Lt Dad, I wish I had professional guidance to give you, but do not. However, I definitely believe your RD is disrespecting AND screwing you. I've seen this sort of thing before - sheesh, experienced it. Different sitch in that I was waaaay underpaid and 110% fed up and left for another job/company.

Hope things work out for you, LD. You're a gem and they know it. RD doesn't want to pay said screwing. 

In case you haven't already done so, go and take a good long look at your contract and job description and see if you can't find inspiration in there to legally and officially tell your RD to stuff it.

I was once in a similar situation, working myself to death but I believed that, as my boss made it clear that I was doing a great job, there would be a good raise at the end of the year. The hell there was. I got one of the highest ratings in the company and yet was told that I "earned enough already"... Not a single eurocent of a raise...

Well, you do have one thing going for you.  You DO have a boss that has given you good reviews and appears to have at least some awareness of your vital importance to the operations. Your boss's concerns aren't so much that she thinks you are overblowing the situation.. she is concerned that the budget isn't allocated properly  (though if more money were allocated to your office.. would that mean more money for YOU?  or just more money for them to use for whatever purposes).

I also 100% understand about the issues of ebbs and flows of work.  I have a job that has what are best described as pinch points.. time when a LOT is due.. then there are other times when I probably am a lot less overwhelmed.. times when I feel much more able to take vacation etc..

One thing that I have found with management is that they don't like "problems".. they like "solutions".   So, while it's great that you can talk to your boss about this..it would be really helpful if you could come up with some possible solutions to this issue.  Is there anyone else in your office that could do some or all of some other project you work on when you have the FLOW times where you are overwhelmed?  Are there functions you are doing that are redundant? or could be done by a lower level employee with adequate training and oversight?  crosstraining?  Maybe if you could come up with some sort of plan that she could help you with during the most overwhelming times.

You could also plan some elective surgery during one of those busy times.. and let the RD do the work to see how much time it takes.lol (just kidding..hahaha)

I would also do a fairly deep dive breakdown of your responsibilities.. both local and Regional.  Include information on what the projects or tasks are.. how often they are performed.. the importance.. the number of hours per week.. per quarter they take up.  Really try to capture everything.. including administrative time you use to do things like record time sheets, take company sponsored learning module training etc.. (we all do those on ethics, diversity training, bullying etc..).  In fact doing this might highlight some tasks that could be done by others.. to lighten your load.. at least some of the time.    

This document will b helpful for your manager.. and for use wtih the Regional Director who likely has no real idea of the full extent of your local responsibilities.. on top of what they have assigned you.

But, again.. with that document and some concrete suggestions for ways of improving will be the best way to go.  In the end.. more money probably wouldn't be the best solution anyway.. it's not like 4% more in your paycheck will make you less burnt out.  you would quickly be accostomed to the money anyway.. not saying that more money is ever not wanted..haha.. but I think it sounds like you need a better WORK plan... vs just a money issue.

But it sounds like your boss isn't really advocating for you when RD thinks you're not as busy as you say.

First thing is to decide what outcome you want.  Less work, or more pay?  Both would be ideal but unlikely.

Since you're already documenting your time that should help your boss present a case to the RD.

Unfortunately some higher ups are disconnected from the day to day work - it's really on your boss to make sure her boss knows what you're doing.  Many middle managers don't want to speak up in the regard because either they don't want to shine a light away from themselves or are wary of offering a contrary opinion to the RD, who may have this idea stuck in his head.  Flowery words from her at review time are not enough.  Probably ask her how she communicates your work to RD, and how you can help her do that more effectively.

Good luck and sorry work is stressful at the moment.

I have had this happen to me a few times. I learned to stop taking on additional work without demanding more pay up front. I would say, update your resume and start looking for another job as a "backup plan."  Then call a meeting with the manager that gives you raises, and spell it out for him/her. Tell them the added responsibilities you took on were not explained to you as "time consuming" but they are. Also, you have no directives to follow to get them done, which is unacceptable. You are giving these responsibilites back unless you get a pay raise and a directive (or whatever your demands are.) Do not accept them placing the blame on you. Tell them this will be done, end of story. As your boss, you expect him/her to support your success, and this is what you expect of him or her. Its not a negotiation. Then stop working on the projects and devote your time to what you get paid for. If they don't like it, line up a better job and leave.

In my view, the regional manager is taking advantage and then trying to keep you or your boss from doing anything about it by implying that you are not really working as hard as you say you are. I once had a person report to me who I knew was overworked. Then our Finance Director wanted everyone to take two furlough days. I told her that I couldn't make the work go away for the person reporting to me, so I could not in good faith, ask her to take two furlough days. The Finance Director replied that she didn't think the person reporting to me was actually working that hard. This was the same Finance Director who would regularly cry (literally cry) that she was overworked when anytime I walked by her office she was either paying her personal bills online, making travel arrangements online, or streaming one of her son's hockey games. 

Are you on the same page with your boss? Is there someone your boss can talk to about this or is the regional director your boss's boss? I would say go to HR, but HR is useless 99% of the time. 

Could it be a matter of fighting for funding from the higher offices? Maybe they need to prove that now 30% of your time is being spent on projects that should have never been pushed off to you to begin with and now they need back pay and your raise to cover the local office deficit. 

I, of course, don't know for sure but that was my first thought is that they needed evidence before they take it up the ladder. 

