I've read a lot of different posts here and not quite sure it fits but here goes my story anyways.
This happened shortly after the pandemic was coming to an end.
I live along the front range in Colorado and used to work for a ~6 million dollar company in the construction industry. My title was Designer and I made it my goal to get my professional license as soon as I could so I could actually afford to live here and possibly buy a house. In my profession it is common for young people to have to “earn your stripes” which I understood but figured if I showed my commitment and worked hard it would be recognized earlier. A bit naive I suppose.
At the time, I had been with this company for a little over 3 years and finally passed all of my professional exams of which there are multiple 3-4 hour long tests. Most people fail at least 1 if not more when attempting to get their license. Since it is a difficult task, I have heard of some companies giving people bonuses (average 2k) as soon as they get their professional license.
When I passed my last test, I was beyond excited and thought maybe I would get something extra but instead they just gave me a pat on the back and a congratulations. I thought okay, maybe something will get added to my end of the year bonus. During that same year, I was managing 2 projects by myself that were under construction and were slated for opening just before the end of the year. Even though my title was still designer, my responsibilities were that of a project manager. Even though I mentioned that I fit the exact definition of a PM in our employee handbook in my last two yearly reviews, the owners of the company still didn't give me a proper title for the work I was doing.
By the time the projects opened, I managed to bring the projects in at 50k under budget, which was about 10% of our design budget. Since I got my license and managed these projects well, I was expecting to receive a good bonus at the end of the year, not to mention getting my license too. It's important to note that my salary at the time was 62k well below the average for my position with a license (72-74k) while living in one of the most expensive cities in the US. For all of my efforts and accomplishments, I received a measly 3500 bonus barely 1k more than I got the year before even though I made the company an extra 50k.
The real kicker is when I had my last review with the owners. I did my research and looked at average pay posted from our profession's advocacy organization. I also compared what I was paying in rent vs my income and presented to them my argument to just get paid the average so I could actually be able to start saving for a home. When they came back to me a week later they offered me a measly 2k, still 10k less than just the average. I was dumbfounded as I had presented what I thought was an incredibly strong argument for proper pay along with my track record at the company. At that point I started doing the bare minimum while responding to numerous recruiters that had reached out to me (high demand for my position in this part of the country).
Less than a month later I received an offer that was ABOVE the average and gave my two week’s notice. While saying goodbye to everyone on my last day, the last person I spoke with was the the managing partner. His last words to me were arrogantly said, “you’ll be back” to which I thought, not a chance, hope you don’t drown your business by treating people as worthlessly as you did me. A year after my departure, they had lost 5 senior staff and 5 other younger staff (25% of their employees) no surprise there given my experience.
TLDR: I worked for a company for almost 4 years, made them 50k extra profit under the projects I managed in one year and added value by getting my professional license. Got undercut with my year-end bonus even though they were exceptionally profitable and when asked, they didn’t even try to pay me just the average for my position or give me an appropriate title at all. Quit and found a company that actually values me and my work.