I worked six years without a raise because there was “no budget.” I believed it, took on extra work, fixed everyone’s mistakes, and became the glue holding the marketing team together. Then I trained a new hire who casually mentioned her $85k salary—$20k more than my unchanged $65k.
HR told me the market had changed but internal raises were “locked.” That was my wake-up call. The next day, I stopped doing anything outside my original job description and removed the undocumented tools and guides I’d created on my own time. Chaos followed. Management finally realized they’d been underpaying someone doing far more than they hired for.
When they tried to strong-arm me, my team backed me up. I’d already talked to a competitor, who offered all of us a 30% raise to move together. We walked out. The old company collapsed within weeks.
The lesson: loyalty should never be one-sided. Your value isn’t what you’re paid—it’s what you’re willing to accept.