This is a story about my mom and her work life (not sure if it belongs here).
TL;DR My mom worked hard for over 50 years for the same company, at some point they tried to get rid of her by lowballing and all she got when she retired was a small celebration from her coworkers and a cheap “gratitude” token from the company.
Recently, I had a cordial argument/discussion with one of my friends who is firmly on the side of “the company this, the company that.” He has a low-skilled job there, but he consistently does more than what is expected of him, such as preparing paperwork at home after hours or foregoing medical leave to return to work after a minor injury because the company “needs” to keep functioning. To me, it seems like he has a “slave mentality,” as a former politician once said.
This reminded me of my mother, who is now retired but worked for the same company for over 50 years (51+ years, to be exact), which is even longer than the company's founder. Her salary wasn't fancy, and I'd say it was like minimum wage plus 30%. At first, she worked in the company's warehouse and went to people's homes to collect invoices. Interestingly, the only households that had trouble paying on time were those with some wealth. After a few years, she became the only person working in the warehouse, which initially served fewer stores than the 15 the company supplied later on. She never took medical leave except for when I was born and managed to work until the day it happened.
During that time, she worked very hard, but at least she valued her time and never gave the company any overtime. Back then, she had the option to take the same amount of time off that she worked extra. For example, if she worked 30 extra days, she would be entitled to 30 days of paid vacation. A couple of decades later, the boss stopped the practice of giving extra time off because she was the only in the company with that arrangement. Instead, my mother asked to be paid for her overtime, which was denied. I was a teenager at the time, but I remember how angry she was about it, and I think that's when she began to realize that going the extra mile wasn't worth it. So, she stopped working overtime. If she arrived early, she just read something until it was time to clock in. A few weeks later, the boss came to the warehouse and saw my mom not working. In a passive-aggressive way, he asked her what she was doing and why she wasn't working. She calmly explained that if she wasn't going to get paid for it, there was no reason to do it. After almost three decades with her, the boss saw that she wouldn't budge, so they allowed her to get paid for the overtime.
About a decade later, she got very sick and had to undergo treatment for six months. During that time, the company had to hire two people to replace her in the warehouse. When she returned to work, her body wasn't as strong as before, so the company hired a part-time assistant for her. A few years passed, and she had a relapse, which required almost another six months of treatment. The company extended her assistant's position to full-time to help with her workload. She continued working there until they decided to outsource the warehouse. However, she had already worked for the company for 40 years, so they made her a mix of secretary/receptionist for the office. They didn't want to fire her because she had worked there for so long that they would have had to give her over 3.5 years of salary, which was a time when workers had better rights.
A couple of years after she had been offered the new role, the company tried to lowball and convince her to leave the company for just one year of salary. Neither of my parents were thrilled about it, as my mother would be unemployed being old (like 5~6 years away from retirement) and it would hurt her pension. She rejected the offer and made it clear that if they wanted to get rid of her, she would only take all that was due to her.
Fast forward until she reached the retirement age. She still worked hard, too hard, and after half a century working for the same company, all she got was a small lunch/celebration her coworkers gave her (not the company) and a “gratitude” token from the company that was worth around fifty bucks.
So, here is my mom's story, a freaking hard worker who gave over 50 years to her company, that they just tried to get rid of when she wasn't performing double (she always finished what she was tasked with), and barely got a thank you when she retired.
Moral of the story? Just do your job. If you are aiming for promotions or bonuses, I guess you can work extra, but if the company does not pay you back, it is not worth it. Work to live, don't live to work. You only have one life, don't waste it on a company that doesn't value you.