A couple of notes:
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I work for 'big tech ' (FAANG).
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I saw a previous post of someone killing theirselves at work and getting nothing extra in return. And hope this will help more people come forward and show support.
I work on a team that handles a lot of different projects, internal customers, development requirements, shifting of priorities, and so on.
Last couple of months, 1 person was on PTO+parental leave.
2 people were down with COVID+PTO
1 person was reassigned to a 'more urgent project'.
And myself, left with pretty much 100% of what the team does+unexpected escalations, changes, and more.
I think I worked about 18 hours a day in those past couple of months, jumping head on on every task and thing needed to get done by the team.
After everything settled and people came back to work, I emailed my manager letting him know that I'd like something extra for all that hard (and visible throughout the team) work, and listed some main points and roughly the hours I put in.
He scheduled a meeting right away the following week.
He called me up at the meeting, explaining first and foremost that he is appreciative of all my extra hard work (good).
Then he basically spent an hour telling me how much it doesn't matter. He said that the company has a strict policy as to when compensation happens – either I threat I'm leaving, or I wait for the annual review (ok). I thought about it and asked : ok, great, then could this really be taken into consideration for my benefit, for that review? He said no. It's strictly an HR process and he has no pull (ok). I then asked (perhaps stupidly) where's the incentive to really give it your all at harsh times?
He said that this is expected out of everyone and I am nothing special. Then I (rudely?) asked what about those “work/life balance” we always hear about?
He said – you have a life, you are working from home and I don't make you come in. I have to go, I'm already 30 minutes over, explaining stuff that is very clear from all of the internal docs about compensation.
I then pushed a bit and said that if they value honest feedback I think he shouldn't have agreed to everyone taking PTO at those same busy dates. Because all of the work was on me.
He said – you know what? That is a rude attitude, if you have issues with how I manage, we have HR for that. I appreciate your time today, goodbye.
What the hell ..