1

So recently i got hit with a “No one is irreplaceble” and "For business owners, the employees will always be doing less they are paid to do, from my boss. Maybe as a form of agressively motivate.
Not gonna lie i feel hit by a truck and a bit betrayed. In this company its only him and i, he is the CEO and Level 3 support, in some ways.
After that i started listing all i do in this company and started feel overwhelmed, exhausted and maybe burned-out(?). I feel like i’m a major pillar here as he is trying to focus on growth and change of niche for our company.
I don’t really know what to do and am feeling so lost.

Its my first time in Spiceworks, i’m just so overwhelmed that any “talk”/ non-user social interaction would be welcome.

22 Spice ups
2

Only you know the answer to your dilemma, if it doesn’t feel right and you see this as a targeted response, run.

The only right answer here is based on your decision, no one but you has to work with them or deal with them, any advice we can give is generic.

IT is not a place though where you get to relax, stress free, it can be overwhelming and busy out of nowhere.

You haven’t listed how long you’ve been here or the tasks you do, or even your scale or expectations, but IT is not a job where you spend most of your time in an office chair.

I do wish you luck though and know, you’re not alone, there are many posts like this recently.

18 Spice ups
3

Thanks sir. I can imagine the posting frequency for these as what inspired me to post as well was one from 2021, under the “one-man-IT” comunity. I think the worst is being registered as level 1 help desk support and perform SysAdmin, Office 365 admin and few CyberSecurity roles, the biggest punch in the gut was how i got threated as “not doing enough” still.
I think i got a big choice on my hand then. I love IT and i do love what i do but the bad part is being massively underpaid (or at least feeling so). Thanks for the wishes and i’ll ponder what way to follow next.

14 Spice ups
4

First of all, remember these are public posts, so your boss could see these, secondly, what do you expect to be doing at level 1?

Since there are only two of you and he does from what you described, most backend work, what do you feel that you do that you should not - is it the workload overwhelming you or the pressure being put on you?

9 Spice ups
5

I think the major issue is he thinking that i’m doing less than i am paid to do. But a level one role in it support usually is initial interaction with users, basic troubleshooting and most complex/ advanced cases are escalated to level 2 and level 3. Might be mistaken as well. Thats ok if he ends up seeing this, i’ll try to keep most generic as possible and not leak any confidential information.
But what i do, as mentioned, is sysAdmin work, both lvl 2 and lvl 3 support, security analysis and a bunch more. Right now its defined that i’ll keep the workload and he will step back to focus on meetings and try to make the company grow, i fully support. I can handle it, i was not caring for the payment at first until he said that, now i feel betrayed i guess?
Sometimes i get lost im my thoughs so i do apologise if i stranded far from your question.

9 Spice ups
6

So it seems you’re not against the work itself, in fact it can be good for you to learn a new skill, what seems to be the issue here is he doesn’t want to compensate you for working above and beyond your grade and believes you do less than you do.

First question - have you sat down with him, face to face and had the discussion about your work, that you are happy to take on more, but feel this would be a tier 2 position and therefore you would like to be paid as such - obviously you can choose the wording.

8 Spice ups
7

Not against the work at all, i do love what i do, but being diminished and lack of recognition on my effort is the big killer. I don’t see my boss as someone to argue/discuss with, he is rigid and is always complaining about money, once i tried to ask for an early leave, as i did 4 hours overtime, and he did not get very happy.
My plan for now is try to keep up untill my vacation days and if he calls for another “punch-in-the-gut-meeting” ill point it all out. I did some research and a spreadsheet comparing what i do with what i get with the job roles salary, don’t want to fight, but i do have the numbers.
Maybe it sums up on “i’m lost because i, basically, want to be”?

5 Spice ups
8

So you have some background, I am a manager, so I understand your reasons, however, while this is about your effort, he may hear ‘money, money, money, complain, complain’ and that’s never good, so let’s reframe this.

Twist it back (in your own words so he knows this isn’t from someone else), to suit his current narrative.

