I started a new job at an old machine shop last summer, and honestly I loved it. Chill job, very lax environment, good people, and overall I enjoyed the work. All of my coworkers are in their 50's-60's and have been there for 15-25 years. Soon after I started a couple people left, one for better opportunity, one for amazing medical benefits (his wife is ill), and the other because he had to give his full time job his attention. This opened up some positions and I wanted them.
I showed initiative, never said no, and did everything well without ever making mistakes – mistakes in this field can turn valuable materials into scrap metal. I have an eye for detail and wanted to grow, learn, and was very interested in other aspects of the profession. One of the big machines sat vacant for a couple weeks so I asked my boss to park my ass in front of it and let me lean into it! He didn't say no, but he definitely didn't say yes.
The other machine available was the only one I didn't want to go on – it was the final touches. The only reason why I didn't want to is because I'm 6'3″ and the surface I would be working with was about 3'6″. I looked like a giraffe trying to get a drink of water on this machine, it was a whole ordeal. I expressed that I didn't want to go on it because it was just very uncomfortable and the back pain completely soured by days.
At this point they tried to look for someone to hire, and as the months went by and no one was hired the big machine was taken on by someone else (now running two machines) and the only other thing available was where I didn't want to go. Naturally as soon as someone else gets hired for my position, guess where I went? That's right, the shit made for a dollhouse.
I'm pissed. My coworker running two machines is pissed. and neither of us got raises for it. we express that we weren't where we wanted to be and were promptly ignored. Okay, fine. My coworker and I continue to work our asses off and get shit done as needed, but they knew we wanted more compensation. So I started looking for work.
Pretty soon I got an interview and I told them I'm interviewing for a company I want to be part of. Still no counter offer. I went through four interviews without them trying to negotiate with me as I don't think they took me seriously – then I land the job. The day I land the job my other coworker found another job.
We both give our two week notice the same day – we did it in perfect harmony, one after the other. Suddenly our boss offers him a $7/hr raise and offers me an $11/hr raise.
My response? “Why am I this valuable when I'm leaving but not while I've been here?”
He had nothing to say.
Word gets around the shop we're both leaving and it strikes the fear of god in them. Coworkers start talking about finding a new job, other guys are applying, and even my manager came to me asking me to help him on his resume. They're all worried about the plant shutting down as there are only about 10 people there now, and losing us is a big loss.
Today my boss asked me how this could have been avoided. I like the guy, I get along with everyone there so I told him.
“There's no retention here. The economy isn't going to wait for me to make more money – if you gave us what you just offered us four months ago, we probably would have stayed for ten years. Because you didn't I looked around and found a place that offers double the pay with loads of benefits in a field I'm interested in. Invest in your employees and you'll get the best. You didn't invest in us then lost us – now everyone is rightfully worried the business will close.”
He tried to make the “No one wants to work” argument and I cut him off. “No. No one wants to pay, I fucking love to work. I'm here an hour early every day. We don't want to be good workers that are cheap, we want to be good workers that are worth paying for.”
He shook my hand and that was it. Either he's going to make some major changes, or the place is going to close down. Either way I won't be there to find out.
TL;DR: Boss took advantage of our work ethic by lowballing us. we found better jobs and us leaving may cause the shop to close down.