I've worked at a company for about 2 years now, software development and really tried proving myself.
I'm not a 10x developer by any means but still produce more and better than the vast majority of my peers. I had taken on my own project, made it and done other achievements I thought my employer would notice but when annual review came around they proposed an increase which barely held up to inflation. It felt like a bitchslap. I managed to get a slight raise through a follow up meeting, but still less than half of what I wanted. They argued I had good pay for my age, and seemed to take that more into account than my actual accomplishments and that I perform top 20% of the company. It was the exact same thing the year prior.
In addition to that I feel like I'm bashing my head against the wall since the codebase is spagetti, no one knows how things work or even how it is supposed to work. Like no architectural thought went into it and no one bats an eye. Even some of the slightest feature requests requires rewrites of legacy software and at this point i feel like I'm burning out.
Why should I give 100% and deliver more than my peers if I'm still getting paid less just cause someone has worked there longer yet deliver less results.
The longer I stay the more it seems to be about learning their code rather than something that makes me a better developer.
Tldr: Worked my ass of for salary raise but i got denied due to age. Motivation and drive has completely disappeared and i find myself staring at the monitor like braindead zombie. Why try when I can do the bare minimum? Maybe that's what most workers actually do.
PS: Tempted to start freelance consulting which has worked in the past but afraid to due to lack of stability and the global economic situation.
PSS: Dunno what response I expect from this but I really needed to vent.