This will be pretty long but I won in the end 😀
This all happened between February & April.
I started a job working for a small start up in the tech industry a little over a year ago. They originally brought me in to help them build a specific system that the sales org was missing. It was a small team that was running without much funding, but they offered to match my current salary and it seemed like a good opportunity to at least beef up my resume.
They originally gave me a two year window to build the program and see x amount of production from it. Fast forward to 10 months later and I've fully built out the program, exceeded the expected lead & revenue generation, and am hiring for 3 new people to start building out the team. My goals at this point are to onboard the new hires and then step into a new role that has been created because of this new source of lead generation.
Now, this was a path for me that was expected by the entire exec team. I had set it out very clearly when I signed my contract that I would build this team for them and in exchange, they would hand me the promotion when the set targets were hit. I had conversations with the each of them and the CEO had shown me in writing.
Beginning of Feb rolls around and suddenly I see on Linkedin that my company has just posted that we're hiring for said position. Hmm.. that's interesting.. So I reach out to the sales manager and he tells me he's surprised and that it must have been the VP that posted it. So I put time on the VP's calendar to ask about the posting and lightheartedly ask if we're hiring for 2? He tells me that they need internal promotions to go thru a proper application process which includes a presentation to him and the CEO on why I deserve the role, and how I'll accomplish the role. He also said he wanted to “test the market” to see “what kind of talent is out there” and that he didn't want to “miss out on a superstar.”
What the FUCK?
I felt like at this point, my body of work spoke for itself. Not only had I hit and exceeded the targets they had put in place last year, but I did it way faster than the expected timeline. I also had been given verbal and written affirmation by multiple people in the company, including 2 glowing quarterly reviews from my direct manager. The Co-Founder had also just taken me for lunch and told me I was “a foundational part of this company” now.
Did I mention that I had also worked with this VP before at a previous company? and that he had offered me this whole package last year? and that all of this was his idea??
Anyways, I decided to indulge him and do the presentation. I kept it pretty goofy with funny pics of my dog or myself, mixed in between slides of stats and charts, detailing my performance and how I was clearly the best choice for the job because I had more than held up my end of the bargain, and it was now time for them to honor their end.
They grill me for 30 minutes with some weird ass questions like if I can “keep up a level of professionalism that this job entails” or if I understand that they “need production right away” and how the current person doing that job has been underperforming despite him being experienced than me.
I came away from this pretty chapped but knowing I had them by the balls. I had joined this company because I wanted to skip this bullshit. I wanted to operate on honor (lol idiot) and help them build this company up because I really believed that the product was great and that I could help them be super successful. But with that also comes the expectation that I will be properly compensated and treated with respect in return. I don't know where I get these ridiculous ideas! /s
Fast forward to a week later and I'm waiting for their testing of the market or whatever the fuck they're doing, when they suddenly fire the guy in the position. Originally the expectation was that I would be added to that team and we would be working together, but I guess it wasn't that surprising since he was underperforming.
But this now meant that there was a significant gap that needed to be immediately filled because, y'know, them needing “immediate production” and all that.
I then get called into a meeting with the VP were he offers me the job (lol). He tells me that he'll have the contract for me by the end of the week and says that I can start March 1st. That gives me a week to finish onboarding my new newest hire, and prepare.
March 1st, I step into the role and start producing literally immediately as I had promised. But, we get two weeks into March and I still don't have my contract. I get a few excuses from the VP about how it's busy, last month of the quarter, he's having to pick up the slack from the person he fired etc. And how he'll get it to me by the end of next week which would be the day before he leaves for vacation for 10 days.
Ok, fine, whatever. I figured I knew what the offer would be because he set out the expectation back when we originally discussed this when I first got hired, and also because I knew what the guy who had just been let go was making. (ALWAYS DISCUSS YOUR PAY)
Anyways, that Friday rolls around and he messages me on slack saying that he doesn't have my contract yet but that he would have it right away when he's back from his 10 day vacation. He then sent me a table show a breakdown of my new variable comp. (*our compensation is a combination of salary + variable/commission which makes up your on-target earnings or OTE)
After that, we have the following conversation:
BLUE is ME – GREEN is VP
https://imgur.com/a/xDHsGFI
https://imgur.com/a/lwFp2i5
Now, at this point I'm livid. I've already put up with all this bullshit and now I've been doing the job on good faith for 3 weeks only to now find out I'm not actually getting a raise. Not only that but this is now the first time I've heard my start date is April 1, since he had originally told me I was starting March 1.
He then LEAVES FOR VACATION and says we'll chat when he's back. From what I could deduce, the offer (which I still never saw) was 24k less than what my expectation was, despite him saying it was “doable as structured now.”
I spend the whole weekend steaming mad, talking to my close friends and asking if I was crazy for being this mad about this dumbass situation. My friends, all being fantastic as they are, affirm that I am indeed being mistreated and disrespected, and all offer to line up interviews for me at their respective companies. An old boss that I used to have that is now a great friend even verbally offered me a job that weekend over the phone.
I then spent that week while he was on vacation talking to these connections and working out where I would most like to work should I decide to leave. I ended up having an amazing conversation with the Director at this one particular company. Things went so well that he ran me thru two 30 minute interviews that Tuesday and Thursday, and then offered me the job with a contract in my hands that Friday. The contract was for 30k more than what I was originally asking for, and 56k more than what the offer was from my original company.
I was floored. No silly presentation, no pointless case study, no testing the market.. Just a few conversations and my resume was enough for them to see the value that I knew I was worth.
My start date was 3 weeks from then, so I figured I would finish the next week to tie up some key accounts, and then hand in my 2 weeks. I felt like this was the most respectable way I could go about it because I didn't want to hand in my resignation right when the VP was back from vacation. Despite how he had been treating me, I still really value my reputation.
BUT – Monday rolls around and VP is back from vacation. I've been in meetings all morning since 6:30am when he suddenly calls me on my cell, which he's never done before, at 9am.
I figure, this must be him calling to apologize for the “miss in communication” and him at least coming to me with the actual contract.. right?
NOPE! It's him chewing me out for my calendar being too blocked off. I explain to him that I've been in wall to wall meetings all morning, and that I have 7 total today and 5 tomorrow and that the blocks are there for me to decompress the meetings and properly take notes. He then says “Oh so you can't handle more than that?”
I lost it.
I talked about how I had been doing this job for 5 weeks now without ever seeing a contract. How the way I was being treated through this whole process was incredibly disrespectful after the work I had put in, and how he had moved my start date from March to April and then in the 11th hour, dropped it on me that I wasn't actually getting a raise for all this extra work and responsibility.
I then hung up and sent in a 2 sentence resignation to him and the CEO. I was done. I had already signed that offer, but I was still willing to help make this smooth transition until that phone call. The audacity!
I ended up just finishing that day and the CEO told me that they would pay me out for my last two weeks. I took a much needed 3 weeks off with my partner and tried to process what exactly had just all happened.
I've now been in my new gig for 2 weeks and I'm loving it. The people are incredibly nice and it's permanent work from home. Best of all, they're paying me what I'm worth and I didn't have to fight over it or jump through any unnecessary hoops to prove it.
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I hope homie enjoyed that vacation!