This is going to be VERY long so buckle in. TLDR – at the bottom.
Years ago, fresh-faced out of university with a newly-acquired science degree I started the inevitable job-hunt that was supposed to lead to a career.
It didn't happen. I interviewed up and down the country spending hundreds of pounds in fuel but never quite got over the final hurdle to land the job I'd applied for – despite making it to the final 3 a few times.
Being newly married and with my first child on the way I took whatever job I could get, which just happened to be in a call-center for a medium-sized IT company.
Despite being very low paid (12k a year in 2008) at least it was something and the job itself wasn't too difficult. The company was contracted by a supermarket to run customer service for their store loyalty cards. So a lot of the calls were just dealing with adding points onto those cards for purchases customers had made – or telling customers what their points balance was so they would know what vouchers they would receive.
Eventually though, the low pay and rotating shifts got to me and I wanted to escape. However the team leaders had noticed that I was fairly well spoken compared to a lot of other agents and was excellent at de-escalating difficult situations – so I was promoted to “floor-walker” which is essentially acting the role of a team leader when they're not there.
But it didn't come with any kind of pay increase. Just extra responsibility and extra stress. That should have been a huge red flag but I was still pretty young and new to the ways of the working world. I still believed, at that time, that if I worked hard enough then I would be rewarded.
Boy was I wrong.
In time, there was an opening for a team-leader role and for lack of better options I applied for it. About 5 of us did from within the call-center. It was a group session interview where certain activities were done together rounding off with individual interviews. One of the activities was a 5-minute presentation on how you would improve your team's performance.
We were given 10 minutes preparation time to think about it before we presented to the rest of the group. I thought I did pretty well – came up with ideas such as incentives for most-improved agent like a half-day holiday – or an extra hour for lunch etc.
But then the next person basically blew me out of the water. She was REALLY good. She'd started a few weeks after I did and was much, much better at presenting than me and her ideas were incredibly good. I resigned myself to the fact that she would get the role but I wasn't bitter as she was definitely a better performer than me on the day.
She was followed by someone who gave the worst possible presentation – umming and aahing throughout the whole thing, not being articulate, not really giving any information other than she would “coach the team better to improve performance.” She barely made eye contact with anyone and spent most of it staring at the ground. Not exactly an inspiring performance and if she couldn't present to a room of 8 how was she going to manage a team of 10+?
But then she actually got the job. Turns out she was friends with two of the existing team leaders both of whom were part of the interview process.
That should have been the second red flag.
I was livid and felt we'd been cheated out of a genuine opportunity due to nepotism. So did the others. Particularly when the agent who got the job immediately started to stress about child-care and if she'd be able to do the job if she couldn't arrange it. We were all thinking “bitch – why'd you apply if you weren't even sure you'd be able to do the job?”
I made up my mind to leave.
When, suddenly, a new opportunity presented itself. The contact centre was really only a small part of the overall business. The real way it made it's money was writing bespoke point-of-sale software for various retailers and providing back-end IT support for it.
Now, I wasn't IT literate by any stretch so didn't have any ambitions in that area.
But one of the guys on the IT Requests team was leaving to get married for a few weeks and they needed someone to cover. This wasn't a technical role – more an admin one that required someone who could follow processes and timescales to meet contractual SLA's. It also needed someone who would be able to speak professionally and eloquently to the higher-ups in the companies that had contracted our services.
I was nominated by one of the team-leaders who'd interviewed me and wasn't pleased about who had gotten that team leader job (he wasn't friends with that person and found her rude, unpleasant and difficult to deal with).
The plan was that I was to train for 3 weeks in the new role – just enough to know the basics – then cover this chap (let's call him Martin) for the 2 weeks he was going abroad to get married.
After which I would join the slums of customer service again.
Except – I really, really took to the role. There was a lot of problem-solving, time-management and service issues that had to be dealt with as well as constant communication across 7 different departments I had to keep abreast of.
I loved it. Genuinely loved it. Every day was different, there was always a new challenge or issue to be worked out and no 2 days were the same. Having spent the best part of 2 years doing pretty much the same thing day in, day out it was a breath of fresh air to have a job that was different every day.
They liked me so much that they requested an internal transfer for me to move upstairs permanently, which was granted.
“Finally,” I thought, “I can start making some good money.”
Well – they did increase my salary. I went from £12k a year to £15k a year. That's it.
When I queried this I was told I was still “in training” therefore my salary reflected the fact I wasn't fully trained up in all aspects of the job.
In some respects, this was fair, after all I'd only been doing it a few weeks and there were still so many things I didn't know. And I thought I'm only just starting out so I'll give it a good go.
