I've been with a company for a few years now. To be honest, I really enjoy working there, they really like me and often tell me how great I am and how important I am to the business. The benefits are really good and it's very flexible and everyone has the option to work remote if they choose.
The only drawback is the pay. It's on the lower end for this industry, and it's a lot less than I can get elsewhere.
Recently we had massive layoffs. I was pretty shocked and worried about the company's future but they assured things were OK, it was due to a future contract falling through for pandemic reasons. Thing is, these people had work, and it still needed to get done. So I have double the work to do in the same amount of hours and same pay. There's a disconnect here.
To their credit, things are slowly stabilizing and after a short period they started rehiring again. But there's still a lot of extra work being dumped on us since these new hires aren't fully trained.
Then comes my performance review. Glowing, tons of praise and they're so grateful for the slack I've picked up. And they offer me a whole 5% raise. Wow.
Now, I knew I had them by the balls. They can't afford more turnover. Especially someone who can shoulder as much as I do. So I forced their hand, demanded a 25% raise. And I got it.
Know your worth.