I am a WFH graphic designer. I’ve been the “in house” designer at a printing company for 4 years and it’s time for me to move on. The pay is abysmal. I have gotten 1 raise since I started and I had to ask for it twice and my boss accused me of only wanting a raise because I was no longer able to get a Covid benefit? Honestly that comment made no sense from him, but that’s his style. Rude and accusatory even though I’ve been a a near model employee. I try to talk to him as little as possible.
This Xmas we had a staff dinner and we talked about how well the company has been doing and how great I’ve been doing and how much the clients love me (his words: for some reason.)
No raise mentioned, so now it’s 2 months later and I got another job. He tells me he’s sold the business and asks me to stay on to help. After thinking about it, I offer him 3hrs, 3x a week, but with a raise. He laughed very hard and said that it’s not fair to the new owner who already knows what I’m making. Then asks if I can do 3hrs, 5 days a week but I say no. He asks if I’m going to make myself available if things get really busy and I told him that I would only do an hour or two max, on occasion, but it’s not fair to my new boss to prioritize my old (lower paying) job.
My last full time shift is in 2 weeks, if they haven’t hired someone by that time, I know he is going to try to have me to do my full workload in 9 hrs a week and I’m already regretting making any offer to stay on. If he doesn’t go for the raise, I might just say no to the part time work. Those 9 hours are some of my most productive hours and I’d rather do a good job for my new boss, who is actually a current freelance client and is very nice. Screw the extra money.
This is mostly a rant, but how would you handle this?