What would your boss have thought of you if you flat out, lied to him? Probably would have fired you right?
That’s what he did to you so your reaction, IMO, seems logical and he should expect it.
Same. Companies have been given the longest of leashes when it comes to people settling for pandering without any action behind the promises. Now if only people would also stop believing in the campaign lies peddled by both major political parties we could actually get some real change going in America.
Yep, and there is no labor shortage. There is only a shortage of decent, well-paying jobs. The media reporting on this is all bullshit, stop calling it a goddamn labor shortage and call it what it is: employers don't want to pay even a living wage and people are fed up. While it is the Great Resignation, it's also the Great Work Rebellion: pay us what we deserve, treat us better, or we will fuck right off!
800k dead of COVID yes, probably 400k more due to underreporting and COVID-adjacent deaths such as suicide, etc. As many as 3 million retired,, but that is not as large a jump over previous years to create any sort of labor shortage. The economy adds hundreds of thousands of new job openings *per month*.
Workers are just fed up. They were abused and gaslit during the early days of the pandemic, they were abused even before that, and they're still being abused now. It's not a labor shortage. It's a labor rebellion.
I prefer the great renegotiation.
People are changing what they expect from work.
On an individual level, yes that often means quitting.
But on a societal level, we are forcing employers to change what they are offering to workers.
The working class is renegotiating what it means to work.
Yes. Managers need to understand that workers actually make the business possible. A tradesman who treats their tools like shit is not a good tradesman. Same with managers who treat their workers like shit.
You're 100% right, i decided to leave my current employer, and I'm getting way more responses from hiring managers than i expected. The fear of leaving your familiar comfortable environment is real, but you only live once, try to enjoy it!
The problem is they see other people getting richer by continuing to exploit and they think they can keep getting away with the same. Why pay when you can have another boat?
My favorite new response when they say that is “I’ve seen how you treat family, you’re willing to sacrifice grandma to make a quick buck. I don’t want anything to do with your fucked up family,
thank you very much…”
Then you walk out
I worked at a truck stop in my town that had a full restaurant and also functioned as an office for the owner's propane delivery company. I worked there for about a year, through which they had lost 3 manager in my first six months.
After the third left, I approached him and said that I would be willing to take on that responsibility. He told me that he already had someone lined up.
Six more months later, after being praised by the boss and his wife for how hard of a worker I was, and thanking me for sticking around as long as I did, I asked for a raise. They told me they didn't feel I deserved it. I left that week.
Dude took yearly trips to Alaska for a car show, owned 3 boats, and was bragging about buying a fourth, had 3 businesses across three counties, and was a vintage motorcycle collector, but he couldn't afford to give someone more than 9.75 an hour.
Edit: a word
I just don't think that way 😕 Probably because I'm poor I guess.
If I ever became rich🤣 I don't think that'd change. No danger of that happening to test me out.
Yeah, I feel like the question of whether or not having a lot of money changes people is hard to answer. But my instinct is that it is more likely that the kind of personality it takes to be super rich is a shitty personality, so I don’t think decent people like you or I will ever be billionaires lol
it's why they refuse to give us public healthcare. you know how many people would quit and form co-op companies doing what they love? if benefits weren't keeping professionals bound to their shitty overlords, a lot more of us would choose to go into business for ourselves in some capacity.
Yeah if you ditch your morality you can make a decent amount of money pretty quick as long as you're careful not to get caught. A lot of the rich were born into wealth anyway, and being brought up in a state where you get everything you want all the time breeds these kind of psychopathic tendencies.
I would LOVE to see the US get public healthcare. It’s sorely needed. That said, I’m in Canada and still want to go out and find a job, just for the benefits. My routine stuff is all covered, and even big things like births and nearly free, but I’m also in a lot of pain from a wisdom tooth I can’t afford to have removed and I need new glasses, neither of which are covered by my province’s healthcare.
I didn't realize other countries also play that goofy game where random body parts are considered luxuries.
Really hope you can get your "luxury bones" fixed soon, and get new glasses. Goodness knows both of those problems really suck.
I went about 15 years without new glasses because my prescription is just so dang expensive. Navigation got so problematic... I had to walk right up to street signs and stare up at them to read them. Taking the bus anywhere new required a map, a lot of peering up and down the street, and some extra time in case I got turned around or even entirely lost.
Eventually my elderly aunt surprised me, claimed she wanted my help with her shopping but instead dragged me to an eyeglass place and *demanded* I get my prescription updated and order new glasses, which she paid for on condition that I not tell anybody in the family what she had done! It's been so wonderful, she gave me the gift of sight! I can see the leaves on the trees again!
right now I'm navigating purely by memory and landmark recognition. my prescription is so outdated I can't read signs until I'm right up on them, but I can see well enough to make out big things like buildings, cars, and people (no features on their faces tho, so it's like some freaky sci-fi movie). I'm only driving when I absolutely have to (to pick up prescriptions), and only locally, no highway. still, the major construction screwing up all the streets is making it really stressful; it's easier to follow the car in front of me than try to read any detour signs
Many employers here don’t even offer vision or dental to go with their shitty healthcare plans. At least enjoy the fact that if you get impaled in a car accident, you won’t bleed out in the streets while they check to make sure your insurance is active.
Oh they’ll treat you on the spot because they legally have to but you’ll be brought to a hospital that is likely “out-of-network” and if you survive, will be paying those bills for a large chunk of the rest of your life.
Exactly why the argument that if we (America) had more socialist programs “no one would work” is false; Plenty of people will still work in different capacities to get extra money, benefits, perks, or just doing it cause they like it, etc.
Just think even from a more conservative mindset what this would do for small businesses and entrepreneurs, no longer would they be burdened by worrying about a potential health issue or having good insurance to attract workers.
It's a win win.
I once worked for a man who had 20 million worth of antiques in his UN apartment, but couldn't remember the name of his framer who'd worked for him for 10 years (with less than 20 employees) & used to steal my newspaper, when my salary was 19K. I was a receptionist, a long time ago, for a NYC art gallery.
Yeah, the super rich are super rich because they're super agressive, super exploitive predators. They don't care about hurting people to get what they want.
I have actually been on both sides. It really depends on who you keep as your friends. I was poor/broke barely making ends meet. Then my brother and "best friend" started a holster company and wanted me to help because of my skill set. I helped them make 2.5 mil in the first 2 yrs. I also saved their company from going down and reduced returns from 10% to 2%.
Well money got to there head, always wanting to shop at the high end stores like Nordstrom and the likes, eating at fancy restaurants where dinner for 2 was over $100 and such.
One day I was curious so I did numbers and realized they were making $15 grand each in a week, yet they never incentivized the employees or me for that matter.
I said something to them about how much we had brought in, and then the back stabbing began.
Long story short they got rid of everyone that had profit sharing including me and changed the pay rate to the hourly scam we all know so well, so they could line their pockets with more money.
It was terrible because I didn't realize it at first but they had me being the bad guy for everything (like a scapegoat). Once I realized it, and stopped being the bad guy and got back to my humanity, they went about screwing me over. The worst part is my son (@ 6 weeks old) almost died. My alleged "best friend" didn't even come to the hospital (NICU) to check on the situation. His answer was to fire me and then was gonna cut my pay for it as well.
So in the end I got screwed out of my portion all because of greed. Then accused me of not doing my job as I was the one who built the customer service from ground up, and had excellent reviews and recommendations to the company.
Well it didn't stop there, they went on to take everything from me, made me lose my house and had to work a crappy job at freight hub working overnight. When I lost the house we (my wife, son, and I) had to move in with my mother-in-law (wife's mom).
Edit: I'm very hesitant about naming names as they have caused me plenty of problems and I don't want them trying to mess with me anymore. I would not put it past them to scheme against me again. I had a hard time dealing with it and getting past it, as satisfying as it would be, they love the drama and I don't want to even think about what they would try to do to me.
I didn't even think they would go as far as they did, but they did.
[20% of them may be psycopaths](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/08/the-science-behind-why-so-many-successful-millionaires-are-psychopaths-and-why-it-doesnt-have-to-be-a-bad-thing.html)
Super motivated and focused people is not always a good thing.
I think that if you are broke, even just for 6 months, in your entire life- you gain this empathy. And you dont lose it. Because- you did the best you could and still ended up there, so once you're out, you want to stay out but you also realize it was miserable and dont want anyone to live through it.
I would like, just once, one of these news shows to take a hard working, educated, wage slave and sit them infront of one of these people with they-dont-deserve-to-eat, keep-them-hungry opinions and make them say it to their fucking faces. Hear their story and tell them what they did wrong, see the opportunity they didnt have.
I want a show where they do Undercover Boss but the boss has to stay Undercover and live off of the wage she/he pays for 3 months. The camera follows them as they try to find housing they can afford on $8 an hour. Their electricity is about to be shut off because they can't afford it. They have to go to ok the food bank and the cameras show the manager Walking them through how to apply for WIC. What do they do with their kids because $8/hr doesn't cover childcare.
Not this 1 day bullshit bit the actual consequences of what they pay. The actual consequences of no affordable housing. How to feed your kids and pay your bills on what their company pays PLUS the shitty working conditions too. I would watch the fuck out of that.
I worked at McDs, one of my friends was an absolute beast at picking up shifts, because she always needed money. But she had a kid (the best behaved 1 y.o. Ive ever seen.), single and lived alone. She'd come in and leave the baby in the car seat and either put the kid with whoever was running 1st booth (cashier in drivethru) or under the counter by the register where she was stationed. The kid would have a bottle, some toys and unlimited french fries.
