I just want to vent about this after working for a corporate company for 5 years and how I “was quiet quitting” at the end of it. I apologize in advance for the long post.
I worked for a small store front in the gaming industry. Very sales oriented. For background, I am a woman(it’s male dominated), I was a top performer, outsold pretty much every counterpart and eventually wanted to help others improve.
For the last 18 months, maybe 2 years, after covid shut down happened and we reopened, I had been helping multiple stores. I was stepping in where store managers had quit, interviewing, hiring, training, etc. I realized at some point, I could move up and handle a district, so I kept doing what I was doing, all without extra pay. The pay didn’t bother me, I was bored staying in one store and liked helping/training others. I really took on the team mindset and worked for my district manager, “not the company.”
A few years back, you could wait 2+ years to be a district manager. By last December, the selling point of being in between a store manager and district manager was a “group store manager” and “you could be promoted within a month.” That said red flag to me, tbh, but I kept going.
Let me add that this company did not give merit raises for 4 years. They gave .05-.50 cent raises to lower level employees last month and the store managers got stock options that they can’t touch until Q1 of the 2023 fiscal year (February 2023). My theory is lots of managers/stores will be eliminated by January 2023.
Anyway, in November last year, the regional manager (who promotes store managers to district managers) asked me if I would consider taking a district a few states away. Now, I didn’t want to move and I knew saying a flat no would mean I got black listed. I went home, talked to my family, looked into rentals, pricing of the areas, schools, etc. November was around the start of the massive rent inflation. We found nothing. I took all weekend looking and by the time the regional called me, he said that they found someone outside the region to take it. I pretty much said, “oh, that probably works out better, I couldn’t find anywhere to rent.” This was after me asking about driving 3 hours each way each day, staying there during the week, home on the weekends, nothing was acceptable.
Since I didn’t say no, I thought I was okay, and kept going above and beyond, being a team player.
By January, the district manager in the district where I lived was leaving. I was on vacation when my district manager called me and told me to prepare because he was asked how my relocation looked again. I thought this was it and I could at least be a temporary promote. I was so wrong.
This dude decided to relocate someone (the company pays this too) from a few hours away to take that district. He didn’t even give me a chance and when I said it didn’t make any sense, on the call of all the district managers he oversees, he told me we would talk privately. When we talked, he said how I “wasn’t giving the company anything,” and wasn’t “willing to relocate.” I said that I wasn’t unwilling, I just wasn’t able to find anywhere to live. I tried so many options and he turned each down, but I still was trying. The moment he promoted someone before talking to me, for where I lived, I knew he was a piece of shit and I needed to leave and never wanted to work under him.
Within a few days, the person who was getting that district wasn’t able to find somewhere to live, so they then became my district manager and I lost mine to the other district. After that happened, I was pretty much done. Or, as some would say, I was “quiet quitting.” I told my new district manager I was going to stay in my store, not travel, not help, I just needed time to relax, re-evaluate myself and take a breather.
I was gone within 4 weeks.
This whole quiet quitting is utter bullshit. Why would someone work more than what they’re paid to, go above and beyond and do so much when they aren’t getting a raise and there’s no room for moving up? There’s no incentive what so ever. Years ago, people had impeccable work ethic because they would be getting a raise during a review, or when the time came to promote someone, the top performers would be considered. So without that, what’s the point?
I worked my butt off trying to do my best to only be told that I wasn’t giving anything. I was also told that the “company needed more people like you” because I’m a woman. At least now I’m in a job where I have more family time, no one’s calling me on my day off to ask questions and I don’t have the stress for selling multiple things in one transaction. Shit happens for a reason, I could have just done without the emotional pain.
Tldr: worked my ass off for a few years to get promoted but didn’t get a raise for four years and overlooked on a promotion because I wouldn’t relocate to somewhere I couldn’t afford. Ended up as a “quiet quitter” at the end.