I'm really struggling to do any work at all at my job. This isn't necessarily new, I have ADHD, but I'm being treated and it's been a lot better. However, recently my coworkers and I discovered, through an external job posting no less, that a different department doing similar work both in amount and scope, is making, at minimum, $15k more than we are. We asked our bosses about this, and all they had to say was that they would inquire higher up. Which I believe will be useless, because they (my bosses) are extremely bad at following up on things and actually fighting for us, which is probably why we're in this situation to begin with. But that's one thing, totally expected. Another is that they didn't even offer any empathy for our concerns, no “I understand how that posting made you feel, and I'm sorry you feel undervalued, we're going to work on fixing it.” Just “okay we'll talk to HR.” Ever since (that was last week) I have had absolutely zero motivation to do anything at all, and when I do manage to get a task done, one is my limit it seems. It's painful, this feeling of obligation to work (because I do get paid for it) with the knowledge that I'm being paid about 30% less than a department that puts out work that we consistently and frustratingly have to fix the mistakes for. Its demoralizing, it's humiliating, I'm young and I feel like a wage slave stuck in a cycle of “okay I'll look for jobs today when I get off… okay now I'm off but I'm so emotionally exhausted from trying to drag myself across the finish line that all I have the energy for is a video game or a tv show…”
I've reached out to a union organization for employees adjacent to what I do (don't want to give too many details) because I'm not sure if we would be eligible, and I haven't heard back. I'm thinking about getting my coworkers together and striking, but I’m worried that we'll be replaced. I know they can't fire us, but I've read up on laws and they can replace us and we aren't entitled to be reinstated. My only hope lies in the fact that our job is complicated and it would be difficult to train brand new people to the level it would take to keep things afloat.
All of this is conceptual, and meanwhile I'm suffering emotionally every day and I don't know what to do. What do I do?