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Antiwork

I just learned the hard way that hard work and loyalty doesn’t pay off

I've been with my company for 9 years and just had my first salary review since 2019 (long overdue to say the least and should have insisted sooner, but was kept being told to wait until Covid aftermath settles). Since 2019 a lot has changed, including taking on over twice my workload/responsibilities; assuming roles of 3 people who have since left and were not replaced, and helped with a large acquisition/merger of the company. I don't know the exact financially standing of the company, but there's only 3 of us, 1 of whom is the CEO, so overhead isn't too high especially considering the recent acquisition. I went into the meeting confident and asked for a reasonable 25% salary raise in addition to a 40% bonus based on the past 3 years of hell and overall being their longest standing employee. What was their offer? A 10% raise with no…


I've been with my company for 9 years and just had my first salary review since 2019 (long overdue to say the least and should have insisted sooner, but was kept being told to wait until Covid aftermath settles).

Since 2019 a lot has changed, including taking on over twice my workload/responsibilities; assuming roles of 3 people who have since left and were not replaced, and helped with a large acquisition/merger of the company. I don't know the exact financially standing of the company, but there's only 3 of us, 1 of whom is the CEO, so overhead isn't too high especially considering the recent acquisition.

I went into the meeting confident and asked for a reasonable 25% salary raise in addition to a 40% bonus based on the past 3 years of hell and overall being their longest standing employee.

What was their offer? A 10% raise with no mention of a bonus. After insisting, they finally agreed to a laughable $5k bonus (I was expecting around $40k).

Lots of lessons learned here: don't assume new responsibilities without first discussing fair compensation, don't assume things will be paid-forward after years of dedicated work, and the old wives tale of being loyal to a company is complete B.S.

Luckily I have a 2nd interview today with a new company that's offering a lot more benefits, better work/life balance and overall less stressful. Fingers crossed because it's going to make accepting an offer very easy.

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