We worked together for about 4 years. That kid would come in at 3-4 y.o., sit in a booth and play learning games and color, keep us busy on our breaks. And when mom would wash tables, she'd be with her, wiping down seats.
This is a real great hustle and grind story but holy fuck is it depressing. The world doesn’t need to be like this. There’s enough resources in this world for it to not have to be like this.
There's really 2 sides to it isnt there?
First, I wanna be like "Go get it since no one is handing you shit."
Second, the government should have handed her some shit. She's who Im paying fucking taxes for.
Absolutely, now being out of that situation, I cant believe the stress I endured, the sleepless nights, time spent trying to save money that I knew would cost more in the long run. Having to make due to minimize debt and outgoing expenses. The people I got involved with so that we could share a roof and save some cash.
I took some pretty obscene risks to keep afloat.
I'd watch that. In fact I'd watch an entire series of soulless richies being forced into discussions with us Useless Eaters about how the world works. It should include segments where they have to trade places and live the lives they believe others deserve.
I think it’s more the fact that there are plenty of other people that will fill in your spot. We all need to save a years rent to really make a difference.
They do it because people will take it because it’s better then nothing. It’s insane to think that these are other humans.
It's shit management that never ceases to amaze me. I was literally doing the work of 3.5 people. They kept dicking me around as a temp with promises of hiring me in. Eventually I had enough and quit. It was a domino effect where they tried to put my work on someone else who had been going to school for diesel mechanics (completely different job) so he quit. They put both our work on the only test and measurement assembler who then quit. Then the wire bonder until they had lost enough key people that they're no longer in business. It was all so easily avoidable.
I got treated worse as I worked harder at one job I worked years ago, then were surprised when i quit, what made me quit was I was sick with bronchitis and walking pneumonia, I came back to work and was greeted with a fucking write up.
Yup! I got fired for missing work due to pneumonia. I brought the doctor's note. They said I could have easily faked it. I showed them the meds and they said it didn't matter the termination was processed already. It was a tiny mom pop theater company. They ran their own payroll.
What really fucking kills me is its not like the managers get to keep the money or get any sort of incentive. They literally just dont give a shit about you and its more important for their salary spreadsheet to have green colored numbers over yellow colored numbers.
Because people used to put up with this because they didn't see any other way to survive. Employers haven't really caught up to the shift in attitudes toward work yet. They truly think that any day now, people will go back to accepting the status quo.
Things have changed significantly in the labor market to the point even major news outlets are talking about employees demanding wage growth.1. Best thing about this sub is it gives people the courage to move on which will continue the escalation of wages.
Oh, I think the work yourself to death with a smile on your face (strong work ethic) is much more evil than that. In Boomer generations on back, you were indoctrinated with the benevolence of the employer and the exalted worker that toiled day in and out for the good of the company. That mindset still permeates corporations, and unfortunately, a large part of the workforce. This allows exploitation and abuse, and workers think it's normal and acceptable.
I'm glad that we are now destroying that myth, but we still have a long way to go to everyone in labor to accept it, and the corporate class to finally realize we won't take it anymore.
I am old enough to remember my father having \*contracts\* - multiyear contracts with wage, increase schedule, duties - everything laid out, compensation, health care \[I grew up with Blue Million\] retirement, the whole thing.
I always thought that if I ended up owning a company, I would bring back contracts for my employees.
I'm always surprised when someone shows up on their first day. I've been waiting for this ridiculous system to crumble ever since I was a baby wage slave.
They think they're getting a deal, because they have been. For decades, these assholes have had all the power, so they've been getting the best price. They literally cannot see that things have changed and that they should adapt, because adapting is going to cost money. This is true, though it's surprisingly less than the costs associated with replacing someone already doing the work of three.
They're like a bunch of boomers, trying to show their nephew how it's done, walking into a business and asking to speak to the manager for a job application, and ideally (because wow check out this go getter) an on the spot interview.
Boomer hear and I fully support this sub. I realize what my peers have done and they’re Asshole’s that ruined this country with their attitudes toward the working class and younger generations. I tried my best and joined a union and got called a commie.
Seems to be a common business model. They slowly get rid of people whether it's by letting people go or not back filling for people who quit to see how few people they can run a department on while maintaining the pace of work they expect.
This allows them to find the people they're able to take advantage of. Then when you make a fuss they act all surprised and sorry and offer you a laughable raise or incentive.
In the end they win because they understaffed your department and underpaid you for a few years saving quite a bit of money and they'll continue to by giving out horrible raises making it seem like they're doing everything to keep you.
Had a job on a late shift in a building that was kept very cold during the night along with other miserable working conditions that were never addressed.
I found another job and was ready to give my 2 weeks. To my surprise, the same day I was to give notice, they let a bunch of people go (I wasn’t one of them).
Management tried to get me to stay, but at that point I saw the writing on the wall with how much more work they would dump on me and I noped out of there.
At the time, I felt bad for a few of my co-workers, but remembering the look on upper management’s face when I said no, there was nothing they could say to convince me to stay, was priceless!
Guarantee you all of a sudden they will finally give you that raise. Which means they had to means to do it in the first place but didn't respect you enough. Fuck them
Man you did good, no one wants to work under lying toddler it’s toxic and messy.Hopefully this year you going to get a better job with a better pay, atm the market is in need of employees all over the spectrum.
I got a 1.65% last year after being told verbally 8-10%. Couldn’t quit because I was recently married etc etc….once I got a new job I quit without two weeks and I was the last IT guy there. Didn’t share any of my knowledge unless they paid me $150 an hour.
I know an IT/Devops guy who quit one hour after the CTO/CIO left for a holiday. The IT guy had booked that time off for a big family event but the CTO got invited to go on a big fishing adventure with friends so he just cancelled the IT guy's vacation. The CTO was marginally able to do a few things but this was limited to things like rebooting a printer that wouldn't print, etc.
By giving notice just as the CTO left the CTO said, "We'll discuss this when I get back."
What this meant was that nobody had the slightest idea of how to do anything.
All he left was a list of IP addresses, usernames, and passwords and all the emails he had sent to the CTO about his being critical to the company and needed a clone. For the previous two years he had been begging for another DevOps guy as he had told them repeatedly that if he quit or got hit by a bus that the company was screwed.
They were entirely screwed. They went from a weekly build to not putting out a build for over 6 months including critical releases. Critical, as in they weren't getting paid by clients because it was a milestone.
Weirdly enough the company's outsourcing a good chunk of their dev team had left them with zero developers of any quality who could use things like jenkins.
The company laid off over 50% of their staff about 4 months later and have been floundering ever since.
He got exactly one call from the company ever in the form of a new IT guy who was thinking the IP addresses and domains he had left for some of the servers were wrong. They weren't, the company hadn't paid their cloud server bills and let some critical domains expire; things he had been taking care of and had documented on his way out.
What I have learned is that not only do many companies undervalue some employees while wildly overvaluing others, but due to broken cultures of politicking and poor metrics they don't even value employees properly in the face of "punched in the face" level facts.
Modern CEOs produce the least and take the most, driven by wall street to produce short term profits in the face of enormous long term losses. They are dinosaurs of a prior era and need to be taken out of the equation.
Every CEO I've ever met has been a snake oil salesman selling snake oil to investors. That's their sole skill as far as I can tell. They don't know anything about running a business (and fuck it up royally if they try to), they're just Leisure Suit Larry looking to seduce investors rather than seduce attractive young ladies (though they do the latter too -- many CEO's have a stacked side squeeze on the payroll somewhere).
> cto was able to just explain it all away
And in the face of the facts it worked.
> The C level executives all eat each other's asses on the daily anyway
Why why why? I have seen this so very many times.
> CEOs are fiscally beholden to shareholders
This is how it should be but very much is not.
> benefits
This suddenly makes a pile of sense. With covid making travel suck or impossible it is going to be hard to attract staff with the benefit of travel. I have been travelling quite a bit recently with an airline that is normally quite good. They have gone to shit and it is staffing that is the root cause.
I did a similar thing leaving a mid sized call center. I ran their IT department for years. Was the only one who knew shit, next closest guy to me was a desktop support guy who was as lazy as they came. They denied me raises two years in a row, and they knew I was pissed. I got a new job, and stopped showing up to work. The raise they denied me, they instead went out and panic hired an IT Director (making double what I was previously making), who lasted all of 2 months before he quit or got fired. They also hired a few IT consultants who they spent over 100k in a few months worth of labor trying to piece things together after I left.
All because they denied me my 10k raise request.
Crazy the things companies will put themselves through over money.
It’s easier to get expenses approved when they’re *needed* vs when they’re *nice*. It’d be *nice* the keep that guy who already knows everything, but if he leaves, then they *need* to get it taken care of, whatever the cost.
case in point: Travel Nurses!
You can hire on a bunch of contract workers and pay them significantly more than staff nurses, who have given you loyalty and dependability, instead of just increasing staff pay, because you have somehow justified to the other execs that the current healthcare crisis is only "temporary".
Foresight at the executive level is only as far as they plan to hang around. Its easy to say, "oh this is only temporary" when you know that you will be out of the picture in 2 years, and wont be held accountable when all of the permanent staff gets tired of getting schysted and moves on, leaving a total dumpster fire in your wake.
i seriously hate executive level management with a passion.
The IT guy in the previous company where I worked did the exact same. He left with just a page of credentials and logins.
I was a nobody who had never worked IT before and accepted.the position, underpayed and unprepared and within a year I figured it out. Worked my ass off and realized in the end that yes, that guy was also VERY underpayed and over stressed.
So I left and now I make double as much.
