Sorry this is going to be a long one!
For some backstory: I’ve worked for this company for the past 5 years as I mentioned, and in that time have taken on a lot of responsibilities. In the last 2 years they’ve had every single employee quit on them except for me, which lead to a lot of extra work and stress being dumped onto my plate just to keep the organization running. I should add that all of the ex employees quit due to either being overworked, turned down for raises that were well deserved, or both. Each and every person who quit was so irreplaceable that their absence was catastrophic, and as these are very niche positions in a very small town that not many people are keen to move to, finding replacement staff was always very difficult. This never stopped upper management from essentially telling people not to let the door hit them on the way out rather than seeing what they could do to keep their good employees, some of whom had been loyal for the last 30 years.
The kicker was that after an employee would leave, they were so desperate to fill the position that they always increased the pay rate and benefits while decreasing the workload for the position to garner interest. So ya, insult on top of injury for their loyal employees who walked away because they were denied those very things that they were now offering. Also, it felt like I was being punished for being a loyal employee because the pay grade for my position had remained the same while every other position’s pay grade skyrocketed due to upper management’s desperation.
As new hires came in, I was the one who would train these people and show them how to do a good portion of their roles all while maintaining my extremely heavy workload. Upper management seemed to have learned their lesson from ignoring their staff’s needs in the past. Key word: seemed. So I finally get up the nerve to ask for a raise and some monthly RSP contributions for some of the staff and was pleasantly surprised when my request was met! It wasn’t quite as high as the amount I had asked for but it was a step in the right direction.
Now, I should mention that I work in the accounting department. A two person accounting department that consists of myself and my superior the Financial Administrator. When the time came to print the cheques for those RSP contributions I noticed something that felt like a massive slap across the face: the most junior staff members, the ones who I had trained in their respective roles, were making the same wage as me after my raise and some were even making more than that. When I first started at this company 5 years ago I was doing one of those same roles for $13/hour. Now the person in that role gets $30/hour which was more than they were now paying me in the role that I had “moved up to” 5 years later.
When upper management realized that the Financial Administrator had me print those cheques they lost it on her! They were perfectly fine with me printing RSP cheques in the past for staff members who made significantly more money than I did, but they were angry that I was able to see how little they actually valued me. When I heard this I knew that they knew that I was being underpaid for everything that I did for them.
So, I went out and got myself a job that pays an additional $11,000/year, has a full pension, a “flex” day off every 2 weeks, more vacation, and more benefits. When my new employer saw everything I was responsible for in my old position they literally said “wow, this will be a breeze for you.” When I gave my notice, they blamed the Financial Administrator for allowing me to see how little I make in comparison to everyone else. And THEN. Then they realized that they were basically screwed without me and asked my colleagues to start nonchalantly trying to see what it would take to get me to stay (I know this because the ones I’m close with told me). So I told them that I wouldn’t consider staying without the same or better compensation that I would be receiving at my new job. Apparently I’M being unreasonable to think I’m worthy of what other employers are jumping at the opportunity to pay me. Screw them! Thanks for listening to my bitching.