Huge rant incoming, TL;DR at the bottom.
Perhaps this is a controversial opinion, but hear me out. I just left my previous job of two and half years. My last day was yesterday, and I’m honestly feeling a bit down. I don’t want to say the company’s name but it was a large retail chain with several stores across the United States. Despite the fact that it was retail, I honestly enjoyed many aspects of the job. I liked being on my feet and not stuck at a desk, and I liked talking to customers about the products. I also loved pretty much all of my coworkers. The only person I really had a problem with was my manager who was kind of an asshole, but even he was tolerable most of the time.
I left because there simply wasn’t any conceivable way to move forward with my career and make a decent living in a reasonable time frame. Before leaving, I was gunning to be promoted to a shift lead, essentially a managerial position. However, my manager told me that it would take at least another 6 months and up to a whole year before I could actually get promoted, despite the fact that I have proven consistently that I am prepared for the position and have demonstrable proof that I can preform managerial tasks and single handedly operate the store for both open and closing shifts.
Whats even more insulting is that if I were to get promoted, I would only be making $2 more than what I was already making, bringing my salary up to a measly $19/hr. $19hr to be able to essentially run and operate the entire store whenever the actual manager wasn’t there on top of a bunch of other responsibilities like training new hires, ordering supplies for the store, etc. I was not making a living wage, and they wanted me to wait a whole year to… still not make a living wage. And from what I heard, the assistant manager (the next step up) only makes $21/hr, which STILL isn’t a living wage and she has worked for the company twice as long as I have.
The new job which I start on Monday by comparison is offering my $25.50/hr and promises a raise after only three months. Its also a union job so the health benefits are significantly better as well. So my options were waiting a whole year for a $2 raise vs getting a $8 raise and much better benefits right now. It was a no brainer. Of course I said yes to the new job almost right away.
All the time in real life and on this sub I hear about how job hopping is the way to go if you want a much bigger pay raise. People say you shouldn’t stay in the same job for more than 4-5 years at most. That loyalty isn’t rewarded and you can make so much more and find better opportunities by looking elsewhere. They’re entirely right, but a part of me wishes it weren’t true. A part of me wishes that I could stay at my old job because I really like my coworkers, and while I will certainly stay in touch with some of them, I’m certain many of us will drift apart over time. A part of me just wishes loyalty was rewarded instead of punished. The truth is, if my previous company offered me an $8 raise I gladly would have stayed.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why these companies have no interest in retaining their most passionate, hardest working employees.
Anyway thanks for listening to me rant. Let me know if you guys feel the same way at all or if you think I’m getting cranky over nothing.
TL;DR: Basically had no choice but to quit my job due to stagnant wages and take a much better one, I’m happy about the new job but sad I’ll probably lose touch with most of my coworkers. I wish we lived in a society where loyalty was rewarded instead of punished.