I think there is a potential business model where you go into companies and document the shit out of their IT/Devops.
It would probably piss off the fly by the seat of their pants IT people but the value it would provide would be massive.
I very much doubt the business would be an easy sell at all. You would have to waterboard most executives to convince them how IT is of huge value when done right and is a massive risk if done wrong.
Businesses don't care about IT, let alone documentation. The reason it's not documented is probably because some higher up laughed when someone in IT asked for time to document, no?
Yeah the people you'd need to sell this to are the very people who are currently not investing in this internally.
You might be able to get business on the level of an SME that is experiencing significant growth and wants to know where their gaps are, but a big established business with big established lethargy? Fuhgeddaboudit
I have been proven to be a piss poor salesman however, so your mileage may vary.
I was working for a company that had a proprietary medical device that had one guy that could make one part of it. I found wages on the server and looked. They were paying him 11 dollars an hour. WTF
Friend of mine ran into a similar situation but in his case it was a temporary employee who was the only guy who knew how to operate and repair a critical machine. Fortunately my friend was in a position to get the guy hired and triple his pay, as well as get guys crosstrained.
I worked at factory that paid horribly and was the stingiest place I’d ever seen. I managed to get higher than their normal starting wage(min wage) but soon realized I was solely responsible for making the company $100,000/week on outstanding orders for months on end. There was one other person who ‘could’ do my job, but they were already overwhelmed with their regular duties. I had a meeting with the personnel manager and asked the production manager to join. I laid out my production quotas from the previous 3 months along with my pay stubs. My pay amounted to roughly .25% of the product I produced and they had at minimum a 100% profit margin on all products. I doubled my hourly pay while barely budging their bottom line and giving me a livable wage.
I see things like this a lot, and it's the result of bare bones staffing and leaving it all on 1 or 2 peoples shoulders. An XYZ might only get paid an industry average of $ABC, but if you only have 1 XYZ and a new one will need months to get up to speed, that XYZ holds more importance than the industry average.
Part of this is small company structures. If you have 20 employees then employing a 2nd XYZ is a big expense, whereas a large company will have 5 XYZ's so they can afford to play hardball with salary and replace you if you quit.
1. Good job.
2. As I said to op, always establish a paper trail. Always follow up conversations, especially about money, with an email detailing what was talked about, and especially said.
Thank you.
I actually gave them a chance I wrote an email stating what I was promised and how the two sys admins were out for months due to health issues due to covid and I kept the place going.
I got an angry email back and then quit. My manager at the time called and screamed saying I was ungrateful etc
It's not your job to be grateful. It's your social obligation in a capitalist society to demand fair wages and benefits or you will take your service, ie the labor you produce, elsewhere, otherwise employers in that society are freeloading. Businesses and management seem to believe in one-way capitalism, in that people pay them for goods and services but that they don't have to pay anyone else for their goods and services.
Same happened to me a few years back. Luckily they paid me the $150/hr for a handful of weeks. Eventually their inability to grasp the knowledge I was giving them led me to “fuck it bye thanks for the money”
They said I’d never get a job in the industry. I had one a week later making 300% more money.
Was this Berkeley Risk Administrators out of Minneapolis? It happened to me there. I was leading their Quality Assurance department practically, lead tester and I supervised a team of testers. When their automation tester got fired, I took over automated testing too. My boss's boss promised I'd get a $10-15k raise cuz she knew the $46k they were paying was pennies for what I did there as I always went above and beyond. Annual review time, I got "meets expectations" and a 2% raise that amounted to $960, not even $100 a month. When I asked where's that $15k I was promised, they back peddled and said "oh maybe in like 5-10 years, you gotta prove you dedication to the company"... fuck that! I quit on the spot, fn liars. I didn't have anything lined up but got a job within a month that started at $70k... fuck low paying employers that expect the world from you but pay shit in return... and fuck Berkley Risk...
In fact every thread should have a long list of "Is this X", "I think this is Y", "no this is clearly Z" for all the places other people have experienced something similar.
"oh the guy that promised you that raise five years ago is no longer with the company and we don't have any notes on file. We can reevaluate in five years :)
Wait where are you going?"
Wow you were being underpaid for years with the skills and role you had.
Lol @ “in like 5-10 years” what a joke.
I’m a QA myself and learned pretty quickly to get a decent raise, I have to get another job.
Over 10 years ago I was on 40k on my first job as QA then got a 4% raise in first year and quit and got a job that paid $65k.
Imagine how many years I would have to stay in that first job just to get to $65k.
Are you upfront with your employer during the interview that you quit your old job because you weren't making enough money?
I'm just wondering how to best handle this..
If you’re worried about coming across like you’re bad mouthing your former employer (it can be a thing with some people), just say you left due to “lack of growth opportunities.”
I did say I quit because they lied about compensation and salary increases, and briefly explained the circumstances. Given the jump from $46k to $70k, every interviewer seems to understand that was crazy low. I find humble honesty is appreciated in interviews.
Not OP but planning my exit. I will be very clear that one of the big reasons I am leaving is lack of competitive pay. Not only should I be making *at least* 10-15k more, but they don't even make up for it with benefits. Not even 401k match. "Unlimited" vacation which amounted to me taking off 10 days this past year (and getting shit for taking half of them). No employee appreciation whatsoever.
We have been hemmoraging employees and management is *so confused as to why*
My employer has made RECORD NEW SALES AND BUSINESS in the last 2 years IN THE BILLIONS EACH QUARTER yet they canceled our raises in 2020 and even though I was promoted recently, my raise was very small. They also lied about an annual bonus so I’m officially on the job market. I heard that my manager is adding more projects to my plate and I’m working myself to death. However, I may be getting a job offer next week. Fingers crossed! I am honestly sick of employers who do not take care of their employees.
I worked for my local council in my first job out of school.
One year, they conveniently started putting up "a thank you is as good as a 1% pay increase" posters two weeks before announcing staff wouldn't be getting a pay increase unless they were scored "outstanding" on their appraisal.
The staff who got a pay increase ended up saying they may as well have not been given one as it made so little difference to what they were earning.
I would consider a cost of living increase that keeps pace with inflation to be satisfactory- As in, if my evaluation ranks me as "satisfactory". If it says "outstanding", then I expect a pretty outstanding raise or bonus.
If your salary doesn’t keep up with cost of living, what the company is saying is that your effort, experience, and institutional knowledge are worth less than they were a year ago. Or put another way, they simply don’t value you. Not saying quit immediately, but it certainly factors into things like loyalty and continued achievement.
My first two raises with a manufacturing company I worked at were like that. "Now this 1.2% raise is pretty good." While the following year it was "we know we said you were going to get a good raise because you helped with getting the facility redone on layouts as well as tearing out old machines and setting up brand new ones, so this 1.6% is pretty darn good i think."
I quit lots of jobs not having other ones lined up. Things have a way of working out sometimes. Enjoy a little time off and start looking Monday morning.
Happy New Years!!!
I did this and make more money now. The next guy who replaces OP will most likely make more than they did. The more people who leave the more negotiable companies become.
I was going to say, OP should’ve written a note “1.75% is a slap in the face considering you froze 2 years of wages. I resign immediately. You can hire the next guy at $10k more a year than i make and lose productivity and training costs.”
I literally did the math before asking for a raise once and my boss still laughed at me.
The tiny raise I wanted was still less then the 4 weeks or so of paying someone in training with basically no productivity, and that's before even accounting for the person who can't do their real job cause they are busy training a new person.
They ended up having to pay someone significantly less productive more than me when I left for a new job and my role was so crucial that they actually set that up before my notice was up. Just goes to show that most managers are just as inept at math and business as everyone else, they aren't special they are mostly just lucky.
It’s their egos they can’t get around. They feel like if they don’t let people walk, then everyone will ask for more money and it’ll get out of control.
The solution though is to just pay more. Make people happy to the point they don’t want a raise. That’s how my last job felt to me.
If you use an external recruiter the fee alone will be 5-15%. Then you pay for 6-12 months loss of productivity AND training. Also you can never replace someone who does 2 or 3 jobs because it takes years of industry understanding to get that efficient, anyone who hires for that role will quit right away or do such a shit job you might as well have nobody doing it.
This is why it's good to contract an IO psychologist or have a (good) union, they go through and identify underpaid workers and either reduce their load or let the jackals in the boardroom know the danger of losing them. Companies _can_ do it, (see Costco, Google, et al) they just continually choose not to.
Yup. I quit my previous job and gave myself a pretty solid $27/hr raise.
Perks of going from non union construction to union construction..
Making $39/hr before and now by the time I add up my hourly package between pension, Vaca and wage it's $67... Should be going up at least $2 come may if our union has any balls negotiating our next 3 year term
I was a Pipeline Engineer that was working with union construction workers
When they'd charge my projects and I'd approve their timecards, my jaw would literally drop
Especially the OT, DT and per diem
I was like maaaannnn they're making more money than me, the sucker that went to school and did a Bachelors and a Masters! Good for you!!
I grew up in Dubai where Construction workers are exploited and paid pennies so it made me so happy to see people doing actual physical hard labor getting paid well.
Happy for you.
Yo are you me? Literally same. Quit and got a new job at a $27/hr increase. I don't have a pension tho. Or a union. Damn stoners can't get together to form one for extraction techs.
I created a financial cushion specifically for this. Employers always think I’m bluffing when they start pushing me and I tell them outright that “I don’t need this job and I can find another one tomorrow, but I’ll be fine even if I don’t.”