I think a lot of times companies forget that at will employment goes both ways. I've been at my current employer over 20 years. They are shorthanded in managers, was asked to cover & politely said No thank you. Then, I was told I had to "temporarily" cover that position - in addition to my regular workload. Management is required to be available 24/7 & on-call. I work 9-5 now. I was so stressed I talked to my Doctor & he put me out on leave for 12 weeks. I'll be using that time wisely - to find another position. 

I've had to account for time before when they were looking to justify cuts. It takes even more time away from what you are doing to record what your doing. SMH. Hope your situation works out. 

Overworking the minions is a long tradition of capitalism.  Overpaid, do-nothing bosses who never pitch in, and don't even do bossly things like advocate for resources or prioritize workloads or claifiy responsibilities, etc.  Spend all their time having farting contests in their offices.  White male nepotism.

When times are tough, they'll layoff a bunch of minions while still keeping the company topheavy, and preach about how the minions need to suck it up for the sake of the company.  So the minions work overtime for free, and still it never occurs to the bosses to pitch in.

It has become a worker's market recently, and the internet is rife with stories where the abused workers are starting to stand up for themselves.

In retrospect, I wish I had pushed back more, regardless of the consequences.

I've learned to calmly do my job as best I can, prioritize as best I can, refuse to work free overtime, and what get done gets done.

Here is your problem, and it's what a lot of people are experiencing from those above:

My RD is skeptical, it seems, that I'm actually overworked and that we're underfunded, so now I get to record my time spent between regional and local projects and what I did during that time.

Seriously? If that person is not taking you, an experienced PM and good, long term employee, seriously that is a big management issue with trusting staff. I've had to do the time documentation and logging of what I've worked on before too and it's a HUGE time suck. I would add a log to that tracking sheet and how much time you now spend tracking and logging the information. I used to take an hour or two each Friday so that was time away from actual work. Makes no sense.

I'd keep up the discussions with your supervisor on a regular basis and be sure to add everything to your annual review - you do get one of these?  Then you can discuss time/money/concerns then.

My Dear Girl,

At the risk of straying off topic, your ‘interesting condition’ must be your priority for the next 7 months. Better to refuse the extra work and the attendant stress, whether or not a raise is on the table.

Considering your intelligence and significant insights, I’m sure that your employers are well aware of your value in the workplace. A hint at ‘updating your resume’ might shake things up enough to create a more equitable division of labor. 

It’s clear that both RD and your immediate boss are taking advantage of you and I sincerely hope that you are able to remedy the situation before that ‘lighter time’ expires. 

You’ve got this! The L’lle lieutenant will thank you for blowing a big old raspberry to those self-serving bullies. Perhaps Aniki will contribute a flying, five-fist, monkey nut punch? 

It took me years, but I finally got to my enough is enough zero tolerance point.  I was a PM for years, then a Program Manager both of which were salaried exempt roles with no direct report resources.  When I transitioned to roles where I had headcount, I hit my performance sweet spot.  It was at that point that I stepped away from the detail data  job levels and moved into the report review level focus that allows me to make decisions and drive organizational and asset performance optimization from a guide and influence level rather than a dig into the details and "turn the wrenches" individual contributor platform.

I delegate and when my team reaches the work saturation point I end the add of anything else.  The questions to my Directors/Execs is...."To address these new urgent directives, what comes off of the list?"  And I make sure that I have the data on resource requirments so they can't play the 1 for 1 swap between unequal actions.  A classic manipulative Sr. leader ploy is "Stop doing X and do Y" where X is a 2 resource job and Y is a 6 resource job.  

I do not say No. I tell them I will look into it and get back to them with what I can do.  Then I get back to them with a recommendaton of how they can support getting what they want.

As for the question of are you getting screwed. That depends on your perspective IMHO.  A salary role is by definition role based not time based and will have a lot of variables as business demands evolve.  There is generally no 40 and done work week structure in many salary roles.  The beauty is that generally salary professionals make significantly more than most hourly workers and have flexibility on how many hours a day they work and on a 40hr to 40 hr comparison have a significantly higher equivelent hourly rate.   The downside is that if salary staff does not establish boundaries, unethical leaders can take advantage and make life a living hell.

I don't even know what Gen the newer college grads are, but they would have just said no back when the RD asked you to take on the extra projects. And it would have worked for them. But management knows our work ethic and won't take no from us. We're told by work-related articles and time management trainings to say no, but our managers don't allow us to say no. And thus the responsibility creep. And the number of hours we work creep. I got assigned a project back in the fall that I didn't have time or expertise to manage. If I'd had the time, I could have worked through bringing myself up to speed. I told my manager that I didn't think I was in a position to manage the project, but was told tough. I would speak with the vendor we were working with and be given one story, which I would report back to our technical team to be told there was no way we could do that and our expectation was "x." I'd report that back to the vendor and be told there was no way they could do it the way we expected. All the while balancing five very needy clients in a rapidly changing technogical landscape.

I'm substitute teaching now and enjoying every minute of it. I took a serious cut in pay, but I no longer sit at my son's sports games worrying about what I'm not getting done while I'm there. 

Life is too short. 

To the club.  I had to threaten to quit/retire.  When my higher up coworkers saw the amount and complexity of the work I do they BEGGED the CIO top keep me and offload some of my responsibilities.   And yet no pay raise for all the extra responsibility.