Jennifer Dilworth Hynes — mtbchk

I’ve been emotionally up and down a lot lately.  Today is my 2-year anniversary of working here.  I’ve been working as a full-time engineer for about 9 years, plus a year and a half of full-time co-op experience.  I was happy earlier this week when I found out that I got a raise.  It was a decent percentage, compared to what most people get.  Then, the next day, they post a job for a Process Engineer with 2-5 years experience, and it’s posted for a higher pay grade than I currently am.  So, this really begins to chap me and I go to HR.  I’m terrible at this kind of stuff — asking for what I deserve. 

I rarely play the “woman” card, but feel that it’s warranted in this case.  The only other female engineer and I are the lowest paid engineers here, yet we’ve both taken on much more responsibility than the rest.  She’s taken on all the utilities, and I now lead a group of 15 mechanics, in addition to my engineering responsibilities.  We are held to different standards than the rest — when we do projects, the amount of documentation required is 5x that of the other engineers.  When we ask for the same documentation on a project done not a year ago by another engineer, it doesn’t exist.  We struggle to get the guys to share information and equipment.  I asked about 7 different guys where the high-temp air velocity probe was, and was told it was broken, gone, lost, melted, etc.  So, I bought a new one.  Not a week later, the other one “magically” appears, working fine, and in the office of one of the same guys I asked.  Hmmmm.  This is not an isolated case.  I have the same issues getting files, drawings, process data, well, anything.  I know it exists, but I can’t get it when others seem to have no issues getting it.

So, it’s a frustrating situation made worse by the fact that we are the lowest paid engineers and there is a job posted for 1/2 the experience and $6000 more than we make.  This is an issue in my mind, and I am so chapped about it right now that I don’t care who knows what I think.

HR says they’ll look into a grade change for me and the other engineer.  We’ll see if that happens.