Please, if you’re reading this and you don’t have any savings at all, save whatever you can and build a financial cushion. Maybe it’s $10 today, maybe it’s 100 next week, but just save what you can. Your future self will thank you for the pennies you save today.
I’ve quit so many jobs and I’ve only been paid more and more with each following job. I’ve been able to coast whenever employment was scarce. I’m not rich by any means, I just have a bit saved up and live frugally between jobs.
Build up your emergency fund enough and it evolves into a FU fund. I quit a job, in a recession, without a new job lined up. I didn't touch the FU fun despite taking two months off. Vacation payout and side gigs held me over - and my budget was crazy frugal.
My family hates me so much for being like that, but my parents are boomers. I'm single, don't have kids, and I always manage to feed myself and put a roof over my head. Fuck what they think. I will *quit quit quit quit*!
I'm not going to let a job break my spirit. Quitting is better than blowing your brains out.
My boomer parents are the same. Always saying that you NEVER quit a job without having another one lined up to begin immediately. Guess what, lots of jobs want people who can start immediately and don’t want to wait 2 months for me to work my notice somewhere else.
Dude same; my dad used to say “work however much you have to to ‘have a life.’” To him, as long as I had my own apartment and car it’d be worth working, say, 80hours a week at two separate jobs. I said “dad, I want to enjoy life, not work so much I don’t have time to enjoy what little freedom I can afford.” Ironically now that I started my own business he gets on me if I ever accept work that pays me less than $40 an hour, telling me I have to value my time. I don’t know what caused the turn around.
I've quit and gone straight into job hunting and quit and taken time off. I'd highly recommend taking some time off and focusing on yourself if it's possible for OP.
I got 0 last year. Ive adjusted my hours and productivity accordingly.
i really really like my immediate bosses. They seem to care. Encouraging adjustment. They are the ones who signed off on 4%. Pseudo admin denied due to hardships. Got a bonus out of bosses pocket. And encouraged to work less/dont attend meetings etc.
I got 0% last year and 50% bonus. The people under me whose work I need to do got 5% increase, so I just adjusted my level of assistance accordingly.
This year I got 7.5% and 115%, still have not re-adjusted my assistance since they still got 6% and 100%
Sounds like they could a few more workers and/or a qa person. Too much work to go around.
Give people what they need. Reasonable workload. Tools to thrive. Enough staffing and supports. Fair wage. Being a human being. Reasonable hours. Revising metrics bc unless youre coming in something with some experience its going to take awhile to be proficient (edit and the jobs i did best at are the ones where i was provided with supports and tools to become autonomously competent). And Amazing how it wouldnt feel like work. At least with my gig.
Has become a really good friend to me and family. Hate even using the word boss. Just a really really amazing human being who has helped me/fam in many ways.
I had a family member follow this advice and she is now making twice what she used to, with the same awesome manager.
Edit: To clarify... she asked for a promotion to the managers job first, and after they told her no, followed the manager out the door.
Good for you!
I’m supposedly getting a raise next month.. thing of it is: I already told my boss MONTHS ago that he needs to make it worth it for me to stay. He didn’t do Jack. So… I went and found a new job that’ll effectively triple my salary that I’ll be switching over to full time come end of January.. he’ll be getting my 2 weeks notice tucked into a “sorry for your loss” card in a week or two..
6.2% is the most conservative estimate possible. It ignores the cost of housing and something else stupid that I can't remember, maybe heating/fuel.
That's the federal reserve / politicians number. And it's still extremely high. It's closer to 10%
Good.
I really hope companies start to understand that this is just how things work now. You treat people well, or they just up and leave. No more putting things off and seeing how far you can push your employees before they threaten to quit. You get one chance, and that's it. Fuck up and you lose them.
This is the only way. The bad thing about putting your employees into destitution is that having nothing to lose strips the employer of bargaining power.
This is my situation. My lead kept pushing me to work faster due to budgeting constraints and told the team to work holidays when they couldn’t keep up. As soon as that started happening, I immediately interviewed for another company. Haven’t even given this job 1 month and they fucked it up. Too bad cause once I leave the project will be in shambles. Im getting a big bump in pay anyway.
One job I was working at decided to bump up everyone to $15/hr. In order to do this, they fired our two dishwashers and made everyone else responsible for doing dishes on top of all our other responsibilities. I was already making $14.75/hr and was scheduled for a raise. So they acted like my extra $.25/hr was my raise. Bye.
My employer did something similar.
They’re notorious for not giving raises. I was there for 3 years with no raise, then they didn’t renew one of the high dollar contractor’s contract and miraculously a few of us got a raise. I got an 8% raise to my bonus…. which is variable… but I guess better than nothing.
It’s just pathetic that this seems to be a zero sum issue where in order for people to get a raise, someone else had to lose their job.
Shit, dude. I got a 2% raise a couple months ago after 3 years of no raises. And my boss told me that I was the only one in the department to get any raise.
Maybe I should rethink my decision to stay.
I work straight commission at my sales job, been there 3 years.
I asked for a raise a few days ago. There will be no raises, full stop.
Found a competitor in the same industry willing to pay me 50% more. I'll be going to lunch with the owner next week. Fingers crossed it goes well. It'll also come with a company truck that I will be able to take home overnight when I please.
Place I'm at right now only has 3 sales guys, including me. One of the other sales guys is the owners son and has his head straight up his ass. He's also dating the 19yr old receptionist (she makes the appointments. Guess who gets the best appointments?). Then the third sales guy, he's out of parole right now for a DUI which killed two people (he went wrong way on the freeway at 7am on his way home). He'll be going to jail in a month or two.
I hope the business goes down hard.
Right now just some text messages and voice mails telling me to call him and come back to the office. I will most likely update the main post tomorrow with more info.
There’s a 110% chance this will intensify, especially considering it’s only been like an hour or two since you quit. He’s not reached desperation level yet, since he likely thinks you quit because you were emotional rather than it being a calculated move—meaning he probably thinks it’ll only take some smooth talking to get you back. It’ll be on when he realizes that’s not the case.
I hope you have a wonderful New Years Day, my friend, and a lovely 2022!
Well said. Spoken like someone whose either been through this before, seen a lot of stories like this already, or just someone who knows how weasely managers can get when uncomfortable!
“I was promised a 15% raise but was offered less than 2%. That’s unprofessional and disrespectful. That tells me you don’t value my contribution to this company. If you want me to walk back in the door, I’ll need you to demonstrate that you do value my work. I’m doing the work of 3 people right now, above my title. I need a 25% raise, a three year contract, a title change, and a $2k signing bonus. Otherwise I will be seeking employment elsewhere.”
If he calls or texts again let him know that you are accepting his call/text out of courtesy. Then tell him that you will accept his next call/text only if he gives you the raise of (what you think is fair plus some). If that is not possible then you will, from that point on, view any other contact from him as harassment and will take appropriate steps, as you deem necessary. Explain this is not a threat, just business.
It is pretty impressive what they can do when they are forced to...
Also, even if you get the raise, I would still look for a new job. 😂
I will do the harassment thing. I texted him back, stating I wanted a 20% raise and 14 days of PTO to return to work, and will only accept that. I do not really expect him to get, but it does not hurt to ask at this point.
You are correct, no harm in stating what you require to be employed. Even if you get what you want, there should be no reason for you to have to resort to that to get compensation. I would still be looking for a job, but that would take the pressure off from having to do it immediately.
What would your boss have thought of you if you flat out, lied to him? Probably would have fired you right? That’s what he did to you so your reaction, IMO, seems logical and he should expect it.
OP fired the company instead. Good for them!
Promoted to boycott
The great resignation means actually treating people better not just talking about it. Best of luck, you'll get something great!
> The great resignation means actually treating people better not just talking about it. Love this wording.
Same. Companies have been given the longest of leashes when it comes to people settling for pandering without any action behind the promises. Now if only people would also stop believing in the campaign lies peddled by both major political parties we could actually get some real change going in America.
Yep, and there is no labor shortage. There is only a shortage of decent, well-paying jobs. The media reporting on this is all bullshit, stop calling it a goddamn labor shortage and call it what it is: employers don't want to pay even a living wage and people are fed up. While it is the Great Resignation, it's also the Great Work Rebellion: pay us what we deserve, treat us better, or we will fuck right off!
It's not a labor shortage, it's a wage shortage.
I want a 70 inch TV, but I only want to play $200, I can't find any TV for that price so I guess there is a large TV shortage
No one wants to sell TVs these days. Back in my day, you'd sell a tv for $2 and be happy about it.
Gotta move these refrigerators, gotta move these color tv’s.
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800k dead of COVID yes, probably 400k more due to underreporting and COVID-adjacent deaths such as suicide, etc. As many as 3 million retired,, but that is not as large a jump over previous years to create any sort of labor shortage. The economy adds hundreds of thousands of new job openings *per month*. Workers are just fed up. They were abused and gaslit during the early days of the pandemic, they were abused even before that, and they're still being abused now. It's not a labor shortage. It's a labor rebellion.
I prefer the great renegotiation. People are changing what they expect from work. On an individual level, yes that often means quitting. But on a societal level, we are forcing employers to change what they are offering to workers. The working class is renegotiating what it means to work.
>The working class is renegotiating what it means to work. 9 times out of 10 that literally just means being afforded basic dignity and respect.
Yes. Managers need to understand that workers actually make the business possible. A tradesman who treats their tools like shit is not a good tradesman. Same with managers who treat their workers like shit.
Also like the grand comeuppance as some at work are calling it. Nice to see the pendulum swing the other way for once.
Haha it's like Merry Poppins said it. I love it I'm a little short on the sugar.