I brought the same work ethic to this role as my previous one, knuckled down and worked damn hard. I mean damn hard. I would be there an hour before I was due in and often leave late pretty much every day. I basically did about 40 hours of unpaid overtime every month.
One time my son ended up in hospital (nothing major but it stopped me coming into work that morning and work didn't know it wasn't urgent – just that my son was in hospital) and I still showed up to work that afternoon to the surprise of management. There were things only I could deal with and if I didn't then they'd be outstanding and we would have had complaints. That's how much I cared about doing well in this job. All the time thinking – at some point I'll be rewarded for all of this. Surely they'll notice this guy cares – his son was in hospital for goodness' sake and he still came in!
Man, was I ever an idiot.
The job was definitely challenging but a year later I felt I was thriving. The company had had problems with the customer service side of things when dealing with technical issues with the big clients and with my customer service background I was really effective in smoothing things over.
I built excellent relationships with all of the external key players in our clients' companies and the 3rd parties we employed for various things. All in all, I was told at every 1-2-1 review that I was doing an excellent job.
Then, Martin decided to leave. Up to that point it really had only been him and me working within the team (occasionally we'd get help from other people in the department but for IT requests it was mainly just the 2 of us).
I really couldn't blame him. Turns out Martin, despite being more senior and tenured than me, was only earning £500 per year more than I was. And the job, as stressful and important as it was, really demanded higher pay. Martin felt we were being exploited and at this point it was difficult to disagree.
But having invested so much time and effort into building such an excellent record I didn't want to cut my losses just yet.
After he left it was just me for a short while. But then we took on more clients – bigger contracts with the ability to upsell services to them as well.
It went from me working by myself to basically managing a team of 5. Because the client list had grown it became unmanageable for it to be run by just the one team so it was decided to create separate teams for each of the clients. I was put in charge of the biggest contract – the one that paid £5 million pounds over 3 years. In addition to that – I and my team upsold a further £500k worth of services to them per year as well. So I was making my company even more money.
By this time it was over a year after Martin had left – I was effectively managing my own team and generating hundreds of thousands of pounds of revenue for the company.
I was still only being paid £15k a year.
In my last 1-2-1 review – I point blank asked for raise. I said that I had proven my loyalty having been with the company now for nearly 5 years (including the time in the contact center). I was denied again. Apparently I was still “in training.”
I was angry. 2 weeks before this 1-2-1 review one of the guys who was working under me – let's call him Andy – left the company and went and got what was my job with another company in a neighbouring city. I had trained Andy – he'd only been with us for about 8 months – and this was his only experience in this particular sector. However he landed a job paying him £25k doing what I did day in day out. With much less experience than me.
So I made a plan.
There was a huge family wedding abroad for which I needed 2 weeks off – but I asked for 3 weeks off as I knew that would be denied. Which it was.
The only way the company would allow it is if I basically resigned then applied again after I returned – with the promise that I would be employed instantly back in my existing role with no interview. I accepted that offer. I'd expected this was what they'd do and I was counting on them doing it.
Because I knew that the main client that I managed – the one that paid £5 million pounds for their basic contract – were coming to the end of that contract and would be renegotiating a new one shortly after I returned. This was my chance.
You see, this client had had major, and I mean MAJOR issues with the service my company provided. When I first joined the IT department there were about 120 outstanding complaints they'd logged for the substandard service they'd received.
I was instrumental in turning that around. I had excellent relationships with the IT Director, COO and service delivery managers in that company. I never lied to them and always set their expectations as to when something would be done when previously they'd been constantly lied to. They trusted my judgement and the complaints went down pretty much to zero by the time I was leaving to go on my holiday.
I had to make sure my guys knew enough to handle everything during my absence. Well, seeing as how I was only going to be gone for 3 weeks I only needed to tell them enough to handle everything for that time-frame. They didn't REALLY need to know about the back-end accounting for all the upselling we did as I did that myself at the end of each month. They didn't really need to know the full contact list for 3rd party providers as the basic contact list would be sufficient for the time I wasn't there.
Let's just say there was a BUNCH of stuff that only I knew and no-one else did that I didn't bother to teach to my team. After all – I'd be coming back wouldn't I?
So I left. Enjoyed 3 weeks in the sun with my family and had a blast at the wedding.
When I came back, I pretty much ghosted my company. I'd had enough. I decided there and then the only way I would go back to work for them was if there was a substantial increase in my salary. And having left things the way they were I knew there'd be a shitstorm going on with that client that only I could resolve.
