Just have to get off my chest how quickly corporate managed to destroy my spirit. I decided to quit academia about a year ago because the 60h work week without any career perspectives was getting to me, and traded my postdoc position for a job in a big company. In the beginning I absolutely loved it, I only had to work 40h a week, could work from home whenever I wanted, and I regained all the motivation I lost during my academic career.
I started together with 3 other people in the same role, and I very quickly managed to stand out from the pack. I easily did 3-4x more work that the others, picking up extra tasks left and right while still comfortably clocking out at 5 o'clock each day. Manager is praising me all the time, the work is fun and I was very happy.
Now, because I switched fields, I agreed to a junior role, with the (unfortunately verbal) agreement that if I performed well, I could get a senior role after one year. It would give me the time to properly learn all the ins and outs, and it made sense at the time. So when my one year review came along, I was fully expecting to be promoted, because I was getting nothing but positive feedback. And ofcourse, in comes the manager with a bunch of corporate bullshit as to why I can't get a senior role “right now”, even though we have three vacancies open for a senior role. Some nonsense with budgets. This absolutely killed all my motivation. I left academia because I wanted career perspectives, and now I feel like I am again stuck, but now in an underpaid junior role, with a freaking PhD!!!
I'm quiet quitting. I'm not doing extra tasks anymore, no more helping colleagues out, no more “going the extra mile”. It only takes me 15-20h a week to get my work done anyways, so I'll be using all that spare time to relax, go to the gym and focus on my hobbies. If they don't promote me in 6 months, I am leaving the company. I'm just sick and tired of being underappreciated, while lazy boomers that I easily outperform get high paying senior positions. I actually like working and I don't mind working hard or long hours, I just want to see something in return.