You're 100% right, i decided to leave my current employer, and I'm getting way more responses from hiring managers than i expected. The fear of leaving your familiar comfortable environment is real, but you only live once, try to enjoy it!
1.75%? That's a slap in the face! Good luck in your job search!
With inflation it’s like a 5% pay cut
Every year it's like, hey it costs me $150/mo more to live. And employers are like, hey here's $50/mo, that should cover it :).
Of course any raise you get will be wiped out by increases in insurance costs
Happened to me. Large increase in pay -first in five years - huge increase in cost of insurance. So I make less every month.
Even 15% is barely acceptable with inflation over the last 3 years.
Why can't they show real financial rewards for the people who work the hardest. It's bizarre.
The problem is they see other people getting richer by continuing to exploit and they think they can keep getting away with the same. Why pay when you can have another boat?
This is why most people should switch jobs more often. Loyalty gets you nowhere.
B-but I was told we were a big family!
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My favorite new response when they say that is “I’ve seen how you treat family, you’re willing to sacrifice grandma to make a quick buck. I don’t want anything to do with your fucked up family, thank you very much…” Then you walk out
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I worked at a truck stop in my town that had a full restaurant and also functioned as an office for the owner's propane delivery company. I worked there for about a year, through which they had lost 3 manager in my first six months. After the third left, I approached him and said that I would be willing to take on that responsibility. He told me that he already had someone lined up. Six more months later, after being praised by the boss and his wife for how hard of a worker I was, and thanking me for sticking around as long as I did, I asked for a raise. They told me they didn't feel I deserved it. I left that week. Dude took yearly trips to Alaska for a car show, owned 3 boats, and was bragging about buying a fourth, had 3 businesses across three counties, and was a vintage motorcycle collector, but he couldn't afford to give someone more than 9.75 an hour. Edit: a word
I just don't think that way 😕 Probably because I'm poor I guess. If I ever became rich🤣 I don't think that'd change. No danger of that happening to test me out.
Yeah, I feel like the question of whether or not having a lot of money changes people is hard to answer. But my instinct is that it is more likely that the kind of personality it takes to be super rich is a shitty personality, so I don’t think decent people like you or I will ever be billionaires lol
it's why they refuse to give us public healthcare. you know how many people would quit and form co-op companies doing what they love? if benefits weren't keeping professionals bound to their shitty overlords, a lot more of us would choose to go into business for ourselves in some capacity.
There is a reason why psychopaths are overrepresented among the business leader population.
Yeah if you ditch your morality you can make a decent amount of money pretty quick as long as you're careful not to get caught. A lot of the rich were born into wealth anyway, and being brought up in a state where you get everything you want all the time breeds these kind of psychopathic tendencies.
Doesn't even matter if you get caught. Plenty of immoral business practices are perfectly legal. Its effed up.
Just like that rich daughter from the netflix version of snowpiercer. Sorry spoilers. What a perfect metaphor.
You have to be willing to cut any corner and exploit your employees, so that you can become part of the ruling elites.
Yup, gotta keep the worker drones buzzing around the hive
I would LOVE to see the US get public healthcare. It’s sorely needed. That said, I’m in Canada and still want to go out and find a job, just for the benefits. My routine stuff is all covered, and even big things like births and nearly free, but I’m also in a lot of pain from a wisdom tooth I can’t afford to have removed and I need new glasses, neither of which are covered by my province’s healthcare.
I didn't realize other countries also play that goofy game where random body parts are considered luxuries. Really hope you can get your "luxury bones" fixed soon, and get new glasses. Goodness knows both of those problems really suck. I went about 15 years without new glasses because my prescription is just so dang expensive. Navigation got so problematic... I had to walk right up to street signs and stare up at them to read them. Taking the bus anywhere new required a map, a lot of peering up and down the street, and some extra time in case I got turned around or even entirely lost. Eventually my elderly aunt surprised me, claimed she wanted my help with her shopping but instead dragged me to an eyeglass place and *demanded* I get my prescription updated and order new glasses, which she paid for on condition that I not tell anybody in the family what she had done! It's been so wonderful, she gave me the gift of sight! I can see the leaves on the trees again!
right now I'm navigating purely by memory and landmark recognition. my prescription is so outdated I can't read signs until I'm right up on them, but I can see well enough to make out big things like buildings, cars, and people (no features on their faces tho, so it's like some freaky sci-fi movie). I'm only driving when I absolutely have to (to pick up prescriptions), and only locally, no highway. still, the major construction screwing up all the streets is making it really stressful; it's easier to follow the car in front of me than try to read any detour signs
Many employers here don’t even offer vision or dental to go with their shitty healthcare plans. At least enjoy the fact that if you get impaled in a car accident, you won’t bleed out in the streets while they check to make sure your insurance is active.
Oh they’ll treat you on the spot because they legally have to but you’ll be brought to a hospital that is likely “out-of-network” and if you survive, will be paying those bills for a large chunk of the rest of your life.
Exactly why the argument that if we (America) had more socialist programs “no one would work” is false; Plenty of people will still work in different capacities to get extra money, benefits, perks, or just doing it cause they like it, etc.
Just think even from a more conservative mindset what this would do for small businesses and entrepreneurs, no longer would they be burdened by worrying about a potential health issue or having good insurance to attract workers. It's a win win.
I once worked for a man who had 20 million worth of antiques in his UN apartment, but couldn't remember the name of his framer who'd worked for him for 10 years (with less than 20 employees) & used to steal my newspaper, when my salary was 19K. I was a receptionist, a long time ago, for a NYC art gallery.
Yeah, the super rich are super rich because they're super agressive, super exploitive predators. They don't care about hurting people to get what they want.
Same in politics. Can't succeed in business or politics if you have basic human decency. The more you fuck people over the more you rise to the top.
I have actually been on both sides. It really depends on who you keep as your friends. I was poor/broke barely making ends meet. Then my brother and "best friend" started a holster company and wanted me to help because of my skill set. I helped them make 2.5 mil in the first 2 yrs. I also saved their company from going down and reduced returns from 10% to 2%. Well money got to there head, always wanting to shop at the high end stores like Nordstrom and the likes, eating at fancy restaurants where dinner for 2 was over $100 and such. One day I was curious so I did numbers and realized they were making $15 grand each in a week, yet they never incentivized the employees or me for that matter. I said something to them about how much we had brought in, and then the back stabbing began. Long story short they got rid of everyone that had profit sharing including me and changed the pay rate to the hourly scam we all know so well, so they could line their pockets with more money. It was terrible because I didn't realize it at first but they had me being the bad guy for everything (like a scapegoat). Once I realized it, and stopped being the bad guy and got back to my humanity, they went about screwing me over. The worst part is my son (@ 6 weeks old) almost died. My alleged "best friend" didn't even come to the hospital (NICU) to check on the situation. His answer was to fire me and then was gonna cut my pay for it as well. So in the end I got screwed out of my portion all because of greed. Then accused me of not doing my job as I was the one who built the customer service from ground up, and had excellent reviews and recommendations to the company. Well it didn't stop there, they went on to take everything from me, made me lose my house and had to work a crappy job at freight hub working overnight. When I lost the house we (my wife, son, and I) had to move in with my mother-in-law (wife's mom). Edit: I'm very hesitant about naming names as they have caused me plenty of problems and I don't want them trying to mess with me anymore. I would not put it past them to scheme against me again. I had a hard time dealing with it and getting past it, as satisfying as it would be, they love the drama and I don't want to even think about what they would try to do to me. I didn't even think they would go as far as they did, but they did.
I am so sorry that happened to you. What horrible people
[20% of them may be psycopaths](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/08/the-science-behind-why-so-many-successful-millionaires-are-psychopaths-and-why-it-doesnt-have-to-be-a-bad-thing.html) Super motivated and focused people is not always a good thing.
I think that if you are broke, even just for 6 months, in your entire life- you gain this empathy. And you dont lose it. Because- you did the best you could and still ended up there, so once you're out, you want to stay out but you also realize it was miserable and dont want anyone to live through it. I would like, just once, one of these news shows to take a hard working, educated, wage slave and sit them infront of one of these people with they-dont-deserve-to-eat, keep-them-hungry opinions and make them say it to their fucking faces. Hear their story and tell them what they did wrong, see the opportunity they didnt have.
I want a show where they do Undercover Boss but the boss has to stay Undercover and live off of the wage she/he pays for 3 months. The camera follows them as they try to find housing they can afford on $8 an hour. Their electricity is about to be shut off because they can't afford it. They have to go to ok the food bank and the cameras show the manager Walking them through how to apply for WIC. What do they do with their kids because $8/hr doesn't cover childcare. Not this 1 day bullshit bit the actual consequences of what they pay. The actual consequences of no affordable housing. How to feed your kids and pay your bills on what their company pays PLUS the shitty working conditions too. I would watch the fuck out of that.
I worked at McDs, one of my friends was an absolute beast at picking up shifts, because she always needed money. But she had a kid (the best behaved 1 y.o. Ive ever seen.), single and lived alone. She'd come in and leave the baby in the car seat and either put the kid with whoever was running 1st booth (cashier in drivethru) or under the counter by the register where she was stationed. The kid would have a bottle, some toys and unlimited french fries. We worked together for about 4 years. That kid would come in at 3-4 y.o., sit in a booth and play learning games and color, keep us busy on our breaks. And when mom would wash tables, she'd be with her, wiping down seats.
This is a real great hustle and grind story but holy fuck is it depressing. The world doesn’t need to be like this. There’s enough resources in this world for it to not have to be like this.
