New job role within company but contract hasn't changed

[Wizard1992]

Hi all

Bit of a strange situation and I'm just after some advice.

I work for nationwide company working with mechanical and eletrical projects. I've been employed for approx 3 years by this employer.

I live in the kent region and the depot i worked for was based in fleet, although projects are based all around the south east region so I was told during the interview process that the distance from the office wasn't a problem and that I would be working on projects closer to home.

I've worked on projects 2 - 3 hours away from patch when asked without any fuss as i'm paid door to door.

Due to a lack of engineers I was put on a project that was being ran by another depot (same company), the depot is based in kent. I was told that this would be a temporary measure and that I would be back working for my usual depot before long.

Whilst I was working for the kent depot I was asked if I wanted to join permanently, I said at the time that I was happy working for the depot in fleet and my thought process was if it isnt broken dont fix it.

I was then doing jobs for both depots, the engineers b
working for the kent depot were quite frosty with me but im a grown man I just got on with my job.

I recently had my annual one 2 one where my manager (based from the fleet depot) gave me a glowing report but kept asking me if I wanted to move to the kent depot again. I was bit more blunt this time and said im not interested. I was told off the record by my manager that if I didnt accept the move that the move would be forced upon me. I was told that I would get a revised contract from HR. I havent had anything from HR since I was told this.

I was also told that if I accepted the move to the kent depot I would be put through training and be shadowing two highly qualified eletrical engineers and be learning from them. I'm a mechanically biased enginner.

Monday was my first day working from the kent depot and I was told by the 2 engineers that they are both leaving and that they wont be working for the company within a month.

There are no other eletrical engineers based from this depot so as far as I can see the whole reason for the move has been a lie and on top of this due to the engineers leaving I will be forced to cover more on call which is something I certainly didnt agree too.

Sorry for the extremely long post but im debating how to best approach this.

Thanks for all your advice.

[hidetheelephants]

I'd start looking for a better job, but that's just me. They sound like a shower of pricks, less for the lie but that it's such a lazy and incompetent lie.

[aproctor1]

Find a new job and leave.

[Screenwash]

Ultimately it sounds like take it or leave. Their gig their rules.

You could probably negotiate redundancy and a payout?

[happytobealive]

They are clearly short of experienced engineers in their Kent depot, hence why they need you to work there. So far they have tried to cajole you, then they have tried some 'carrot and stick' (but then didn't deliver the promised carrot).

The next step is that they could offer to increase your pay. Recruiting an experienced replacement won't be easy, particularly as they are short-handed, so you already have the upper-hand in any negotiation/discussion.

The question is if they offered to increase your pay by x%, would you be happy to continue working in Kent? If not, you will probably need to start looking for another job. If a good pay-rise would be sufficient compensation, then I think you need to have another 'honest' conversation with your manager, but this time you can explain carefully some of your frustrations and make it clear that in order to keep you motivated to take on this new challenge they are going to need to offer you an increase in salary.

[JPC63]

Sounds like they need you, so negotiate hard for a pay rise.

[Mirinjawbro]

Try get a payrise while looking for a new job.

Lessons to be taught

[Wizard1992]

Thanks for all the advice, spoke with management and discussed more money, which didn't go down well.

Pretty much confirmed what I thought and that now its time to move on!

[happytobealive]

Sounds like you will need to start looking for a new job.

One minor point, when people ask for a payrise outside of the normal year-end process, from the employers perspective, it probably feels a bit out of the blue. So it's normal for them to be defensive and to make up reasons why it would be impossible to do anything (e.g. "budgets have already been signed off", "tough market conditions" etc etc).

However, you can be certain your line-manager will have spoken to their manager directly after your conversation and they will have started to think about the problems it will cause if you leave, what it will cost them to hire and train someone new, and whether it might just be easier to give you the rise you have asked for.

With that in mind, it is normally worth some persistence, beyond your first ask. You can have a follow up meeting, flatter them a bit, explain how you really want to get stuck into the new challenge, if they could only just solve this pay issue, how you have been thinking of new ideas which could allow the depot to be more productive etc etc.

The objective is to give them some time to get warmed up to the idea, whilst still keeping them under a bit of pressure. Of course, you would be looking for another role whilst doing this. But from what you have described, I still think you have a decent chance of getting a rise.