2 days after I came back I got a call from the manager I reported to – someone who I didn't really get on with and who had been the one to continually deny my request for a raise. He wanted to know when I'd be coming back.
I told him I wasn't.
Cue surprised silence.
Manager – “What do you mean you won't be coming back?”
Me – “Just what I said, I've been working my tail off for the past 2 years now and the only way I'm coming back is if I get a pay-rise.”
Manager – “You can't do that we had an agreement that you'd return after your leave and start again with us. You're breaking your word here.”
Me – “And? I've been promised a pay-rise for ages and that didn't happen so I as far as I'm concerned I don't care what we agreed. You haven't lived up to your promise so I'm not living up to mine.”
Manager – “You realise that by refusing you're opening yourself to liability here? You know (client's name) is due for a contract renewal and you're instrumental in the service delivery package we're offering them. If you don't return then we could lose that contract. And you would be partially responsible.”
At this point I was laughing in his face at the audacity and the stupidity on display.
Me – “I'm sorry did you really just say you're going to sue me for not coming back because it could lose you a contract? Are you out of your tiny mind? Seriously??! Maybe go and look up the law. I resigned. That resignation was accepted. At no point did I sign a contract or any kind of agreement confirming that I would return. I am open to coming back provided my salary is increased in-line with industry standards. If you're not going to do that then good luck with the contract renegotiation.”
Manager – “I don't appreciate being talked to in that tone. You never acted like this before and I'm confused as to what's brought this on.”
Me – “Remember Andy? Only worked here a few months. I trained him. He left and got the same job as me for £25k a year. That's £10k more a year than you're paying me. My last increase was when I joined the department nearly 3 years ago. And every time I've asked for one you said I'm still in training. So yeah, I'm pissed off, I've had enough and I'm not coming back unless you pay me at least £25k a year with a guaranteed increase every year of at least 6%.”
Manager – “I think you're over-estimating your worth to the company. We don't need you that badly. I was only calling because you'd said you were coming back. So good luck and goodbye.”
He hung up in a huff. I felt pretty elated as I'd been wanting to get that off my chest for a while. I'd already decided I was going to work for myself and had been making arrangements the last few months to make that happen so I wasn't worried about my future prospects.
I didn't need the job anymore. Turns out though that they did need me.
Over the next few days I got increasingly frantic calls from other managers who tried to convince me to come back – including the head of the entire department.
According to what I heard from friends who still worked there – the client who was due to renew their contract were NOT happy that I had left. In fact, they'd counted on my still being there to oversee an expansion in their service requests.
Also – as I hadn't divulged EVERYTHING to my team that they needed to know for the longer term it had all turned into a huge issue where the service the client was receiving was TERRIBLE just at the time they were due to renew their contract.
To remind you – the contract was £5 million pounds for 3 years – with my team upselling an average £500k in additional services per year. That's around £6.5 million in revenue my company would be losing out on. And I was only asking for a measly £10k a year increase.
Well – they ultimately lost the contract to a competitor. According to one of the department heads that I was friendly with and who was privy to the contract renegotiations the owner of my company was NOT happy about the loss.
I wasn't the main factor for the client not renewing but I was definitely an important part of that decision – as they kept bringing it up over and over again. He got the feeling that had I still been on board we could have smoothed over the client's other concerns and would most likely have kept the contract.
On finding out what had happened with me the owner of my company immediately fired my manager – the one who'd called me and then threatened legal action. My team of 5 were transferred to other departments so none of them lost their jobs – which was a relief as I would have felt tremendously guilty otherwise.
I also discovered that the client had requested my details as they wanted to offer me a job – as had 2 of the 3rd party companies I dealt with regularly. My company never passed the details on and I wasn't bothered by that at the time.
Having tried to climb the ladder in the rat race I'd had enough and vowed I would never work for anyone ever again. A promise that held true until the pandemic when my self-employed business went under like so many others and I re-joined the corporate world.
And it went kind of full circle – I ended up back in a contact centre before being transferred to a different department. Except in a completely different field and industry but it's still funny how history repeats itself, I guess.
But even after all these years, it still rankles me that I spent all that time, effort and energy to prove I was a loyal, dedicated and hard-working employee only to get shafted when asking for basically peanuts compared to what they were making from me.
Never again.
Now I start work at 8:30am – and finish promptly at 5pm. I'll do my hours and my job and that's it. I learned my lesson. If I get promoted, great. If not – I'll jump ship to somewhere else.
Fuck corporations. The end.
TLDR – worked years for a company but never got a wage increase despite making them stupid amounts of money. I left – they lost out on a contract renewal worth £5 million pounds.