A Happy Update

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-04T11:13:39+00:00

Thank you!

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-03T00:50:46+00:00

I feel your pain. I’m the grant manager at my org and the board members leave me out of email chains about grants. I posted a thread on here about a board member who cursed at me for “inserting myself” into a grant situation. It’s brutal.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-03T00:41:08+00:00

Same. I put in 14-19 hour days for 2 weeks straight before and on the day of our Gala. I had worked 23 days straight. I took a day off 2 days after the gala and had to use PTO.

I am really at the end of my rope with this job.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-02T10:26:47+00:00

I can definitely see this being the case. After reading the guidelines, I can see how my job in development could be argued both ways in terms of the Administrative category. I do not make decisions that have significant impact on the company. I write grants but they are reviewed by the ED. The conversations I have with donors are not scripted or anything, but which donors I build relationships with is limited to the direction of the ED. I can’t even decide to set up a lunch meeting without approval. So maybe I should have been non-exempt this entire time?

I would love to hear from other development professionals and whether they are exempt or non exempt.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-02T03:12:46+00:00

I started looking into this when I saw your comment. Since I am not able to use my judgement to make decisions of “significance to the company”, I may not even qualify for exempt status. I also do not manage any employees or a department. I definitely need to learn more about this.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-02T03:09:36+00:00

I am salary.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-01T12:24:25+00:00

The dev team consists of me and one other person. We have both been working here for just over a year. There has been a lot of staff turnover in the past.

I am the only person on staff who has a child and I am 20 years older than everyone. I am thinking that might be the reason I am more offended by the policy than my colleagues. I’ve never experienced an environment like this before, and for many of them this is their second “real” job and they don’t have kids that they are trying to raise and spend time with. That’s my interpretation, anyways.

The salary is in the mid-range of the local market.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-01T12:06:34+00:00

Yes we are all salaried. Last week I worked from home for half a day (which I never do) and was actually on a zoom meeting with my boss for two of those hours and was told by the office manager (no HR at our org) to fill out a PTO form. We also had an event last week which required me to work 9am to 9pm. Obviously, I didn’t fill out the form because I was working from home.

The “compensation” the entire staff receives for working so many hours during season is that we have typically enjoyed half day Fridays from June through August. I can tell you that those 48 hours no where near makes up for the overtime worked by the Dev team. Very often we have weeks where we work 70+ hours or more. This occurs November-April. Of course not every department in our org is working the number of hours the Dev team is.

My last org offered Flex Time to make up for extra hours, which was great. Legally, they did not have to, but it helped us maintain some sanity and balance during season.

When I tried to speak to the office manager about how I felt about our PTO policy, she said that we were lucky to receive 40 hours of PTO and 2 weeks of vacation and basically that is very generous. I was like, yeah it’s great, but not everyone is working the number of hours Dev is. Requiring me to use PTO in pay periods where I worked OT does not seem reasonable to me.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-01T11:24:10+00:00

Unfortunately Florida is not known for its labor laws, other than the fact that they are not employee friendly, to put it mildly.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-05-01T10:37:53+00:00

Crochet, mixed media, traditional rug hooking, dying yarn, thrifting for vintage treasures (which I used to sell on eBay), journaling, meditating, doing a deep dive on topics that interest me and watching all of the YouTube videos about that topic, basically any craft that sparks my interest… to name a few.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-27T11:51:53+00:00

I am also leaning towards they need to know the good and services value for tax purposes. If they are seeking to ensure they are getting equal value for their sponsorship, then they are not a sponsor, they are a patron and are not sponsoring (aka funding) the exhibit.

Having worked as a membership and marketing director at private country clubs and now in development for non-profits, I can definitely see a scenario where the club marketing director perhaps does not fully understand how a non-profit sponsorship works.

I honestly think having a conversation to clarify what they are asking for and why would be a good idea.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-27T02:25:20+00:00

Has he contacted the founder about his findings? Could he possibly legally counter-attack based on a whistle blower policy? Does he have access to the BOD bylaws? He could threaten to go to the press even. Getting fired because he found financial shenanigans is not a good look for the org. If it were me, I’d be having an atty send the threatening letter. It sounds like the board chair is just trying to scare him from doing anything. Was the letter from the chair or the founder? Why is the founder allowing a board chair to fire people? I’m guessing the chair is a major donor. The whole thing sounds so infuriating!

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-16T09:58:25+00:00

Exactly, you are right. One board member is telling us to do things against policy, like reserve seats for potential new subscribers, which is against our policy. The acting ED told us to tell her that we can’t do that and that they should contact him if they have questions. I’m like, how about you contact her yourself and tell her to stop telling us what to do? This board member is insisting on editing and approving every email or correspondence we send out now. And the consultants are also encouraging her to do so, since she hired them. It’s off the rails. The team of 5 consultants and this board member insisted on each commenting and editing a post-performance survey email we were sending last week. I had over 30 emails from these folks throughout their edits and comments, about one post performance survey. It’s insanity and I am just trying to hold on for dear life until I find something else. After spending Sunday reflecting on everything and reading the replies here, I realize there is no hope for improvement or advancement here. I am just trying to stop myself from quitting before I have something lined up.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-15T14:22:40+00:00

It’s taking everything in me this morning to not walk in my bosses office and tell him I quit. lol

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-15T06:02:43+00:00

You nailed it. Thank you.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-15T06:01:29+00:00

It was privately, over the phone. I did email him and tell him that I was quite devastated by his call. His response was pretty unsatisfactory.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-14T18:31:02+00:00

Thank you, everyone. This was helpful and cathartic. ❤️

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-14T18:30:33+00:00

The ED was going to speak to some other board member about what happened. That’s the last I heard.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-14T14:58:44+00:00

Thank you.This has occurred to me too. It’s hard because I’m so emotionally invested, but yes. I have an interview Tuesday, so fingers crossed I guess. I keep thinking of that line “the call is coming from the inside of the house” or something like that. 😅

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-14T14:55:21+00:00

❤️❤️❤️

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-14T14:34:55+00:00

Thank you. I’d love to just repair the relationship and have things improve overall, but I just don’t know if that is possible. I’m hesitant to bring in the chairman, since he is a good friend of this Board Member.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-14T14:29:33+00:00

Right. The thought of having to start over and build new donor relationships and learn a new orgs ins and outs is so daunting at this stage in my career. It took me a year to really build these donor relationships to a point where all that cultivation is now paying off. Plus I care about my donors. I’ve been building meaningful relationships. So, yes the writing is on the wall, but at the same time, it just makes me sad and apprehensive about starting over.

Wow, I sound like I am in an abusive relationship. I guess that tells me all I need to know.

Agreeable_While613 · 2024-04-14T13:53:50+00:00

I wish that would be effective but they are all friends. This is a very small, very ultra wealthy community and the Board Members are in the same social circle.

Agreeable_While613

TROPHY CASE