I was desperate for a job and took one at lower pay than I was used to. After about 3 years, I got an offer for better pay. My job asked me to stay. I was a great employee and handled the work of 2 people. I told them I had 3 demands:
- $3 more per hour (this would match the place that wanted to hire me)
- 5 more days vacation. I think we only got 5 days at the time, so this would bring it up to barely acceptable.
- A private office. We had an empty office filled with broken printers and chairs.
It was a small place, run by 2 owners. There was a shop manager and about 15 employees. The owner didn't even have the decency to counter my offer himself. He sent his weaselly shop manager, Armen.
Armen says “About the $3 per hour, we can't really do that. I'm sorry. And we can't give you more vacation than the others. That would not be fair. And the owner says he might want to use that office, so you can't move into there.”
“So he sent you here with NOTHING? Is that what you're really telling me?”
It was indeed. They had the balls to offer nothing and still wanted to keep me. I quit.
THEN they hired my replacement. She was young, pretty, talented, hungry. Within a couple months, the younger owner, Todd, started having an affair with her.
His wife found out, and it turned out that the wife actually owned 1/4 of the business. She demanded Todd cash out and get her the money or her dad (an attorney) would sue them til the ends of the earth.
They ended up having to sell the business to get her the money.
They had built this thing from the ground up to a multi-million dollar per year business. Gone.
That $3, week of vacation and dusty office seem kind of cheap by comparison, no? I would feel bad but none of it was my fault. They made bad choices.