I had a work and wage review yesterday. The company is small and a lot of staff have been there for years but they are starting to really struggle to retain staff and there's a huge amount of absences at the moment. Everybody is worn out from being overworked. I've been looking for another job and my review yesterday was the final straw. It confirmed that they just don't care about their staff and that they expect us to be thankful for a minimum paid job, with one unpaid break and to be doing the work of multiple people. It's very clear they hate having to pay us the amount they are legally required to as well. But after struggling to retain staff last year they gave everybody a 10p per hour raise.
Yesterday I had my work and wage review meeting. It was pretty great feedback, though there was a very slight dig about my productivity basically being “near enough” what is expected. Right after he didn't even bother to look up to tell me my new wage is £9.50 an hour, and reminded me that it's the minimum wage. And then looked up and care faced told me it's a 6.6 pay increase, with a tone in his voice and a genuinely exasperated look, like the company are doing me a favour and are going to struggle to pay it to me. Essentially it is an increase in pay but the cost of living has gone up and there is so much stress around us with it all. It was how he could sit there act like they willingly chose to give me this raise a a bonus and that it's a decent increase and nothing around us has changed.
I work full time and I'm struggling to survive. So many of us are. And this guy can sit opposite me and act like they are doing me a favour by paying me the minimum amount they can legally get away with and tell me that they have given me a payrise like they had a choice. I can't wait to hand my notice in, along with multiple others who I know want out. Good luck with finding and retaining new people to run around like crazy all day!