I work for a company that is one of the “best places to work” in my area. They pay okay, but still not enough imo. It seems most of the workers and management constantly talk about how amazing the workplace is and how blessed we are to have such an amazing company culture.
I will say it’s better than most of the places I’ve worked. But they’re definitely still the type of company that will give you all kinds of free food and “perks” like after work happy hours and things rather than pay a higher wage.
I’ve tried to explain this to my manager and coworkers that when I negotiated my salary, what I was asking for “wasn’t in the budget”. But the company has easily blown at least 10x what I was asking on for other “perks”.
How does one explain the concept that the best way to recognize me is with increasing my salary, not giving me free food, happy hours, or random merch with the company logo?