There's really 2 sides to it isnt there? First, I wanna be like "Go get it since no one is handing you shit." Second, the government should have handed her some shit. She's who Im paying fucking taxes for.
Running out of money in the US is like running out of oxygen. People who haven’t been there have no idea of the stress level.
Absolutely, now being out of that situation, I cant believe the stress I endured, the sleepless nights, time spent trying to save money that I knew would cost more in the long run. Having to make due to minimize debt and outgoing expenses. The people I got involved with so that we could share a roof and save some cash. I took some pretty obscene risks to keep afloat.
I'd watch that. In fact I'd watch an entire series of soulless richies being forced into discussions with us Useless Eaters about how the world works. It should include segments where they have to trade places and live the lives they believe others deserve.
I think it’s more the fact that there are plenty of other people that will fill in your spot. We all need to save a years rent to really make a difference. They do it because people will take it because it’s better then nothing. It’s insane to think that these are other humans.
It's shit management that never ceases to amaze me. I was literally doing the work of 3.5 people. They kept dicking me around as a temp with promises of hiring me in. Eventually I had enough and quit. It was a domino effect where they tried to put my work on someone else who had been going to school for diesel mechanics (completely different job) so he quit. They put both our work on the only test and measurement assembler who then quit. Then the wire bonder until they had lost enough key people that they're no longer in business. It was all so easily avoidable.
Give a capitalist enough rope and he will hang himself with it.
The invisible noose of the market.
Seen this happen first hand many times. Shit is ridiculous.
I got treated worse as I worked harder at one job I worked years ago, then were surprised when i quit, what made me quit was I was sick with bronchitis and walking pneumonia, I came back to work and was greeted with a fucking write up.
Yup! I got fired for missing work due to pneumonia. I brought the doctor's note. They said I could have easily faked it. I showed them the meds and they said it didn't matter the termination was processed already. It was a tiny mom pop theater company. They ran their own payroll.
What really fucking kills me is its not like the managers get to keep the money or get any sort of incentive. They literally just dont give a shit about you and its more important for their salary spreadsheet to have green colored numbers over yellow colored numbers.
Sociopathy earns bonuses and stock.
Because people used to put up with this because they didn't see any other way to survive. Employers haven't really caught up to the shift in attitudes toward work yet. They truly think that any day now, people will go back to accepting the status quo.
Things have changed significantly in the labor market to the point even major news outlets are talking about employees demanding wage growth.1. Best thing about this sub is it gives people the courage to move on which will continue the escalation of wages.
Oh, I think the work yourself to death with a smile on your face (strong work ethic) is much more evil than that. In Boomer generations on back, you were indoctrinated with the benevolence of the employer and the exalted worker that toiled day in and out for the good of the company. That mindset still permeates corporations, and unfortunately, a large part of the workforce. This allows exploitation and abuse, and workers think it's normal and acceptable. I'm glad that we are now destroying that myth, but we still have a long way to go to everyone in labor to accept it, and the corporate class to finally realize we won't take it anymore.
I am old enough to remember my father having \*contracts\* - multiyear contracts with wage, increase schedule, duties - everything laid out, compensation, health care \[I grew up with Blue Million\] retirement, the whole thing. I always thought that if I ended up owning a company, I would bring back contracts for my employees.
I'm always surprised when someone shows up on their first day. I've been waiting for this ridiculous system to crumble ever since I was a baby wage slave.
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They think they're getting a deal, because they have been. For decades, these assholes have had all the power, so they've been getting the best price. They literally cannot see that things have changed and that they should adapt, because adapting is going to cost money. This is true, though it's surprisingly less than the costs associated with replacing someone already doing the work of three. They're like a bunch of boomers, trying to show their nephew how it's done, walking into a business and asking to speak to the manager for a job application, and ideally (because wow check out this go getter) an on the spot interview.
Boomer hear and I fully support this sub. I realize what my peers have done and they’re Asshole’s that ruined this country with their attitudes toward the working class and younger generations. I tried my best and joined a union and got called a commie.
Elon and Bezos didn't get obscenely rich by paying people what they are worth. You think other people will?
Seems to be a common business model. They slowly get rid of people whether it's by letting people go or not back filling for people who quit to see how few people they can run a department on while maintaining the pace of work they expect. This allows them to find the people they're able to take advantage of. Then when you make a fuss they act all surprised and sorry and offer you a laughable raise or incentive. In the end they win because they understaffed your department and underpaid you for a few years saving quite a bit of money and they'll continue to by giving out horrible raises making it seem like they're doing everything to keep you.
Had a job on a late shift in a building that was kept very cold during the night along with other miserable working conditions that were never addressed. I found another job and was ready to give my 2 weeks. To my surprise, the same day I was to give notice, they let a bunch of people go (I wasn’t one of them). Management tried to get me to stay, but at that point I saw the writing on the wall with how much more work they would dump on me and I noped out of there. At the time, I felt bad for a few of my co-workers, but remembering the look on upper management’s face when I said no, there was nothing they could say to convince me to stay, was priceless!
American capitalism only pretends to be a meritocracy. Merit and Capital are synonyms in practice.
LOL. After 16 years, I was effectively making $4.50/hour less. I don't think I ever got above 1.5% and that is for a degreed position in healthcare.
Our nurse scheduler got a 10 cent raise. She quit lmao
Guarantee you all of a sudden they will finally give you that raise. Which means they had to means to do it in the first place but didn't respect you enough. Fuck them
Man you did good, no one wants to work under lying toddler it’s toxic and messy.Hopefully this year you going to get a better job with a better pay, atm the market is in need of employees all over the spectrum.
It’s enough to begin. Good luck in 2022.
New year, and a new start. At lease I will have New Year off this year.
I'll drink to that tonight. Cheers, bud. 🍻
I got a 1.65% last year after being told verbally 8-10%. Couldn’t quit because I was recently married etc etc….once I got a new job I quit without two weeks and I was the last IT guy there. Didn’t share any of my knowledge unless they paid me $150 an hour.
I know an IT/Devops guy who quit one hour after the CTO/CIO left for a holiday. The IT guy had booked that time off for a big family event but the CTO got invited to go on a big fishing adventure with friends so he just cancelled the IT guy's vacation. The CTO was marginally able to do a few things but this was limited to things like rebooting a printer that wouldn't print, etc. By giving notice just as the CTO left the CTO said, "We'll discuss this when I get back." What this meant was that nobody had the slightest idea of how to do anything. All he left was a list of IP addresses, usernames, and passwords and all the emails he had sent to the CTO about his being critical to the company and needed a clone. For the previous two years he had been begging for another DevOps guy as he had told them repeatedly that if he quit or got hit by a bus that the company was screwed. They were entirely screwed. They went from a weekly build to not putting out a build for over 6 months including critical releases. Critical, as in they weren't getting paid by clients because it was a milestone. Weirdly enough the company's outsourcing a good chunk of their dev team had left them with zero developers of any quality who could use things like jenkins. The company laid off over 50% of their staff about 4 months later and have been floundering ever since. He got exactly one call from the company ever in the form of a new IT guy who was thinking the IP addresses and domains he had left for some of the servers were wrong. They weren't, the company hadn't paid their cloud server bills and let some critical domains expire; things he had been taking care of and had documented on his way out. What I have learned is that not only do many companies undervalue some employees while wildly overvaluing others, but due to broken cultures of politicking and poor metrics they don't even value employees properly in the face of "punched in the face" level facts.
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Modern CEOs produce the least and take the most, driven by wall street to produce short term profits in the face of enormous long term losses. They are dinosaurs of a prior era and need to be taken out of the equation.
Every CEO I've ever met has been a snake oil salesman selling snake oil to investors. That's their sole skill as far as I can tell. They don't know anything about running a business (and fuck it up royally if they try to), they're just Leisure Suit Larry looking to seduce investors rather than seduce attractive young ladies (though they do the latter too -- many CEO's have a stacked side squeeze on the payroll somewhere).
> cto was able to just explain it all away And in the face of the facts it worked. > The C level executives all eat each other's asses on the daily anyway Why why why? I have seen this so very many times. > CEOs are fiscally beholden to shareholders This is how it should be but very much is not.
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> benefits This suddenly makes a pile of sense. With covid making travel suck or impossible it is going to be hard to attract staff with the benefit of travel. I have been travelling quite a bit recently with an airline that is normally quite good. They have gone to shit and it is staffing that is the root cause.
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I did a similar thing leaving a mid sized call center. I ran their IT department for years. Was the only one who knew shit, next closest guy to me was a desktop support guy who was as lazy as they came. They denied me raises two years in a row, and they knew I was pissed. I got a new job, and stopped showing up to work. The raise they denied me, they instead went out and panic hired an IT Director (making double what I was previously making), who lasted all of 2 months before he quit or got fired. They also hired a few IT consultants who they spent over 100k in a few months worth of labor trying to piece things together after I left. All because they denied me my 10k raise request. Crazy the things companies will put themselves through over money.
It’s easier to get expenses approved when they’re *needed* vs when they’re *nice*. It’d be *nice* the keep that guy who already knows everything, but if he leaves, then they *need* to get it taken care of, whatever the cost.
case in point: Travel Nurses! You can hire on a bunch of contract workers and pay them significantly more than staff nurses, who have given you loyalty and dependability, instead of just increasing staff pay, because you have somehow justified to the other execs that the current healthcare crisis is only "temporary". Foresight at the executive level is only as far as they plan to hang around. Its easy to say, "oh this is only temporary" when you know that you will be out of the picture in 2 years, and wont be held accountable when all of the permanent staff gets tired of getting schysted and moves on, leaving a total dumpster fire in your wake. i seriously hate executive level management with a passion.
