My job

I had an interesting experience at work today. We started adding levels within positions at work, so we have junior project managers, project managers, and senior project managers. However, we bill all 3 levels at the same billing rate. I mentioned this at our group meeting and said I thought this was not right. If we are going to have different levels internally, we should bill the client at different rates. Otherwise, what's the point? (The point is so we can pay people less because they are junior without billing less. I wanted to see if they would state this. They didn't.) I made the point that I bill myself and one of the my coworkers at the same rate on our project even though my time is more valuable. I pissed off one coworker with this comment (not the one I made the comment about who wasn't at the meeting) and my boss looked at me and said, "You really think your time is more valuable than John's?" and smiled like he thought I was kidding, or it was a nervous laughed. I looked him straight in the eye and responded, "Yes. Because it is." I'm not being arrogant, that's just true. I have more experience and I can resolve problems more quickly. I have 25 examples backing that up. It's my project, I define it and I manage it and I know how to keep it working. It's important to understand your strengths and your weaknesses.

Anyway, that argument is going nowhere at my company. I followed up by asking what I should tell a client who views the billable hours, knows we are different levels, and asks me why the billing rate is the same. He said when this happened to him at his other company, they either changed the billing rate for one of the people or re-assigned one of the resources. So we are openly entering into an unethical situation and, as the project manager, the client is going to ask me about it. I'm honest with my clients, I'll tell them I agree and they need to talk to my boss. I have no problem saying that. This type of game could cause bad feelings with our clients and hurt our future growth with them, not a smart business decision for a company that have "Integrity" as one of it's values. If I were a client, it would piss me off because it looks shady. Obviously, we are a business and need to make money to stay in business. However, there is an ethical way and an unethical way. I'll sell out my company to retain what little morals I can have in a corporate environment. I might get fired soon. Or I might just walk out one day.