Edit: TL;DR: Waited a 7 months for a promised raise and promotion at shitty organization. Left immediately from high profile project when that didn't come through. Sowed mild chaos and discontent on my exit. Walked away with my bonus and started new job paying more in better environment.
I quit my job a few weeks back. I know some of you here are in retail or warehouse labor and you don't want to hear the grumblings of someone making 6 figures but there is exploitation at every level. This happens aggressively to those on an immigration visa. The companies cry “the talent doesn't exist here in the US so we need immigrants.” Those who have mobility use it and they leave bad companies. Those that can't are basically slaves to their immigration status. It's exploitative and wrong and it bothers me. I don't have that problem but it shows the true colors of an organization. and it's unnerving to see hardworking people screwed over, regardless of where they came from.
Secured a new position a month or so back. Better vacation, pay, benefits, equity, environment, people, sign on bonus to account for leaving my outgoing bonus. Everything… PLUS full remote. However for the last several months a serious promotion was dangled in front of me. I pushed my start date out so I could be present for the merit / bonus / promotion date and evaluate both offers. In the mean time, I privately prepped my team, did documentation and tied up loose ends. Am I replaceable? Of course, everyone is but they didn't plan for it and had no redundancy for my skillset. I was going to leave them in a bad way no matter how much I did.
The day comes. My boss gives me my number and says “your raise is 0.5% above the average because of all of your efforts this year”. Bonus was 1/3 of the allowable range. I had worked weekends and cancelled plans and shifted my schedule to interface with overseas counterparts, trained people, improved processes… I went out my way to onboard people from an acquisition we did to help them get up to speed. All for nothing.
My base starting salary at my new job was more than my merit increase plus bonus combined. I had to start my new job in 1 week. Typed resignation letter, attached my merit increase document to it and left it on my bosses office with a sticky note “Let me know if you need to discuss. 1 week notice. Non negotiable.”
Boss met me in person. I said my piece about waiting the full year to see what they would do on 'their schedule' because they had given their word something would be done for me. In the end they came up with nothing. Their offer doesn't even come close to the offer I was currently holding and if you wanted to show me appreciation, it shouldn't require a competing offer to do that. You know the cost of going out to hire people right now so you know the market demand, the fact that I already work for you doesn't change that. I'm not hostage like the visa people.
Worked the week and had a few meetings with people who tried to gaslight me and tell me to stay and “hey is there anything we can do to keep you at this point or is your mind made up?”.”We come to the table once a year. You came up short.”
Exit interview with HR was productive and when I brought up my comp the woman admitted that they had lost so much of their HR that the typical process was shortened and the only people that got the proper review were VP, director, senior managers. The people who did the actual work got the basic increase in a year that inflation went up around 7 points. Incredible.
Wrote a controversial exit email that I had to massage for an hour to make it politically correct because our industry is focused and small and I didn't come off as a loose cannon. To spice things up, I decided not to share the distribution list with everyone and send it bcc. I scattered the recipients around the organization including the most high value people that they can't afford to lose, those newly acquired and people up the chain but left information gaps so some people would be in the dark unless it was forwarded.
After I left, the release was finished… dead on arrival when actually used though. Email created chaos and the people I left off the farewell were left in the dark about why this release was not going to the customer…
Started the new job this week. Told my old co-workers my new place doesn't allow moonlighting and the legal trouble I can get in for helping them is not worth the money they would offer. I had trained and on boarded and documented as best I could when I was on their payroll but was not willing to risk anything at my new job.
Double dipped, created a shit show for some bad managers and landed in a new job… Sometimes we win guys.