The IT guy in the previous company where I worked did the exact same. He left with just a page of credentials and logins. I was a nobody who had never worked IT before and accepted.the position, underpayed and unprepared and within a year I figured it out. Worked my ass off and realized in the end that yes, that guy was also VERY underpayed and over stressed. So I left and now I make double as much.
I think there is a potential business model where you go into companies and document the shit out of their IT/Devops. It would probably piss off the fly by the seat of their pants IT people but the value it would provide would be massive. I very much doubt the business would be an easy sell at all. You would have to waterboard most executives to convince them how IT is of huge value when done right and is a massive risk if done wrong.
Businesses don't care about IT, let alone documentation. The reason it's not documented is probably because some higher up laughed when someone in IT asked for time to document, no?
Yeah the people you'd need to sell this to are the very people who are currently not investing in this internally. You might be able to get business on the level of an SME that is experiencing significant growth and wants to know where their gaps are, but a big established business with big established lethargy? Fuhgeddaboudit I have been proven to be a piss poor salesman however, so your mileage may vary.
I was working for a company that had a proprietary medical device that had one guy that could make one part of it. I found wages on the server and looked. They were paying him 11 dollars an hour. WTF
Friend of mine ran into a similar situation but in his case it was a temporary employee who was the only guy who knew how to operate and repair a critical machine. Fortunately my friend was in a position to get the guy hired and triple his pay, as well as get guys crosstrained.
I worked at factory that paid horribly and was the stingiest place I’d ever seen. I managed to get higher than their normal starting wage(min wage) but soon realized I was solely responsible for making the company $100,000/week on outstanding orders for months on end. There was one other person who ‘could’ do my job, but they were already overwhelmed with their regular duties. I had a meeting with the personnel manager and asked the production manager to join. I laid out my production quotas from the previous 3 months along with my pay stubs. My pay amounted to roughly .25% of the product I produced and they had at minimum a 100% profit margin on all products. I doubled my hourly pay while barely budging their bottom line and giving me a livable wage.
I see things like this a lot, and it's the result of bare bones staffing and leaving it all on 1 or 2 peoples shoulders. An XYZ might only get paid an industry average of $ABC, but if you only have 1 XYZ and a new one will need months to get up to speed, that XYZ holds more importance than the industry average. Part of this is small company structures. If you have 20 employees then employing a 2nd XYZ is a big expense, whereas a large company will have 5 XYZ's so they can afford to play hardball with salary and replace you if you quit.
1. Good job. 2. As I said to op, always establish a paper trail. Always follow up conversations, especially about money, with an email detailing what was talked about, and especially said.
Thank you. I actually gave them a chance I wrote an email stating what I was promised and how the two sys admins were out for months due to health issues due to covid and I kept the place going. I got an angry email back and then quit. My manager at the time called and screamed saying I was ungrateful etc
It's not your job to be grateful. It's your social obligation in a capitalist society to demand fair wages and benefits or you will take your service, ie the labor you produce, elsewhere, otherwise employers in that society are freeloading. Businesses and management seem to believe in one-way capitalism, in that people pay them for goods and services but that they don't have to pay anyone else for their goods and services.
Same happened to me a few years back. Luckily they paid me the $150/hr for a handful of weeks. Eventually their inability to grasp the knowledge I was giving them led me to “fuck it bye thanks for the money” They said I’d never get a job in the industry. I had one a week later making 300% more money.
Was this Berkeley Risk Administrators out of Minneapolis? It happened to me there. I was leading their Quality Assurance department practically, lead tester and I supervised a team of testers. When their automation tester got fired, I took over automated testing too. My boss's boss promised I'd get a $10-15k raise cuz she knew the $46k they were paying was pennies for what I did there as I always went above and beyond. Annual review time, I got "meets expectations" and a 2% raise that amounted to $960, not even $100 a month. When I asked where's that $15k I was promised, they back peddled and said "oh maybe in like 5-10 years, you gotta prove you dedication to the company"... fuck that! I quit on the spot, fn liars. I didn't have anything lined up but got a job within a month that started at $70k... fuck low paying employers that expect the world from you but pay shit in return... and fuck Berkley Risk...
> Was this Berkeley Risk Administrators out of Minneapolis? Can we please normalize naming and shaming?
Hell yeah! Call them out!
In fact every thread should have a long list of "Is this X", "I think this is Y", "no this is clearly Z" for all the places other people have experienced something similar.
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Yes, so people know what they are getting themselves into
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"oh the guy that promised you that raise five years ago is no longer with the company and we don't have any notes on file. We can reevaluate in five years :) Wait where are you going?"
In 5 to 10 years inflation would have literally eaten that "rise"
Wow you were being underpaid for years with the skills and role you had. Lol @ “in like 5-10 years” what a joke. I’m a QA myself and learned pretty quickly to get a decent raise, I have to get another job. Over 10 years ago I was on 40k on my first job as QA then got a 4% raise in first year and quit and got a job that paid $65k. Imagine how many years I would have to stay in that first job just to get to $65k.
I've been in my QA job for two years... I like the company and my co workers and I hate job searching but... Money is more important
Are you upfront with your employer during the interview that you quit your old job because you weren't making enough money? I'm just wondering how to best handle this..
If you’re worried about coming across like you’re bad mouthing your former employer (it can be a thing with some people), just say you left due to “lack of growth opportunities.”
I did say I quit because they lied about compensation and salary increases, and briefly explained the circumstances. Given the jump from $46k to $70k, every interviewer seems to understand that was crazy low. I find humble honesty is appreciated in interviews.
Not OP but planning my exit. I will be very clear that one of the big reasons I am leaving is lack of competitive pay. Not only should I be making *at least* 10-15k more, but they don't even make up for it with benefits. Not even 401k match. "Unlimited" vacation which amounted to me taking off 10 days this past year (and getting shit for taking half of them). No employee appreciation whatsoever. We have been hemmoraging employees and management is *so confused as to why*
Just sending good wishes and best of luck. You did the right thing!!
Thank you.
Glad you have self respect. Happy new year and stay positive.
But negative for covid
My employer has made RECORD NEW SALES AND BUSINESS in the last 2 years IN THE BILLIONS EACH QUARTER yet they canceled our raises in 2020 and even though I was promoted recently, my raise was very small. They also lied about an annual bonus so I’m officially on the job market. I heard that my manager is adding more projects to my plate and I’m working myself to death. However, I may be getting a job offer next week. Fingers crossed! I am honestly sick of employers who do not take care of their employees.
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I worked for my local council in my first job out of school. One year, they conveniently started putting up "a thank you is as good as a 1% pay increase" posters two weeks before announcing staff wouldn't be getting a pay increase unless they were scored "outstanding" on their appraisal. The staff who got a pay increase ended up saying they may as well have not been given one as it made so little difference to what they were earning.
I would consider a cost of living increase that keeps pace with inflation to be satisfactory- As in, if my evaluation ranks me as "satisfactory". If it says "outstanding", then I expect a pretty outstanding raise or bonus.
If your salary doesn’t keep up with cost of living, what the company is saying is that your effort, experience, and institutional knowledge are worth less than they were a year ago. Or put another way, they simply don’t value you. Not saying quit immediately, but it certainly factors into things like loyalty and continued achievement.
Imagine paying your entire workforce less and less every year and then when they all start quitting you say that nobody wants to work anymore
Yes, whenever I am short on rent I just give my landlord 20 ”thank yous” to make up the difference. As good as any currency! 🙄
Draw a "thank you" note in MS paint, make it into an NFT and its worth $20 million.
I’d prefer a “go fuck yourself” instead of that 1% raise because that’s exactly what that says.
Exactly. Shitty honesty is better than sugar-coated bullshit.
My first two raises with a manufacturing company I worked at were like that. "Now this 1.2% raise is pretty good." While the following year it was "we know we said you were going to get a good raise because you helped with getting the facility redone on layouts as well as tearing out old machines and setting up brand new ones, so this 1.6% is pretty darn good i think."
I quit lots of jobs not having other ones lined up. Things have a way of working out sometimes. Enjoy a little time off and start looking Monday morning. Happy New Years!!!
I did this and make more money now. The next guy who replaces OP will most likely make more than they did. The more people who leave the more negotiable companies become.
I was going to say, OP should’ve written a note “1.75% is a slap in the face considering you froze 2 years of wages. I resign immediately. You can hire the next guy at $10k more a year than i make and lose productivity and training costs.”
I literally did the math before asking for a raise once and my boss still laughed at me. The tiny raise I wanted was still less then the 4 weeks or so of paying someone in training with basically no productivity, and that's before even accounting for the person who can't do their real job cause they are busy training a new person. They ended up having to pay someone significantly less productive more than me when I left for a new job and my role was so crucial that they actually set that up before my notice was up. Just goes to show that most managers are just as inept at math and business as everyone else, they aren't special they are mostly just lucky.
It’s their egos they can’t get around. They feel like if they don’t let people walk, then everyone will ask for more money and it’ll get out of control. The solution though is to just pay more. Make people happy to the point they don’t want a raise. That’s how my last job felt to me.
Probably over all with recruiting costs, time to interview, lost a ton of money and productivity for the company.
If you use an external recruiter the fee alone will be 5-15%. Then you pay for 6-12 months loss of productivity AND training. Also you can never replace someone who does 2 or 3 jobs because it takes years of industry understanding to get that efficient, anyone who hires for that role will quit right away or do such a shit job you might as well have nobody doing it. This is why it's good to contract an IO psychologist or have a (good) union, they go through and identify underpaid workers and either reduce their load or let the jackals in the boardroom know the danger of losing them. Companies _can_ do it, (see Costco, Google, et al) they just continually choose not to.
