So I work in higher education as a financial aid advisor. Not my intended career path, but I somehow just fell into it. The job I just left I had been working there for a little over a year. When I first got the job, I was super excited. It paid 10k more than my old job and I got to do more independent work and at my own pace. However, as the months went on, more and more people started leaving. It started with the Director who had initially hired me. He left about 2 months after I started. The assistant director quickly took his place. Then, we had the Director of Admissions leave, then 2 more admissions advisors. I still didn't see any red flags since I as making more money than I ever had in any other job. Things started to get noticeably bad when our Assistant Director up and quit one day. No 2 weeks notice and no warning, he just sent a resignation letter to our boss. At this point, we were completely swamped being down one person in our department. The straw that broke the camel's back was when our Director left. She had been there for 10 years at that point, so it seemed crazy to me that she would just walk away.
When she was gone, we assumed that our Director of Operations would be hiring a new director. A week goes by and there were no postings for a job. Two weeks, then three weeks, and still nothing. We were without a director and without any type of structure. I was completely fed up at this point and started looking for jobs elsewhere. I told the financial aid assistant to do the same because this place was going downhill quick. I ended up getting a position at the same place my director ended up. I did the polite thing and gave a months notice so I could get as much done as possible before they are even more short-staffed.
When the Director of Operations found out I was leaving, per protocol, I could give her a salary demand and she could consider it. I said I could stay for a 5k increase. I figured that they would deem it too high as I only got a 2% raise when I reached a year. She approved the raise immediately. I was excited at first, but then I realized that if she could have given me that raise without hesitation, I was being underpaid. I did talk it over with my husband since we are trying to buy a house and could use the extra money, but in the end I still decided to leave and accept my new position at the new school. Even though my salary would have been a little higher at my old job, it just honestly wasn't worth the hassle. I now get better benefits, more PTO, and basically do less work for more pay since I am only required to do what an advisor has to do as opposed to doing other irrelevant tasks. 20 year old me would have stayed for the money, but 26 year old me realizes that a good work-life balance is more important than a few extra dollars.
It's almost like if you treat your employees well, they will be more happy and satisfied with their jobs. Who would have thought. /s
TLDR: I was offered a higher salary to stay at my old job, but still turned it down.