My boyfriend is a 9 year vet with local water municipality. He's second in command when it suits them, but everytime he asks for it in writing, they won't let him have it. They don't even give a reason anymore, they just say no. He signs leave forms, orders chemicals, performs major maintenance, and even writes employee evals, all on a regular operator paycheck. He just found out yesterday that two employees will be getting merit raises, one of which only has about 2 years of skin in the game. So that operator has only been working here for 2 years and will be making more than a almost 10 year employee who has supervisory responsibilities, but none of the supervisory benefits.
He told me he'll be quitting if a particular job comes through for him (which with his experience level it will), and i don't blame him. His boss tried telling him “if you leave you'll have to start all over”. His response was better to start over with a chance at true advancement than to stay where I'm never going to advance.