I left my job earlier this year when I just couldn't take it anymore.
Just a little bit of background first:
I worked there for 6 years and was a high performer who always exceeded, and regularly did 50-100% more than, my production goals on a year-over-year basis. I honestly liked the people I worked with, but the senior leadership was so out of touch it was almost incomprehensible. The job was salaried and they had an incentive bonus structure in place that is based primarily on the company's profit target rather than individual performance, so as long as the company met it's profitability goal you would get the full incentive bonus for the year. This meant that people who were only just meeting (or even below) their individual goals would get almost the exact same bonus as the people working their asses off. Not only that, but there was also a tenure-based promotion & raise schedule in place as well, so even if you were killing it, you couldn't move up any faster or make anything meaningfully more than those in your tenure group for at least 12 years with the company (that's when things became a little more merit-based). So basically, this structure was a giant “Fuck You” to anyone who wanted to work hard and perform well in their first 12 years.
On to the story:
I honestly don't even know why I hung on as long as I did. I guess I was just naive for thinking that my rational and thought-out suggestions (and eventually harsh complaints) year over year in the workplace surveys and to my bosses would open their eyes to the problems they were creating and the dissatisfaction amongst so many of my other peers that I discussed these issues with.
When COVID hit in 2020, I got assigned to work the Payroll Protection Loan program. This was an unprecedented amount of work since every single business was panicking and wanted this essentially free money. That equated to around 70 hours of work each week, including nights and weekends, for well over a month. It was hell, but we were told over and over that it was for a good cause and that it would help the bank remain profitable through a tough time as well. What was our thank you for all of those weeks of absolute hell? A $100 Amazon gift card. I'm not shitting you, a $100 gift card for well-over a hundred hours of additional work during this assignment (the sheer irony of giving more money to that prick Bezos is not lost on me). And to top it off? The company didn't hit the profitablity goals for the year (they were still insanely profitable shocked Pikachu face) so we got ZERO of our incentive bonus. But yet, I hung on. Surely they would reward us in 2021 with something extra since we bent over backwards, worked our asses off, and still hit nearly all of our production goals in 2020 during a pandemic, right? Wrong. I received a lower annual raise than I had ever received previously. And still, I kept hanging on. It was going to get better. They were going to realize the error in their ways.
2021 came around, and I was crushing it. Literally hit several of my annual goals by around June. It was a lot to take on, but I felt good about my hard work at the time and still had it in the back of my head that since we were having such a strong rebound year that surely they would retroactively pay us back for the money we missed out on from the “down year” in 2020. I was holding my breath, continued killing it through the end of the year and had my best year ever. The result? The same capped bonus that we always got when profitability goals were met. Not only were profitability goals met though, we BLEW IT OUT OF THE FUCKING WATER. I'm talking like 40%-over-the-goal blew it out of the water, which equated to tens and tens of millions of dollars for this company. And still, no bones were thrown.
At this point I'm pissed. Livid. And I wasn't the only one. I should have quit then and there, but I needed to line something else up first and there were a few key dates in the early part of 2022 that you have to wait for so that you get paid your full compensation package for the previous year. The whispers were getting louder about people going to quit, and sure enough after those key dates came along, the two-week resignations started rolling in. As of my most recent count it was at least 10 of my peers across the company, but probably more by now. I still didn't have anything lined up, but was working on it so I hung on.
Then one day, my boss came into my office and tells me that one of my peers in the market is quitting and another is getting transferred to a different market since they had people quitting too and needed help. My boss says, “It's going to be a hard couple of months until we can get someone else hired and trained, but we know you can do it!”
This was it. This was the moment they finally recognized my hard work and capability. They knew how much they needed me now, surely. I was going to get a fat raise or a big bonus or something for all the hell I had been through and was about to be put through once again. I could almost taste it, the gratitude and recognition and most importantly, the compensation baby! Nope, my boss turns around, and walks out of my office. I'm sitting there, slack-jawed, left only with the taste of shit in my mouth.
I handed my two weeks in to my boss that Friday. I was forcing their hand. They definitely were going to panic now and make me a big offer to keep me around. They were about to lose three of their best performers in the market back-to-back-to-back. I was essential to keep the market afloat, right? Wrong. I got a handshake and “good luck.” I couldn't believe it. Six years with them and the last two years of back-breaking, all for nothing. Holy shit what a wake-up call. This company does nothing but preach about how well they treat their employees, but as someone who can now look back and see it for what it truly is, I am just stunned I could be so naive.
I started a new job two weeks ago now and while it's probably still too early to tell, the grass is certainly greener from what I can see. My base salary got bumped up almost 30%, the bonus is based on individual production with no cap, and I'm working about 5 – 8 hours less per week thus far (still mostly just training for now, but still). It was a valuable lesson to learn about how much I really matter to corporate America, and I won't be making the same mistakes again.
TLDR: Worked like a dog for a company I thought I mattered to for six years and was sent off with a handshake and a “good luck”. Found a new job for better pay and less work and am so happy I left.