Hello antiwork. In advance sorry about the long post & I am on mobile- please forgive me. But I think this is worth the read.
I am an emo who works a corporate job, think -Steve-o, with a suit on. I’m 25, and I’ve been working in this world for the last 7 years.
So be me >gets comfy corporate job
pretty decent pay
good benefits
industry standard work
easy money
But they do annual raises, bc I’ve been doing this for so long, I have really high stats, not because I’m trying hard to do well, but because there are 6 years of best practices behind what I’ve been doing. So much in fact that I’ve mentored at 5 of my previous roles.
I’ve become so skilled in this line of work that I give examples to corporate companies on how to best handle customers & create resources based on these years of experience & have done so in the ~year that I’ve been there.
Flash forward to my actual birthday (-:>*. I come in for the annual raise meeting, where they advise me on my raise. Now before you place your bet on how much my raise actually is- please be advised the following
Resources are worth- a ton. In fact they cost so much that On average they can cost a company $1.16 per every 5 minutes that is used. per agent
So to create & manage resources, is expensive. Plus guess what- inflation was only expected to be like 4.5% it was 7.5% this year.
If we do some quick calculations- 5% is roughly a $1 raise if you make $20. But then if you add on the cost of the resources made & contributions made to the company as a whole- it comes out to roughly $4000- divided out is approximately $1.83 raise.
So I’m sitting there, knowing this, thinking to myself, Ah yes, a birthday gift, sounds good to me. While at the beginning I was told “this is the talk about how awesome you are meeting.”
Listening to them talk, I could just see it in their face & hear it in their tone that they knew this was going to be an awkward conversation. But they say “based on all these factors, we’re excited to let you know that we’re extending out a raise of $0.17. Also for these reasons we will be giving you a bonus of $250, both to be applied to your next check.”
Oh my god. I had no reaction. I was internally stunned. Externally I don’t know how I looked. They asked me for feed back in the meeting & I declined. Mostly bc I wanted my feedback to be in writing.
I formally rejected my raise. Was almost told not to discuss my pay with other employees. To which I sited labor law, and my request has not been honored. To be honest, I don’t accept that $1 a day is how much my work is worth. And if they messed up my raise is that badly messed up, then they must have messed up other peoples raises.
It’s not even that- they are paying new hires $2 more for the same role? So if we’re doing accurate math: $2+$1.83+$1
New hire match, inflation, talent= $4.83
Anything that’s $3 minimum is to cover inflation, and any additional work done should be accounted for.
Not just for me- for everyone. I have many meetings regarding this. I will let you know how it goes.