“Hi [Name], I appreciate you have been focusing more on business development, and that’s good for us both, and as a company, To help with this I’ve have been stepping into more advanced technical responsibilities to keep things running smoothly and I am happy to do so.
I’d love to talk about how I can continue supporting this in a more formal capacity.”

Outside of this, your options are, accept it and possibly be unhappy and undervalued or move on. If you do the latter though, ensure you are pleasant with him throughout, including when you part ways.

“Thank you for the opportunity it has been a great insight in to the IT world, I have valued your time and guidance, but I must now move on to new pastures.”

You don’t want to leave on bad terms or make things worse - stay professional, the problem will lie with him when (if) you leave.

12 Spice ups
9

Thank you so much, that surely is some guidance i needed to align my way here. I sure want is success, but i cannot be stepped on.
I think its easy to rewrite in my own words as english is not common in this city.
Having the perspective of an IT manager is something really valuable for me as i never had to take these steps before! Thank you truly!

8 Spice ups
10

I totally get that, it’s just something you can work with, an example of a way you can, instead of making this about you (even if it is), make it look like you want success all round, but your help isn’t free.

One last tip I will give you, regardless of your decision, if you do not have some type of home lab, I would get one so you can also learn outside of work, keep informed on new technologies and ways of working.

There is a home-lab group here you can join to get inspiration and help, but generally you can learn and help out here, too.

Use the community to keep your skills up.

As per my initial post though, good luck and hopefully others will chime in with their advice.

10 Spice ups
11

outstanding hint! We have a Dell PowerEdge R620 (or so, cant check it right now) in the office that i often bare-metal instal ESXi servers to create isolated LANs and so on, i will follow that Homelab for sure as i would love to invest a bit more in certifications and more experience. As for my own PC, with an aditional SSD i surely can tinker around some VM labs.

4 Spice ups
12

After reading your posts here, it sounds like you have a fairly broad and fundamental skill base for what you define as tier 2, leaning into tier 3 territory. Take the time to make a brand new resume, and make it focus on the best of what you do now. Does this impress you? Is this a different resume than what you had when you were hired? Then you are worth more now.

If you feel undervalued, take your experience and apply for other jobs that interest you. You might be surprised by how much compensation other places are offering. You aren’t meant to work at one desk your whole life unless it’s your own company. Opportunities are out there!

6 Spice ups
13

Thank you for those words, it hit me in a way i guess i needed, i’ve been so down on this job in the past month, since the bomb, so i’ll definitely do that! I bet my old resume will be proud of todays haha
I started seeing a lot of job offers that got a passion in me, some remote work for french business as i would love to learn french, some Canadian, and i guess i don’t need to feel like i NEED to protect this company.
Right now i’m a major pilar here because boss wants to focus in growth and exploring other areas to sell and expand, if i leave it will be a shock.
But you are right!
I do appreciate all you guys opinions that i cant express myself enough

4 Spice ups
14

Hence why he needs you to be there.

That’s his problem though, not yours, if he wants ro risk loosing the one member he currently has, because “No one is irreplaceble” then he can seek an employee as well as customers.

You’re right, you do not need to protect this company, you’re an employee, they pay you to be there and do a duty, if they don’t value it or want to risk losing you over what to them is likely trivial money if they bring in new clients, then that’s their choice.

Never feel undervalued, if you do, the company isn’t right for you.

4 Spice ups
15

it means a lot to me, as a support i needed. I never left a company before, had other jobs with 8 years experience, and was included as cut of expenses, so i might have fallen for the “toxic relationship” loop.
All of you guys words give me corage to evolve for myself, not for others

4 Spice ups
16

Now that you’ve got your list of accomplishments add it to your CV. Start applying & look for somewhere that your work & skill will be valued. I get the owner mentality, but they shouldn’t expect everyone to drop everything for the sake of the business. It seems like you’re ready to take the next step in your career. Good luck!

