My company appreciates me!

I've posted before in other threads over the past year or two about my dilemmas at work. I like to think of myself as the kind of person who tries to be reasonable and work through things with people before throwing everything out the window (except in GRM offtopic threads where people are being poopyheads ). Long and short of it is, I like my job. I like the people I work with. But I don't get paid enough.

I had promised myself that I would be giving my two weeks notice this Friday after performance review time if it was determined my work over the past year was "met expectations", I had a personal conversation with my boss (who after I was initially frosty with when he first started with us 7 months ago, is starting to gel well and do good at his end of the job) that I wasn't getting paid nearly enough for my education/skills/experience. Also that we had hired new people with less experience that were getting paid more than myself. And that I was taking on a larger workload then anyone else there (I've worked 800 hours of overtime in the past year, in the past 2 months I have been on 18 flights).

My expectations weren't that high, as we all know how it goes (you're doing a great job, here is the "meager" bone above and beyond the person who sat on youtube all day) when it comes to raises/performance reviews.

Well, my boss (and former boss, as he is still involved in the process) officially confirmed my performance rating as the "top level". It means a sizeable raise (which leaves me still underpaid compared to industry averages, but I like the job I am in and the people I work with), as well as being moved to a new classification where my wage will be able to continue to increase rather than hitting a wall for the next 3-4 years to come.

My biggest joy is being able to stay with the job. Now that they have moved me to what I consider an "appropriate" level of compensation, as long as I meet my expectations and get middle of the road evaluations (not that I would ever do this, but just as a general idea to give you guys a picture of how my wage works), I will always be compensated at a level I feel is acceptable as long as I work there. This has really helped to define my career path (I hope).

Life is pretty good today. Not only did my immediate boss thank me for the work I've done the past 12 months, but his boss and the bosses boss also did (which at that very point in time, eclipses the money issues... for a couple of hours anyways haha). Now if they'd just pay out my substantial amount of overtime they owe me, it'd be a really good day (it's coming, just slowly because government).

Edit- This isn't meant to brag. I am quite excited about this fortunate turn of events. Everyone seems to be posting about job stuff not going well, so I thought this could be a bit of a positive spin on things and that sometimes your hard work IS appreciated, valued, and you are compensated accordingly

Nice turn of events. Congrats.

Way to go. Funny thing- I took some grad courses, and there are studies out there that say past a certain income point (which is surprisingly low) employees care more about being valued and supported than the income that they earn. You sound like someone who fits that bill, as am I, but so few employers take that advice to heart.
My dad always said that whenever he went in asking for a raise, he was always prepared to quit. He was a bricklayer, but I suppose it fits in any occupation- as Costanza said, you must have "hand".

Congrats. Performance evals can be funny motivators or de-motivators like that.

Been with the company 5 years, first 3 I got the "meets expectations" and I'm really ok with that because I'm not the most driven person in the world. Then year 4 I was mid way through a very large corporate project and gained an "exceeds expectations" for the year. At my company that ties directly to my bonus paying out 150% instead of 100% for a meets. Also gets me a Long Term Incentive which has a 3 year vesting period to help retain me as an employee.

So last year was the conclusion of this project I was on. I busted my ass, I was travelling all the time and had to cancel my vacation when corporate shifted the deadlines. I did everything I could to ensure the success of the project and it did succeed. I expected an "Outstanding" on my appraisal and I got a "exceeds expectations" which is still pretty great but knowing that giving it everything I have short of saving someones life (I did save the company 50k with a "little" side project though) wasn't enough to get the top rating just really killed my motivation to try to hard anymore.

Nice, I too hope one day to make grown-up money.

Today I was thinking about what fraction of my working years until retirement (basing it on today's age, which is optimistic no matter how you look at it) that I basically have nothing to show for so far...I'll try not to do that again

i was once rewarded for doing the jobs of 3 people by getting a 25 cent an hour pay cut... they were shocked when i quit 3 days later..

Must be nice to be appreciated...

Nice! It's always rewarding to be appreciated.

about time I hear of somebody being appreciated. Any more it seems like companies like to treat their employees like Liabilities

Congrats HiTemp!!

In reply to mad_machine:

I know they do where I work.

Congrats Hitemp, its good to hear that things are looking up!

Unfortunately, the "economy" issues here, and unemployment rate being so high, has Employers here feeling like they have their people by the jiggly bits, and they can get away with treating people like trash.

My bosses have no idea how I do my job. A few years ago, before I was here, my role (sales/inventory analysis and materials planning) was being performed by a hack who thought computers "make everything too messy - with paper and pencil, you can really see what youre doing without all that electronic razmatazz". Needless to say, I have basically rebuilt this role from the ground up to bring this side of the business kicking and screaming into the internet age.

The powers that be in my small company only know that if I dont do my job, the company is berked...mostly because theres not really anyone else here who really understands my role or how I do what needs done. Im always told with a sounds-sarcastic-but-actually-serious tone that Im not allowed to get sick or get hit by a bus, because - in their words, and I quote: "Theres no way anyone in the company could learn to do what you do fast enough not to cause real trouble for the business".

Im rewarded for all my hard work, talent, and efforts by being granted access to the building everyday, and being allowed to leave with as many fingers and toes as I came in with, and not much else (though, I guess we do get pretty good dental...yet, I digress...)

