My partner is a Process Engineer in the plastics manufacturing sector. She is and has been the only Process Engineer her company has across two separate plants. She has been with the company for over 6 years and has received nothing but highly positive performance reviews. She has also been chronically underpaid and underappreciated during her entire time there. Her mindset has always been that they will reward her dedication eventually and that if she keeps pounding the pavement and working hard she will succeed. Well after a 3rd year of no substantial raise or benefits package she finally broke. It was awful to watch, her coming to the realization that all the time she put in wasnt going to be rewarded. All of the late nights, after-hours call ins and weekend work wasnt leading her anywhere but wasted time and frustration. I convinced her to look for a new job and greener pastures. After a few weeks of searching she was seriously interviewing at three separate companies for similar or higher positions with substantial pay increases.
After some back and forth she decided to leave if her current company didnt beat the best offer she had; a $20,000~ pay increase, title change and permanent hybrid work schedule. She approached her boss (who is apparently a great guy just doesn't handle her compensation) and within the business day she was in HR's office and they made her essentially the same offer. A $20,000~ raise, bump to Sr.Process Engineer and a company car for her 40 minute commute.
They could have been fairly compensating her the whole time but they werent. They could have rewarded her dedication, performance and hard work but they didnt. They tried taking advantage of her for years and all it took was a threat to leave and they changed their tune the same day.
Stay safe out there and fuck you pay me