More responsibilities at work...

At my first job, I was casually being given more and more responsibilities without any compensation. There were no extra benefits, no increase in payment. Instead, failing to fulfill the required amount of new tasks was going to get my paycheck reduced.

How would you react to such a situation? Would you resign and search for a new opportunity or would you talk with the management to revise your responsibilities?

On Sep 16, 2026, Yarik said:

At my first job, I was casually being given more and more responsibilities without any compensation. There were no extra benefits, no increase in payment. Instead, failing to fulfill the required amount of new tasks was going to get my paycheck reduced.

How would you react to such a situation? Would you resign and search for a new opportunity or would you talk with the management to revise your responsibilities?

I’d definitely speak to management first. I don’t mind taking on additional responsibilities, especially if it’s helping me develop or progress, but there has to be a reasonable balance. If my workload and level of responsibility were continually increasing with no additional pay or benefit and I was then being threatened with reduced pay for not completing those extra tasks… I’d have a serious issue with that. I’d raise my concerns and give them the opportunity to resolve it first. If nothing changed after that, I’d probably start looking elsewhere. I think there comes a point where taking on more responsibility stops being an opportunity and starts becoming someone taking advantage of your willingness to help.

On Sep 16, 2026, JustASmallTownGirl said:

I’d definitely speak to management first. I don’t mind taking on additional responsibilities, especially if it’s helping me develop or progress, but there has to be a reasonable balance. If my workload and level of responsibility were continually increasing with no additional pay or benefit and I was then being threatened with reduced pay for not completing those extra tasks… I’d have a serious issue with that. I’d raise my concerns and give them the opportunity to resolve it first. If nothing changed after that, I’d probably start looking elsewhere. I think there comes a point where taking on more responsibility stops being an opportunity and starts becoming someone taking advantage of your willingness to help.

What if it’s a giant company where one can never reach out to the management? It would be pretty much a take it or leave it situation.

On Sep 16, 2026, Yarik said:

What if it’s a giant company where one can never reach out to the management? It would be pretty much a take it or leave it situation.

Surely even in a giant company there must be someone you can escalate it to though? HR, someone higher up, a union rep if you have one? 🤔 I’d definitely exhaust those options before accepting it as a simple “take it or leave it” situation. If I’d tried every possible route and genuinely got nowhere, then I’d start looking elsewhere.

On Sep 16, 2026, JustASmallTownGirl said:

Surely even in a giant company there must be someone you can escalate it to though? HR, someone higher up, a union rep if you have one? 🤔 I’d definitely exhaust those options before accepting it as a simple “take it or leave it” situation. If I’d tried every possible route and genuinely got nowhere, then I’d start looking elsewhere.

Well, if they change the responsibilities for your role, it’s not just you getting extra tasks. Everyone with the same role is going to work extra. Sure, you can ask HR or your office manager, but somebody higher took that decision and isn’t going to undo it.

On Sep 16, 2026, Yarik said:

Well, if they change the responsibilities for your role, it’s not just you getting extra tasks. Everyone with the same role is going to work extra. Sure, you can ask HR or your office manager, but somebody higher took that decision and isn’t going to undo it.

Ahhh ok, that makes more sense if they changed the actual role and everyone in that position was affected 🤔 I’d still be pretty unhappy with being expected to take on significantly more responsibility for the same pay though, especially if not meeting the new expectations could actually result in reduced pay. I suppose at that point I’d still raise it, but if it genuinely was a company wide “this is the job now, take it or leave it” decision, then yeah… I’d probably be polishing up the CV.

On Sep 16, 2026, JustASmallTownGirl said:

Ahhh ok, that makes more sense if they changed the actual role and everyone in that position was affected 🤔 I’d still be pretty unhappy with being expected to take on significantly more responsibility for the same pay though, especially if not meeting the new expectations could actually result in reduced pay. I suppose at that point I’d still raise it, but if it genuinely was a company wide “this is the job now, take it or leave it” decision, then yeah… I’d probably be polishing up the CV.

But what if the current job is paying more than the average, but you have to deal with the extra tasks with no raise in the paycheck? Would you still look for a different workplace?

On Sep 16, 2026, Yarik said:

But what if the current job is paying more than the average, but you have to deal with the extra tasks with no raise in the paycheck? Would you still look for a different workplace?

That would definitely change things 🤔 If I was already being paid noticeably above average, I wouldn’t rush to leave just because the responsibilities had increased. I’d probably compare what I was earning, the workload, hours, stress and what similar jobs elsewhere were actually offering. If the higher pay still made the extra responsibility worthwhile, I’d stay. But there’d still be a point where no amount of “above average pay” would make being completely overloaded worth it 😂 I work to live, I don’t live to work 🙈

On Sep 16, 2026, JustASmallTownGirl said:

That would definitely change things 🤔 If I was already being paid noticeably above average, I wouldn’t rush to leave just because the responsibilities had increased. I’d probably compare what I was earning, the workload, hours, stress and what similar jobs elsewhere were actually offering. If the higher pay still made the extra responsibility worthwhile, I’d stay. But there’d still be a point where no amount of “above average pay” would make being completely overloaded worth it 😂 I work to live, I don’t live to work 🙈

Well, what I did was to stay at the current workplace. But I was secretly getting a little bit more rest during work each day. 😇

You will have to speak with HR or your management first if that doesn’t work move to a different jobs I know privates jobs here in Canada if you question the employee this they can fire you…this is where I live sadly so Privately owned mostly Logistics trucks and other NON-Union Jobs

On Sep 16, 2026, Yarik said:

Well, what I did was to stay at the current workplace. But I was secretly getting a little bit more rest during work each day. 😇

So management changed your terms and conditions… and you quietly introduced a few amendments of your own 🤣😇 only seems fair 😂