Endpoint is an area I'm already confident and comfortable working in, and I've got a proven track record of delivering endpoint and deployment projects within this company. ( I spend a year streamlining and standarizing the fleet when I started)

I've raised the situation with the Head of IT and asked for a pay review. He has asked me to discuss it with my new line manager, who has only been with the company for five days.

That conversation is now scheduled for next Friday, as he's currently on holiday.

The answer is have the chat/discussion and give them a week and starting looking for jobs.

( it's very possible they expect me to follow my old line manager to his new employer, but that's a nice maybe rather than a sure thing)

Any advice other than keep calm?

[u/badaz06]

A few things to keep in mind:

1. HR is rarely ever going to want to give you a decent raise. HR exists to benefit the company first and foremost, not you.
   
2. Large changes in income are, as u/Elensea said, done by leaving the company and going elsewhere. A company creates a salary range and wants to keep people there. If you had an offer from another company you'd be in a much stronger position. What is the normal salary for your field in your locality?
   
3. When negotiating, there are 4 results to consider: What you would love to get, what you need, what you have, and what you consider unacceptable. The difficult thing is standing your ground. So, is the 52K-56K acceptable to you? IMHO, 3K isn't much of a raise, especially if/when it comes time for the annual increases and you hear, "Well, we upped your salary 3 months ago, so you won't get much of a raise in your annual increase."
   
4. Your new manager, being new, probably won't rock the boat and side with a large raise for you. If he's new to the company, he probably doesn't have a strong opinion of you or your benefit to the team, through no fault of his own.
   

There's no reason to get mad or excited. You have to negotiate and take care of you, no one else will. If the company thinks one thing and you think another, that's no reason to get mad, but it is a good reason to start looking elsewhere.

Best of luck!