“It's tough out there right now.” – In a field where recruiters are DMing me around 5-10 times a day on LinkedIn.
“Those salaries are in a bubble – we'll never see those. Those are for the top 1% and the rest of the salaries are like yours because of outsourcing. Those big salaries won't last.” – In a field where the average minimum salary is almost twice what I make.
“Big salaries mean dealing with super corporate overlords and having no freedom.” – In a field where there are TONS of organizations in need, none of them all the same, and many of them actually structured to scale their success and provide those sorts of salaries to their employees while not dominating their entire lives.
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These are some quotes from my ex-employer, the CEO of the company, who continually deals with high turnover and has decided that gaslighting (not proper management) is the route to success. This is in the private tech sector, where printing money is common if you're following well-defined rules of success and have the ability to adapt.
Regardless of how much you make, pay close attention to how your bosses talk about your options and your likelihood of succeeding without them. If it sounds like they're making up some heroic story about how they're rescuing you from a cruel, cold world – they're trying to manipulate you through gaslighting. It doesn't matter if they internally “believe” their own narrative, because the result is the same: it's being weaponized against you and probably the rest of their employees.
If someone tells you that you need them (in no uncertain terms), it's your responsibility to prove them wrong before it's proven right. Taking people's power starts by convincing them they have none.