I used to work for a non-profit insurance company that had reasonable work load, decent pay, time off, and benefits. A few months after I got hired, we got bought out by an out-of-state conglomerate. It became harder and harder to take vacation days, raises stopped, holidays were taken away from us, and they laid off people that actually did the work. When the company's performance suffered, they hired ineffective temps through a temp agency to help with the work load. I eventually saved up enough fuck you money to rage quit, and had a new gig lined up in my original field of study, chemistry.
My new job and boss was far worse than the previous employer. Boss refused to supply protective equipment. Ended up with a nasty burn on my hands, which made it impossible for me to move my hand, let alone weigh chemicals and operate equipment. Boss refused to climate control the work area. Temps reached 45 celcius (~110 F) in the summer and 10 celcius (50 F) in the winter. Despite being hired as a chemist, boss made me do janitorial work in the office because he didn't want to hire staff to do it. I had to deal with my time sheets being changed so they wouldn't have to pay overtime. I was denied lunches because I was “too fat.” When I quit this job the owner tried to give me a 30% raise to make me stay.
I already had a new job lined up with way better pay, benefits, and time off. When I started my third job of the year, it was pretty clear that our team was understaffed and overburdened with work that didn't get done during covid. I rolled up my sleeves and spent my first quarter digging us out of a hole. I didn't do it for my boss or the job, I did it for me. I knew that once things were on track, my workload would decrease to a reasonable level that would allow me to coast. At the end of the quarter my boss calls me into his office to tell me he's giving me a 3% raise and backdating it to my hire date, and he appreciates all my hard work. Fuckyeah.jpg. This past September, we hired a new staff member with the same title as me, just younger with less experience. I have access to ALL of our salaries, so I knew right away new person was making 10% more than I was. Aside from that, it was still a great place to work, so I decided not to let anyone know I was feeling salty about it. What I did instead was stop taking initiative. No longer would I look for something to do, or improve, I only did tasks when asked, and let the new girl bust her ass. This freed up lots of time in my work day to job search, and complete reading I needed to do for my freelance gigs. I was getting ready to just jump ship and move on to the next higher paying gig.
2.5 weeks ago my boss calls me into his office, “Wahsedupcynic, you are getting a 10% raise, and we are backdating that raise to June 1, 2023. Don't panic when you get your next paycheck and it's more than you expected, it's correct, and has all of your back pay from the retroactive raise.” I was stunned. I thanked my boss, and told him I wasn't expecting this to happen, and he acknowledged that they hired someone with less experience at a higher salary, and it was only fair that my salary was on par with that coworker.
TL;DR – Two different shitty bosses drove me to rage quit 2 jobs in less than 6 months. Found a good guy boss that treats his workers with decency, and good guy boss retained me as an employee. I hope all of you find a place where your worth is acknowledged.