can I refuse to take on more work until I get a promotion and a raise?

A reader writes:

I’ve been at my company for five years and enjoy my job. The work is in line with what I want to do long-term, I’m getting great experience, the people I work with are nice, and my boss is easy to work for and has mentored me in ways I’ve never received at a job before. All things considered, I’m pretty happy here.

However, about a year ago, my boss brought up the possibility of a promotion. There’s no natural role for me to move into (the next position up is hers, and she’s not going anywhere), but she proposed creating a job where I’d take on more responsibility for some pieces of running the department, including things like training new hires and reviewing the work of junior staff members. She liked the idea because she has too much on her plate and this would let her offload some responsibilities to me. I liked the idea because I’d like to keep moving up, and the new role would come with a higher title and more pay. When we first talked about it, she told me that she couldn’t just create the position overnight since it would be an entirely new slot for our department, but that she would start talking to her own boss and HR to figure out how to make it happen.

That was a year ago, and there hasn’t been much movement. Part of the problem has been that our company lost a big contract and, while we don’t expect staff cuts or anything like that, we do have a hiring freeze and so it’s been a tough time to make a case for a whole new position. My boss has been good about keeping me informed of the status, so I know she’s continued to push for it to happen.

However, she’s been assigning me more and more of the work of the new position, even though it’s not actually my job yet. I can understand why; as I said, she’s overloaded and it helps her out to have me take over some of her responsibilities. But the things she’s asking me to do are not part of my current job, although it’s work I’m interested in doing.

I trust my boss and I don’t think she’s intentionally taking advantage of me. I believe the promotion will happen, but it hasn’t happened yet. Is there a way for me to say, essentially, “I want to do this work, but not unless you pay me for it?”

You can read my answer to this letter at New York Magazine today. Head over there to read it.

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