Longtime lurker, finally decided to give to share a story of mine.
I apologize for any typos, english is not my first language.
So I’ve been working at this big insurance company as IT Support for years (more than i would like), raises at the company have been nonexistent since I joined.
In the IT department there’s me, 1 other tech support lets call him H, a QA lady and the manager. So the IT department is 4 in total.
During the pandemic it was hectic, to get all users connected, getting laptops ready and troubleshooting remotely with them, but we got it done. During this time H is on medical leave due to chemotherapy. So obviously he needs his time and can’t work. During this time all his work is passed to me, this includes infrastructure and system projects, i now have to deal with off site teams and manage a bunch of other projects. I get all of it done and also assist every local user plus international users.
After more than a year of his battle with cancer, H unfortunately passed away.
Now I’ve been doing the work for more than a year. A couple of months after H’s death i have a employee review meeting with my manager. Outline all the work I’ve done, the duties that I’ve taken over. And IMHO rightfully ask for a raise or a promotion. My boss’s answer
“In order to justify that I need you to be more visible”
By visible he meant, assisting users out of work hours, and that kind of stuff.
I sit there in an awkward silence and just say “ok”
Soon as we finish the meeting, I start to look to pivot from my current position. Find a field in IT I’d like to try, and start looking at the requirements for said field. Spent around 2 months studying on my own through courses on udemy, got the certifications i needed, and with those in hand and another 4 moths of endless job applications I was able to land a new job that pays more than twice what i was making.
When i gave him my resignation letter i had the biggest smile you could imagine, and i smiled even more when I saw his reaction when i told him i quit.
To be honest it baffled me that he asked me why I was leaving. My reply was short and sweet “I’m not visible”
After I left i was getting quite a few calls and messages from him asking how to resolve some issues. I told him I’d be happy to help, for a fee, he didn’t like that part 🤷️
I still talk with some people at the company, apparently my old manager has been struggling to find someone else to do all the stuff I was doing for the shit pay. So he’s doing all the work and not doing it very well at that.
Wonder if I’m visible now