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Posted

Hi all :)

 

I am currently a Network Manager at a large high school in Kings Lynn, Norfolk and I am looking to get a pay rise. Basically my pay is lower than

it should be and was wondering if anyone could help me on this?

 

I am after job descriptions and pay details to compare mine to so I can take it to Management.

 

My description is here: http://www.chrisn.it/NetworkManager.pdf

and my pay is about £18,700 non pro-rata. (52 weeks).

 

The Job Description is a little out of date, we now have 600 computers and I have 2 technicians under me rather than the one.

 

Remember I am not in a City! I am in an average sized town.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

 

Thanks,

Chris N.

Posted

You may want to rewrite the job description to include more detail. For a network manager it's a bit basic as it stands.

 

As Wes says, SO1/SO2 should be the norm - enhancing the Job Description would help your case.

Posted

By virtue of you having management responsibilities and therefore SENIOR to the techs, you should be on a SO scale. And thats even without adjusting anything else on there.

 

Questions to prompt you:

Are you responsible for any problems with DNS / DHCP

Do you have responsibility for implementing security via GPO's

Do you have responsibility for budgets?

Posted

Hi Lee,

 

Yup I have responsibilities for everything you listed plus a lot more.

I am going to take alan's advice today and get my job description updated.

 

The Deputy head here is declined to even give me a single raise. I don't think he realises how much work we have to do.

 

Any extra help from anyone will be greatly appreciated.

 

Take care, Chris.

Posted

Any pay rises should go before governors, SO1 / SO2 is definitley what you should be getting. What is your line manager like? I had a very supportive one when I last went in for a rise.

See who you can get on your side, the ones that see how busy you must be; I have nowhere near 600 PC's and me and my tekkie are busy all the time.

Posted

Chris,

Firstly you should ask for a pay review as your role has changed significantly, failing that your best bet from a Union/legal point of view is to find a female who does a 'broadly similar job' - management responsibility in the same local authority (the same employe) and claim under the equal pay act. I will get further advise from a Union friend about the details.

Posted

This brings up an interesting point really - the wildly differing wages for similar people in similar roles throughout the country.

 

It may be worth getting a souding of who is doing what, what responsibility, and how much they're getting to try to compare/contrast and use as leverage

Posted

Chris I am quite sure you will be subject to the new council pay reform thats currently happing so any change you get agreed may be wiped out when it kicks in.

 

All i know is all LEA schools are going to have all there grades redone in this reform from the information i have gained so far from other places its not looking good, But i will wait and see.

 

I am also on a crapy wage for the responsibilities i hold but when i tryed to get it changed i got told as we have a out side company to support you you dont have as much responsibilities to worry about.

 

But im the person onsite that takes the flak when stuff goes wrong.

 

Good luck Chris i hope you get what you want.

 

Sorry Lee :)

Posted

It states in your Post Description that you are responsible to the Systems Manager, do you have a Systems Manager? If not, ask either the heads PA or HR at your local LEA for a description of the Systems Managers role. You may find that your role resembles more closely that of the Systems Manager's than of an IT Manager, here in Dorset the ICT Systems Managers are on a higher scale, typically starting £27K.

 

But each Head can move the scale if you don't have experience or qualifications. You are within you right to have a rep with you, especially if the head wants to get a rep from HR down. Join a Union and get some advice, there's probably three union rep's at your school.

 

Good Luck.

Posted

For comparison, Somerset LEA here, and the IT Support/Systems Manager (no-one's actually defined what it's called but I have overall responsibility for all of it, and am responsible for running two departments (IT support, Media Support))

 

Currently I'm on 22k/year fulltime, but again, not sure what point on the scale, as it's never been disclosed

Posted
Lee I am quite sure you will be subject to the new council pay reform thats currently happing so any change you get agreed may be wiped out when it kicks in.

 

All i know is all LEA schools are going to have all there grades redone in this reform from the information i have gained so far from other places its not looking good, But i will wait and see.

 

I am also on a crapy wage for the responsibilities i hold but when i tryed to get it changed i got told as we have a out side company to support you you dont have as much responsibilities to worry about.

 

But im the person onsite that takes the flak when stuff goes wrong.

 

Good luck Lee i hope you get what you want.

 

His name is Chris. I'm Lee. And i'm perfectly happy with my salary at the moment.

Posted
No one can be happy with their salaries. Don't we all want more.

 

Thats why i said at the moment. Give it 6 months and i may want more. Now the next question is: what makes somebody currently satisfied with their salary.

 

 

@Chris: Is your LA doing the Single Status grading review?

Could you get hold of a standard network managers JD from HR? If you can show that you are doing more than that you may be able to get some more. Failing that look for a new job... and dont be quiet about it. Tell someone who values your contributions and has the ear of the head.

Posted
No one can be happy with their salaries. Don't we all want more.

 

Even the head who are on >£80k a year and all they do is delegate all the work to Deputies and Assistants..

Posted

I'd disagree with mrforgetful I've worked in a couple of schools and the heads in them deserve the wages they get paid in my experience, not all of them want more wages though.

 

 

@derer1: Sounds like Grade 6 to me?

 

 

Wes

Posted

Hi Chris,

 

OK, looked in to this a bit for you.

 

Union for the ancillary staff (e.g. non-teaching staff) is Unison. The Senior Site Officer here at The Park High School in King's Lynn is the Shop Steward for the area. If you want to chat to him then PM me and i'll send you his details.

 

Pay wise, I'm on Scale 6 now, even though I was pushing for SO1 / 2 . Better than nothing. I'm also in charge of a Technician, who in my opinion is on a pathetic wage for his skills, and who I' fighting to get more pay. I earn a touch under £1800 per month before deductions.

 

I also control 2 budgets, run the whole network, repairs, software testing, installation, contractors and setting up computer based exams and also general dogsbody duties.

 

I do moan alot about it, but I do enjoy it.

 

When I went for my pay review I had to present evidence of the work I was now doing and why I deserved a pay rise. Its the only one I've had in 5 years here apart from the yearly April pay rise.

 

As, I've said in my PM to you, i'll be happy to help where I can.

Posted

I'm a Unison rep.

 

I've had great success recently with Unison. The main worth sems to me is in making your employer abide by their own rules.

 

Here in Wales we're due a review where we're told all staff doing a similar job should be on comparable wages. That'd be good as the County Council's support staff are on a far better rate than the schools techs are. But then I don't ever see any job scales changing as a result. All I get is fobbed off and the due date postponed every time I ask about it.

Posted

I work as a network manager in East Durham, what was old coalfield country, mostly rural & an area of high unemployment & social depravation. My school regraded me from scale 6 to SO2 April 06, backdated to Sep 05. It can be done if the school is willing to accept a) your value b) you are asking for the going rate c) they have money available. The last one may not be so easy if you are well through a financial year (as we are now) but there is no excuse for not putting it in the budget for next year if they accept the case for doing it.

 

It remains to be seen if Job Evaluation will maintain NM at SO2 equivalent though.

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