After years of being underpaid, I have finally made the decision to leave a job that I genuinely enjoy. I have a great relationship with my boss, I enjoy the job itself (despite the often 50-60 hour workweeks), and I love my coworkers. Because of these things, I’ve accepted being paid less than I’m worth for much longer than I should have.
After years of mediocre raises despite great annual evaluations, last year I approached my manager (my boss mentioned above isn’t my official manager, unfortunately) and fought for a higher salary. After presenting my case, they agreed to do a market analysis and I got a 10% salary increase. I was thrilled. They promised me I would still get my annual merit-based raise too - I argued that the reason I was underpaid was due to the history of my shitty raises. I even got it in writing. Then, guess what? No merit raise last year. And now, guess what? No raise this year either. They blamed this year on COVID, but this has been a trend long before COVID came. I’m no longer able to ignore that I won’t be able to grow at this company.
I am fortunate enough to say, especially during these times, that I just accepted a job where I’ll be making 40% more, with better hours! I’ll also now get out of my ridiculous amount of student loan debt so much faster. I can’t to give any more of my time to a place that doesn’t see my value. It was an incredibly hard choice because of the things I mentioned earlier, but once I looked at it more objectively, it became clear I had to look elsewhere.
This advice is probably so obvious to most people, but for anyone that needs to hear it - recognize when you’re staying at a job for the wrong reasons, and when it’s time for change. Know your worth!
Submitted September 22, 2020 at 08:51PM by awwwwwwschucks https://ift.tt/3kEo4Gh
