Quit a job that relies on you for everything.
I am, for the remainder of February, the sole full time employee at a sales/retail location. Did everything myself; sales, inventory, health and safety, deliveries, dealing with dickhead customers. We would have 2 rush times of the year, where I would be putting in at least 90 hours per week for 4-6 weeks. The record one year was 26 days straight, with 15 hours of work being the shortest day of the 26. Now I know what you're thinking, wow that's lots of overtime pay… nope, job is salaried. No overtime pay.
I brought it up every year for 4 years prior to the rush that I was overwhelmed and over worked. The answer? “Well, the work has to get done.” That's easy for my boss to say when he is at the head office several hours away, where there are 20 full time employees. They finally hired 1 part time employee to help out, for 10 hours a week. Part of my complaining led to me getting on to a bonus plan, 20% or every dollar over 100k in annual profit. How many years in the past have we ever done 100k in profit? None… until I took over, but 4 grand at the end of the year was meaningless for the >600 hours of free overtime I gave them (on top of the 44 hours a week of regular work hours), all because “the work has to get done”.
Everytime that I wanted to buy something or hire more staff, the only thing that the board was concerned with was how much it would eat into profit. As well, if I ever heard from them, it was either me calling them, or them calling to complain about my work (aka margin).
So I quit. If you want to know what true power is, quit a job that relies on you for everything. The minute I sent my email, the phone was ringing and they were throwing anything and everything they could at the wall to see what would stick. Hourly wages, overtime pay and a 25% raise? Sorry, I'm not interested. Guarentee that I'll never work more than 7 days in a row? No, thank you. Hire 2 more workers? Again, no. I felt like a god amongst men, shooting down everything I had asked for years ago that they were suddenly ok with offering me.
Where I live, there is a massive labour shortage and word travels fast. I had 3 job offers that day, 8 by the end of the week. I will miss the customers most of all. I told my boss that if the board had half as much sympathy for me as the customers, I would have no problem staying. I know I'm rambling at this point, but I hope they can find someone to replace me before the rush comes; they have to, because the work has to get done.