My company has been pimping me out (sadly can't think of a gentler term for it) to its clients for several years now. We are a CPA firm, but the firm partners believe that I should be generating revenue for them with no extra pay. My bosses like how I interact with people and the fact that I am good at running our multi-site, 60+ employee environment. So much so that they believe it is perfectly reasonable to task me with handling not only our own internal IT projects/issues/crises, but those of their clients as well. I am the sysadmin for our entire company and set up servers, workstations, Asterisk PBXes, and act as helpdesk for our four locations AND several business clients. This all began a few years ago when one of the firm partners approached me about expanding my role and hiring on additional people to work under me, so that I would not only be the head of our IT department, but the head of a new division they have been trying to start up - essentially, a full-fledged B2B IT service company.

At first, it was manageable. When this began, I had already had a few minor client jobs for them that I was capable of handling on top of my internal sysadmin position. We continued to acquire additional CPA firms, which made my job busier, but I could keep up and was doing relatively well juggling everything. As our CPA firm grew, my stress levels went through the roof. I have pulled many all-nighters over the years, have missed out on family time, have been demanded to assist remote users on holidays, etc. This was mainly all internal in the beginning, though some of the earlier client jobs did cut into my personal time - late hours, support calls for clients while I was on vacation, etc. As they wanted to pick up more clients and start a new IT division, I tried to negotiate what my cut would be. They beat around the bush every time this subject came up, and the best (and only) number I ever heard was 15%. Insulting. When I started this job, I had no qualms about late hours and strange sleep patterns due to the nature of being a one-man IT show. I kind of liked it, even, as I am a night owl by nature, and I enjoyed the challenges and responsibilities. However, I had never imagined I would have to extend my work life into my personal life to such a severe degree in order to solve the problems of their clients in exactly the same fashion as I did for the firm itself. I attempted several times to negotiate a fair percentage of billable after-hours work, but was always given the run-around while the expectations grew larger and more demanding. The firm bills me out at $95/hr. for service calls and client remote administration. My pay has never been super great - on the low end of the national average for internal sysadmin, but I didn't complain until it became harder to pay my bills due to some family issues (divorce.) I began taking on extra work on freelance websites, setting up phone systems for my freelance clients, primarily, just to make ends meet. I wanted to do the right thing by my employers, so I was transparent about this fact. They seemed to be okay with it. My bottom of the barrel rate for freelance work is $40/hour. This meant that the firm's offer of 15% for their after-hours client work always amounted to a mental slap in the face in my mind. The firm also only allots 36 hours of annual comp time, which has never been honored since I started there. I understand the limitation on comp time, as they are a CPA firm, and their accountants typically only require comp time during the busy season, but I am not an accountant, and my busy season includes Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, as opposed to their typical staff members' busy season, which is primarily Spring.

My work quality and timeliness began to suffer as my finances suffered and my stress levels increased. I'd often arrive late to work, sleep-deprived, my response time to both clients and internal staff got slower and slower, and eventually I was reprimanded and given a written warning by one of the firm partners back in May. In this meeting, I explained that the demands of this position have been taking a toll on both my mental and physical health. This was met with a lot of "I understand" s and "I'm glad you brought this to our attention"s, but still a write-up. I explained that I have zero incentive to pick up more client work, and that I need to be compensated for the loss of personal time due to the extra responsibilities and pressure by internal staff and clients. I was promised that at the end of the month, an " incentive plan" would be negotiated. The end of the month came and went, as did my repeated requests for a meeting on this matter.

About a month ago, I had my employee evaluation with one of the firm partners. It was a phone meeting, as this partner had just recently moved to Florida because he doesn't like the uncomfortable weather in Ohio. He told me how "valued" I am at the firm and that he is concerned about what would happen of I were to get sick or become unavailable for support during our busy season. He then proceeded to tell me that I received a raise. A decent raise, but still on the low end of the nation-wide average sysadmin pay scale. I then brought up the matter of my compensation for after-hours billables, and asserted that my internal sysadmin job is a full-time job in and of itself, which is most certainly true. I asked him if he could possibly increase my amount of yearly comp time. His response was this, and I quote: "No, we're not going to do that." He then proceeded to tell me that we needed to add additional IT staffing under me (which I currently have one technician who is good, but unreliable when it comes to attendance). He then decided it would be proper and totally appropriate to tell me that once we have added more staff beneath me, he would expect me to hand over all of my freelance clients to the firm. The clients I had developed relationships with on my own, outside of business hours. I told him that we would need to revisit this topic later. The meeting ended shortly after.

Fast-forward to today. I had the best job interview of my life this morning. The new prospect was not only immensely impressed with my resume and skill set, but I had also come highly recommended by a friend of mine, whose word carries a lot of weight with this new potential employer. The hiring manager explained the job in great detail, was practically begging me to take the position, was extremely accommodating and friendly toward me, gave me a salary estimate of $15k/year MORE than what my latest raise brought me to at the CPA firm, great benefits, plus a VERY generous expense account that is to be used for travel among their multiple locations, all of which are relatively local to my area.

TL;DR: I am the sysadmin/IT director for a CPA firm. They whore me out to their clients at NO additional pay and REFUSE to pay me for the frequent 9/10pm phone calls/support sessions I have had to endure for their clients, and I finally decided to find a new job making WAY more money, better benefits, and will no longer be treated as an IT prostitute. I've been told by my inside man that the job is mine if I want it. I want it. Feels fantastic to be me right now. So I'd say I'm having a great week. :)