A little context: There's a cost of living crisis ongoing in the UK, impacting everything from food prices and energy bills, to borrowing rates for mortgages. In a really unlucky bit of timing, the mortgage renewal on my flat/apartment is upcoming very soon. The apartment is also currently embroiled in the cladding/fire safety crisis. Because of this, my mortgage is about to jump from 700 per month to 1300 per month. Obviously, this has had me stressing, trying to work out a budget, and worrying about whether or not I'll actually be able to live on my paycheck or just survive on it.
Then a few weeks later I had a thought – What if I just fucking back myself to get either a decent payrise, or a much better paying job? So, I emailed my boss to ask for a pay review, which was agreed for the following week.
I work as an insurance broker. The product we deal with is underwritten by one single Insurer, and is a high volume/low to mid premium book that amounts to around 300K of commission to our company. Historically, the team has always been 2 full time people. Presently, it is me and one other part time employee, so I carry the weight of the workload. The current Insurer absolutely hates our MD (Understandable) because he is wildly argumentative, insulting, and refuses to listen to people telling him what he can do. He's had meetings with them where he's been shouting and swearing, all that type of stuff. Unsurprisingly, they have now decided to pull the book, leaving us with 5 weeks to re-home everything. We've managed to find a new insurer to pick it up, but it requires a shit ton of admin. Admin which, of course, will land on my desk.
During the pay review I made my argument that with all this work coming my way, I should be paid accordingly. I haven't had a pay review in 2.5 years, so I'm majorly out of pocket due to inflation. I had an amount in mind that I wanted, which they did not meet. They offered me an additional 5K, which almost exactly falls directly in line with inflation. In exchange for the payrise, they wanted me to change my notice period from 1 month to 3.
As soon as I left the pay review, I called the recruitment consultant who got me the interview for this job in the first place. We met the next day for a coffee, went through market options, expected salary etc and within a 2 weeks had 3 interviews lined up.
Long story short, I got offered 2 roles. Both at 10k more than I'm on now, office hours 9-5, rather than 9-5:30, MUCH better pension and other benefit options.
On Wednesday I told my boss I had a job offer, and that if they wanted to keep me they would need to improve upon theirs. Refused to tell them how much I had been offered, because I felt it important that they actually think about what I'm worth to them, rather than make a reactive counter offer to try and keep me.
She had the balls to tell me she felt like I was holding them to ransom, because of the Insurer changeover that needs doing before the end of July. Yes, that's the point. I have a load of leverage. If I'm so important to retaining this 300k a year book of business, then I should be paid accordingly. Meeting ended with her saying she had to speak to the MD to see if it could be budgeted for.
I phoned her at 4:30 pm on Thursday for an update and was told that the MD wouldn't consider anything unless I told them what the offer was, so they could speak to recruitment agents to find out what the going rate in the market is.
I told them not to bother and emailed over my notice. She reminded me how important I am to the company and how good a job I've been doing, but I let her know that my future clearly lies elsewhere.
On Friday morning she phoned me to see if I would extend my notice period by 2 weeks so that the insurer changeover could be further along when I leave and not left leaderless halfway through. I told her I'd think about it.
I won't. I'm gone. They can deal with it themselves and think about how they refused to consider my value.
So, if you're out there wondering if you can find a role to solidify your future in a place where you'll be valued. You absolutely can.
Back yourself.