What the hell am I thinking?!?! I think its about time I begin to leverage my uniqueness into some additional compensation.

congrats to the OP. the recognition may have more value than the pay raise, future considerations and all that.

to jthw8: a few years ago i got a new chief engineer. he explained that "40 hours a week gets you a meets expectations. 45 gets you exceeds. 50 gets you far exceeds." since i had known him for several years, i told him i thought it would be silly of me to put in 25% more hours for a 6% raise, and that i'd rather spend those hours with my family.

AngryCorvair wrote: congrats to the OP. the recognition may have more value than the pay raise, future considerations and all that. to jthw8: a few years ago i got a new chief engineer. he explained that "40 hours a week gets you a meets expectations. 45 gets you exceeds. 50 gets you far exceeds." since i had known him for several years, i told him i thought it would be silly of me to put in 25% more hours for a 6% raise, and that i'd rather spend those hours with my family.

I would not be allowed to do that. OT is Verbotten in the casino industry except for extreme emergancies. Nobody wants to pay me 57/hr

I'm glad they recognize the value of your work, but more importantly, I'm glad they decided to reward you in an appropriate manner.

congrats to OP ... not many companies now seem to understand that people like to feel appreciated ... hope things continue to work out there for you

I retired last Nov... was with this co. for 13 yrs... never did I or anyone else ever get an "exceeds expectations" ... their reasoning was that you couldn't exceed their expectations .. in my cynical outlook, I figured it was just their way of holding pay raises to 1 1/2 - 2% ...

I ran into my former supervisor a couple of months after I retired and his comment was ... "I sure wish you'd stuck around a bit longer, (name withheld) is doing ok, but I had to put 2 more people on that line to meet production requirements"

he couldn't understand when I almost fell down laughing at him... finally I caught my breath and pointed out that A: more pay might have helped, and B: he could have shown that he appreciated what I did .....

with his lack of people skills and leadership ability I'm still not sure if he understands

now I do wish I'd stuck around ... the sequestration has caused them a lot of lost contracts and therefore have had a 97 person lay-off .. wouldn't have minded being paid while I started my retirement

wbjones wrote: I retired last Nov... was with this co. for 13 yrs... never did I or anyone else ever get an "exceeds expectations" ... their reasoning was that you couldn't exceed their expectations .. in my cynical outlook, I figured it was just their way of holding pay raises to 1 1/2 - 2% ...

I got one once when I single-handedly saved the company about 3-4 years' worth of my pay. Got a bonus but no pay raise, I was already "maxed out" (that idea brings climbing a long hill in a Samurai to mind)...in fact when I changed contracts later and got health insurance they wouldn't bump up my pay to compensate so I actually took a small pay cut.

So it takes nothing short of heroics to get that...I don't even get it for "knowledge of job."

oh ... I forgot one thing about "my" company ... it was black and white written into their by-laws that NO HOURLY EMPLOYEE SHALL EVER BE GIVEN A BONUS ... yeah they loved us ... don't get me wrong ... I did appreciate the fact that I had a job .. but (other that for my heart surgery) I missed 2 days work in 13 yrs .... 11 of those yrs were perfect attendance (with not a single tardy) and that still wasn't good enough to get an "outstanding" ... and they (to this day) wonder why moral is so low

JThw8 wrote: Congrats. Performance evals can be funny motivators or de-motivators like that.

For all of the "knowledge" and understanding of the human mind that HR and management people are supposed to have, they certainly do not understand in the slightest how performance reviews effect people. That is part of the reason why clear and concise performance metrics need to be established, and also it needs to be stated whether it is a "competition" against your other co-workers (ie: bell curved) or if it is standalone based on you.

AngryCorvair wrote: i told him i thought it would be silly of me to put in 25% more hours for a 6% raise, and that i'd rather spend those hours with my family.

Luckily for myself, my overtime is paid at double time. My job position (and what I have been doing) has put me WELL outside the scope of what my company does. They've never had an employee run into the labour law's days of rest requirement before (which was interesting to deal with). Getting paid overtime is a double edged sword; even though you are getting paid for your TIME worked, and compensated because overtime is going "above and beyond", lots of people view getting paid overtime as a bonus/perk... which it isn't at all in Alberta, as it is a requirement as per labour laws. But sometimes that can cloud managements judgement, especially when engineers are involved (engineers legally can not get paid OT).

Anywho, thanks for the congrats everyone. For those that are underappreciated, if you have the option, I'd 100% of the time recommend getting a different job (which might not be practical, I understand). I also agree that the percentage of companies that show their appreciation is very limited compared to the ones that don't

They know exactly how it affects people and morale.

They don't care because "go find another job" and they want to justify keeping pay as low as possible.

When our software team mentioned the idea of getting me trained on their graphics package so I could help out (it would also be very useful for the manuals I write), because I give them lots of input on User Interface and how to setup the screens and such:

The VP's answer: "If he has more skills, he's going to demand more money"

They contract someone at $100/hr to do graphics work when it's needed. That is somehow cheaper than training me and possibly giving me a few extra dollars an hour.

HINT: I don't make anywhere close to that much money,