TLDR; General manager makes an offer to try to keep me on that manufacturer rep suggested 3 months earlier.
I was working the front desk of a family owned hearing aid center. They have five offices. They were only paying me $12 hr. No benefits to speak of. I was the only “office staff” besides the audiologist and the hearing instrument specialist who dealt directly with the patients. That meant I did everything else including answering phones, scheduling appointments, ordering hearing aids, submitting insurance claims, taking and processing payments, doing follow up calls, making minor repairs, cleaning hearing aids, managing the phone system for the 5 offices, updating lobby displays, maintaining all patient files, mailing out marketing letters, and much, much more.
I became friendly with one of the representatives from our main hearing aid manufacturer. She was very pleased with the increase in sales since I began working and suggested that our front desk staff get a small bonus of $25 dollars each time we were responsible for a new sale. She told me she suggested this to the General Manager 3 months earlier. He did nothing about this and we were not given any bonuses. I also learned that some front office people at their other centers were making less than I was even though they had been working their longer. When I asked them about this, they said the company did not give raises.
After a year and a half, I was recruited by the family of one of our patients. They were looking for an office manager to run their facility and were very impressed with my professionalism. They were offering me $25 hr, to start with a plan to put me on salary once I was fully trained. I gave my boss my two weeks' notice and he was very concerned that I was leaving. He told me they really thought very highly of me and everyone liked my work ethic. He then asked me if I would stay if he gave me a bonus of $25 for each new sale I generated. I told him thank you for the offer, but that would still not come close to competing with my new offer as that was equal to an hour of pay at my new position. I thanked him for the opportunity there and wished them luck finding my replacement.