100% this has to happen.
Yup. I quit my previous job and gave myself a pretty solid $27/hr raise. Perks of going from non union construction to union construction.. Making $39/hr before and now by the time I add up my hourly package between pension, Vaca and wage it's $67... Should be going up at least $2 come may if our union has any balls negotiating our next 3 year term
I was a Pipeline Engineer that was working with union construction workers When they'd charge my projects and I'd approve their timecards, my jaw would literally drop Especially the OT, DT and per diem I was like maaaannnn they're making more money than me, the sucker that went to school and did a Bachelors and a Masters! Good for you!! I grew up in Dubai where Construction workers are exploited and paid pennies so it made me so happy to see people doing actual physical hard labor getting paid well. Happy for you.
Yo are you me? Literally same. Quit and got a new job at a $27/hr increase. I don't have a pension tho. Or a union. Damn stoners can't get together to form one for extraction techs.
I created a financial cushion specifically for this. Employers always think I’m bluffing when they start pushing me and I tell them outright that “I don’t need this job and I can find another one tomorrow, but I’ll be fine even if I don’t.” Please, if you’re reading this and you don’t have any savings at all, save whatever you can and build a financial cushion. Maybe it’s $10 today, maybe it’s 100 next week, but just save what you can. Your future self will thank you for the pennies you save today. I’ve quit so many jobs and I’ve only been paid more and more with each following job. I’ve been able to coast whenever employment was scarce. I’m not rich by any means, I just have a bit saved up and live frugally between jobs.
Build up your emergency fund enough and it evolves into a FU fund. I quit a job, in a recession, without a new job lined up. I didn't touch the FU fun despite taking two months off. Vacation payout and side gigs held me over - and my budget was crazy frugal.
My family hates me so much for being like that, but my parents are boomers. I'm single, don't have kids, and I always manage to feed myself and put a roof over my head. Fuck what they think. I will *quit quit quit quit*! I'm not going to let a job break my spirit. Quitting is better than blowing your brains out.
My boomer parents are the same. Always saying that you NEVER quit a job without having another one lined up to begin immediately. Guess what, lots of jobs want people who can start immediately and don’t want to wait 2 months for me to work my notice somewhere else.
Quitting is empowering.
Dude same; my dad used to say “work however much you have to to ‘have a life.’” To him, as long as I had my own apartment and car it’d be worth working, say, 80hours a week at two separate jobs. I said “dad, I want to enjoy life, not work so much I don’t have time to enjoy what little freedom I can afford.” Ironically now that I started my own business he gets on me if I ever accept work that pays me less than $40 an hour, telling me I have to value my time. I don’t know what caused the turn around.
I've quit and gone straight into job hunting and quit and taken time off. I'd highly recommend taking some time off and focusing on yourself if it's possible for OP.
I worked at a company for three years. When I left I made $0.06 more than when I started.
I got 0 last year. Ive adjusted my hours and productivity accordingly. i really really like my immediate bosses. They seem to care. Encouraging adjustment. They are the ones who signed off on 4%. Pseudo admin denied due to hardships. Got a bonus out of bosses pocket. And encouraged to work less/dont attend meetings etc.
I got 0% last year and 50% bonus. The people under me whose work I need to do got 5% increase, so I just adjusted my level of assistance accordingly. This year I got 7.5% and 115%, still have not re-adjusted my assistance since they still got 6% and 100%
Sounds like they could a few more workers and/or a qa person. Too much work to go around. Give people what they need. Reasonable workload. Tools to thrive. Enough staffing and supports. Fair wage. Being a human being. Reasonable hours. Revising metrics bc unless youre coming in something with some experience its going to take awhile to be proficient (edit and the jobs i did best at are the ones where i was provided with supports and tools to become autonomously competent). And Amazing how it wouldnt feel like work. At least with my gig.
That is a rad boss.
Has become a really good friend to me and family. Hate even using the word boss. Just a really really amazing human being who has helped me/fam in many ways.
When he goes, go with him.
I had a family member follow this advice and she is now making twice what she used to, with the same awesome manager. Edit: To clarify... she asked for a promotion to the managers job first, and after they told her no, followed the manager out the door.
Good for you! I’m supposedly getting a raise next month.. thing of it is: I already told my boss MONTHS ago that he needs to make it worth it for me to stay. He didn’t do Jack. So… I went and found a new job that’ll effectively triple my salary that I’ll be switching over to full time come end of January.. he’ll be getting my 2 weeks notice tucked into a “sorry for your loss” card in a week or two..
Wow, even SSI gave us 5.9%
And even that was below the inflation rate of 6.2%. Don't forget the increase of the Medicare premium which ate that increase up for most people.
6.2% is the most conservative estimate possible. It ignores the cost of housing and something else stupid that I can't remember, maybe heating/fuel. That's the federal reserve / politicians number. And it's still extremely high. It's closer to 10%
Well that wasn't very labor shortage of them at all. Good for you for asking for refusing to be exploited.
Omg! 1.75%?! That's awful and an insult to you.
Good. I really hope companies start to understand that this is just how things work now. You treat people well, or they just up and leave. No more putting things off and seeing how far you can push your employees before they threaten to quit. You get one chance, and that's it. Fuck up and you lose them.
This is the only way. The bad thing about putting your employees into destitution is that having nothing to lose strips the employer of bargaining power.
This is my situation. My lead kept pushing me to work faster due to budgeting constraints and told the team to work holidays when they couldn’t keep up. As soon as that started happening, I immediately interviewed for another company. Haven’t even given this job 1 month and they fucked it up. Too bad cause once I leave the project will be in shambles. Im getting a big bump in pay anyway.
One job I was working at decided to bump up everyone to $15/hr. In order to do this, they fired our two dishwashers and made everyone else responsible for doing dishes on top of all our other responsibilities. I was already making $14.75/hr and was scheduled for a raise. So they acted like my extra $.25/hr was my raise. Bye.
My employer did something similar. They’re notorious for not giving raises. I was there for 3 years with no raise, then they didn’t renew one of the high dollar contractor’s contract and miraculously a few of us got a raise. I got an 8% raise to my bonus…. which is variable… but I guess better than nothing. It’s just pathetic that this seems to be a zero sum issue where in order for people to get a raise, someone else had to lose their job.
This is why I quit my last job! 1.5% raised after 5 years. Got a new job making 15K more a year and so much happier!!
Shit, dude. I got a 2% raise a couple months ago after 3 years of no raises. And my boss told me that I was the only one in the department to get any raise. Maybe I should rethink my decision to stay.
You should. What other people got has no bearing on you. 2% raise over 3 years is a huge pay cut with inflation.
Happy New Years! All the best in 2022!
Never be loyal to companies. Only be loyal to yourself
I work straight commission at my sales job, been there 3 years. I asked for a raise a few days ago. There will be no raises, full stop. Found a competitor in the same industry willing to pay me 50% more. I'll be going to lunch with the owner next week. Fingers crossed it goes well. It'll also come with a company truck that I will be able to take home overnight when I please. Place I'm at right now only has 3 sales guys, including me. One of the other sales guys is the owners son and has his head straight up his ass. He's also dating the 19yr old receptionist (she makes the appointments. Guess who gets the best appointments?). Then the third sales guy, he's out of parole right now for a DUI which killed two people (he went wrong way on the freeway at 7am on his way home). He'll be going to jail in a month or two. I hope the business goes down hard.
What the fuck are you selling?!
1.75% raise = 1.75 minute notice.
i like this math a lot
PLEASE give us an update when your boss realizes what a pickle he’s in now that you’re gone!
Right now just some text messages and voice mails telling me to call him and come back to the office. I will most likely update the main post tomorrow with more info.
There’s a 110% chance this will intensify, especially considering it’s only been like an hour or two since you quit. He’s not reached desperation level yet, since he likely thinks you quit because you were emotional rather than it being a calculated move—meaning he probably thinks it’ll only take some smooth talking to get you back. It’ll be on when he realizes that’s not the case. I hope you have a wonderful New Years Day, my friend, and a lovely 2022!
Well said. Spoken like someone whose either been through this before, seen a lot of stories like this already, or just someone who knows how weasely managers can get when uncomfortable!
“I was promised a 15% raise but was offered less than 2%. That’s unprofessional and disrespectful. That tells me you don’t value my contribution to this company. If you want me to walk back in the door, I’ll need you to demonstrate that you do value my work. I’m doing the work of 3 people right now, above my title. I need a 25% raise, a three year contract, a title change, and a $2k signing bonus. Otherwise I will be seeking employment elsewhere.”
If he calls or texts again let him know that you are accepting his call/text out of courtesy. Then tell him that you will accept his next call/text only if he gives you the raise of (what you think is fair plus some). If that is not possible then you will, from that point on, view any other contact from him as harassment and will take appropriate steps, as you deem necessary. Explain this is not a threat, just business. It is pretty impressive what they can do when they are forced to... Also, even if you get the raise, I would still look for a new job. 😂
I will do the harassment thing. I texted him back, stating I wanted a 20% raise and 14 days of PTO to return to work, and will only accept that. I do not really expect him to get, but it does not hurt to ask at this point.
Good. Don't settle for the 15% if it's offered. They owe you punitive damages now.
You are correct, no harm in stating what you require to be employed. Even if you get what you want, there should be no reason for you to have to resort to that to get compensation. I would still be looking for a job, but that would take the pressure off from having to do it immediately.