I am a project manager at a startup near Boston MA, in biotech. I joined in Q2 2021.
This year, I was rated 4.85/5 on my annual review. I singlehandedly built systems fo capture project metrics, sales cycle metrics, any metric you could dream of. I drove our projects to success all year. I hit every one of my personal goals.
I’m consistently told how wonderful my work is, how lucky they are to have me, how they couldn’t do their work without me.
This past Monday, I found out that cost of living adjustments (COLA) were going to be 5% for everyone in the company. Not too shabby, when we see 1-3% at some companies. Ok. I naively also thought there would be raises for those of us who exceeded expectations.
BUT NO. Just the blanket COLA. Which, today, I found out that they had the audacity to PRO RATE based on when you started last year. Meaning my COLA is only 3%. And no, I won’t be getting the rest of the COLA on my 1 year anniversary.
I have a pay cut after exceeding expectations and keeping all the executives happy all year.
AND they have it in their heads that in April, I’ll need to stop WFH and return to the office, because the CEO just bought a building a month ago (half an hour further away of a commute, BTW). Not my fault that the CEO made a dumb real estate play when it was very clear WFH was here to stay.
Instead of doing my assigned work this morning, I’ve been applying to new jobs. I’m up to 18 applications in 2 hours so far. I cannot wait to quit, get my raise, and work remotely forever.
Screw that noise.