I have been trying to get involved in my school newspaper, at a university. I made a point of saying I want to be a writer but they put me in sales. Should I tell them I’m not good at sales? I’m an INFJ and I know I won’t be good at selling newspaper ads.

I’ve been working at a small, privately-owned company for about 3.5 years. I was hired to do a narrowly defined job but I’ve expanded my role significantly as I’ve identified needs at the company and been allowed to address them.

As part of a reorganization this summer – that I helped shape – my informal responsibilities became a formal, newly-created position within the company directing corporate strategy and communications.

I now have the title, and the expectations that go with it, but I don’t feel I have the salary.

The VP and owner put through a $12,000 pay increase without talking to me. That’s approximately $22k below what my research showed is the minimum market rate for the new position, and only $7,500 above my expected compensation for next year in my original job, despite a huge increase in responsibility and authority. I raised this with the VP and she openly acknowledged that they hadn’t done any research when setting the salary for the new position and that they’d look into it and get back to me.

Now it’s been two weeks and they both seem to be avoiding me.

Complicating things somewhat is that I’m 4.5 months pregnant with my first child, though I haven’t told anyone at work yet. I’m well enough established with this company to arrange for a part-time schedule and/or significant telecommuting, but might not find that at a new company, which would mean far more significant monetary or parenting sacrifices.

So: do I 1) keep pushing on the salary and try to get it raised to where I think it should be, 2) drop it and suck up the low salary because the overall position is likely to provide a level of flexibility most parents don’t have, or 3) use the next few months to build a strong resume under the new title then look for a new, better paying job and hope I can make it flexible?

Penelope – I am 5 months pregnant with twins and have been showing for awhile now.  I’ve been asked several times by coworkers and have lied, but I’m going to have to stop lying sooner than later because it is so obvious at this point.

My question for you is how I should tell the President of the Company who I report to directly.  While he talks about diversity in the workplace as a positive thing, he has proven to always be more comfortable with promoting people who look the part (meaning older men who have put their time in) and has made comments about other women and how they care more about their kids sports tournaments than they do their job (which may or may not be true, but has definitely given him a bias).

Currently, there is only one female SVP and no female EVPs at the company.  The President has always been very fair to me and I have moved up the ranks in a very short period of time.  I am currently a VP and I have had conversations with him this year regarding a promotion to an SVP this fall which at my company would be significant since there are only 5 SVPs total and 2 EVPs.

I want to ensure I stay on this SVP track and would like to address that during this meeting but am not sure what message that gives.  Does bringing the promotion up show my insecurity and lack of faith in the system?  Should I just continue to act the part and assume the promotion will come as promised?  Part of me feels like that is naïve but then I think what would a man do and I doubt he would ever question the promotion was in jeopardy.