Throwaway account. I've connected with a client here via my regular account and need anonymity. My apologies for the long post, too.
My work ethic is outstanding, and the company owner has taken advantage of this for years. I started part-time with the company about 14 years ago. He hired me full-time and, stupidly, I agreed to a relatively low salary given my qualifications. It was a combination of low self-esteem and urgently needing to provide a home for my son as a new divorcee.
In addition to being a cheap ass, my boss is also a misogynistic asshole. He berated me at work for things such as:
- I did not send a sales proposal quickly because I was working on management tasks.
- Not being able to pull tracking for someone's order out of thin air while doing three other things.
I dreaded going to work each day. Over time, I grew the company, and we added more people, more responsibility for me but very little pay increase. In 2015, I was tired of the stress of filling two jobs (sales + GM) and the owner's empty promises (commissions, equity in the company), so I resigned. What followed was the nastiest vitriol towards me and an attitude of entitlement from the owner. I was scared to even look at my phone! But I was almost free.
On January 1, 2016, I was free and working at a new company, one that had not disclosed they were not in the best of financial condition and couldn't offer me the FT hours promised. At the same time, the old boss had a change of heart and asked if I could continue part-time just handling the numbers. So I went in and dealt with numbers a bit and kept my distance.
Fast forward a few years of me working multiple jobs but pulling along alright and having fun. I take a month's sabbatical from all work to celebrate a big birthday and go fuck off overseas. It's glorious. I return, realizing I am not a total failure at life and feel pumped. The boss offers me a return to full-time work, a significant pay bump, and a promotion, which I take. For a while, it works. Then COVID hits, the owner's stress is through the roof, and he starts being a micro-manager despite me navigating the clusterfuck like a champ. I receive no increase in pay through any of this time. (Somewhat understandable when many were losing jobs)
Simultaneously, I'm growing tired of living in a tiny apartment, my kid is grown and gone, and I decide to move to be closer to family. I resign again. Boss does fuck-all to find a replacement. I inform my boss that I have given notice on my apartment, and he says I can work remotely. So, I do. Boss is on best behavior and leaves me be for the most part. I enroll in a community college with a career change in mind.
During COVID, my work-husband and his real-life wife decide to have a baby. Work Hub feels like I'd felt a few years earlier. Too much stress and too much work. Baby comes, he takes a few weeks off, returns, then later takes three months of parental leave per his right in our state. In the end, he decides he will not come back. (I saw this coming, I can't blame him, plus his kid is too damn cute). I had already dropped school to support his leave because he left big shoes to fill. During his time off owner and I had a handshake agreement to increase my compensation. I told the owner I would go if this were an empty promise like the others. I get some bonus checks, which, relative to my Herculean effort and many 80-hour weeks, are pretty small.
Earlier this week, I calmly raised the issue of my raise, saying I had some ideas and wanted to get a roadmap to help me reach my final number. The boss informs me that I already make a good salary and am worth less working remotely. I remind him I've earned the same compensation for over three years and am working two jobs (once again!) to keep the company healthy. He repeats that I make a good salary and that someone in my role should have their compensation tied to profitability.
At that moment, all loyalty to him, all my commitment to the company, and all interest in helping him get through the next few years until he could retire evaporated. My commitment died and was cremated; he stomped on the cremains and then pissed on them for good measure. He had not changed at all.
I received my second piddly bonus for all my hard work earlier this month, and I am paying a resume writer to improve my resume. Then I will find a new job. Gone is the desperate girl he hired, and he needs to fear the woman who has replaced her.
TL;DR: Boss is a cheap lying jack-ass who doesn't appreciate his hardest worker and chief deal closer so I am preparing to leave.