7 Spice ups
17

@Rod-IT and @ericberry0779 already brought up a lot of good points and good advise but I just wanted to touch specifically on this quoted point.

This is a somewhat common issue in general with smaller companies but it seems like it’s more prevalent in IT than for other departments. It’s not uncommon in certain situations for employees to wear multiple hats (with some of those hats potentially falling well outside of a given employee’s departmental responsibilities). Sometimes, you find you just have to pick up the slack because someone has to do those tasks. However, if this is a regular occurrence (e.g., you’re having to do routine SysAdmin tasks on a regular basis) then it’s really not fitting for your title (and related compensation) to be on the basis of the most low-level of tasks that you preform. Someone who is truly Level 1 help desk support wouldn’t even be afforded the level of access that is necessary to preform system-level administrative tasks. The very fact that you do demonstrates that, at the least, your official title is grossly inaccurate and should reflect the duties you regularly preform.

Another thing that struck me is that you noted that your boss is the CEO as well as taking on some Level 3 support which sounds somewhat odd, organizationally-speaking. As the owner/CEO, he absolutely should be focused on the general operation and growth of the company. However, simultaneously claiming a Level 3 support role on top of that is operationally conflicting and I don’t see how he can really put all that much focus on the IT side of things unless the company happens to be an IT service company but, even then, it seems like an untenable position to put himself in try to juggle both (unless, in the worst case, he only did so in order to stick your position with a “Level 1 support” title and provide compensation based on that, which would be a seriously shady thing to do IMHO).

Also, based on the statements you provided, I get the distinct impression that your boss is either new (relatively speaking) to the business world or is simply operating from a very textbook-like mindset. While it’s technically true that “no one is irreplaceable” and that business owners may tend to think employees are doing less than they are being paid to do, these are fairly myopic statements (putting it charitably). The mindset of “no one is irreplaceable” completely overlooks the investment of time and other resources that it takes to get an employee acclimated to a given company’s way of doing things (which may include training on using systems they are unfamiliar with). Also, there certainly will be (some) business owners that think their employees are doing less than what they are being paid to do. Some of them also probably have the (rather unrealistic) expectation that their employees should be working every second of every work day from when they clock in to when they clock out and absolutely nothing else (and may even be upset that they legally have to provide them with regular break periods). Naturally, owners are going to tend to seek paying as little as they feasibly can to retain the labor they require and laborers are going to tend seek as much compensation as they can feasibly get for the amount of labor they are willing to provide. What any given employee’s wages end up being for the labor they provide will be some balance of those two competing viewpoints.

7 Spice ups
18

I agree with much of what others are saying here:

  • Get your resume updated and start applying
  • Keep your relationship with your boss strong and professional (don’t burn any bridges)
  • It’s easiest to find a job when you have a job already…you can take your time and look for the RIGHT fit, not just another job
  • Stay with your job and work hard until that right opportunity comes along, and then move on!

If you choose to move on when you receive another offer, don’t be surprised if your boss suddenly decides to offer you more money to stay. Do NOT accept any counter offer they give you…Once you choose to move on, do it! If they offer more and you stay, they’ll likely hold a grudge against you and your relationship will become worse.

4 Spice ups
19

Serious question…

Are you paid well?
Do you get appropriate pay raises on a regular basis?
Do you get performance reviews?

If none of that is happening and they think you’re going to be “easy to replace” maybe you should line yourself up for another job and let them find out how hard and expensive you are to replace.

As a company, our turnover is HUGE, but not in key positions where they KNOW that replacing those people will be difficult, expensive and sometimes frankly, impossible. IT is one of those areas where the talent is just not available, or if it is, not affordable.

If you’ve been with this company for any length of time, and you show up and do the work needed and have a positive attitude…you ARE AN ASSET!!!

5 Spice ups
20

If you’re being hit with this line, I would suggest finding a different job and the owner can do the leg work of replacing you. He may find that’s not a correct pov, especially in a small org. You may like what you do but my gut says he’s ready to replace you.

4 Spice ups