• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The quitting economy

Ron Mexico

Member
That reminds me of when I worked at Rite Aid right after graduating college. I started part time, was promoted to full-time Assistant Manager once I graduated, this was 2009 and the economy was cratering so I thought $10 an hour wasn’t too bad. I got to live another year in the town I went to college in and overall it was one of the most fun years of my life (college partying w/out the classes/grades) but as I approached the 1 year mark my boss said to look out for my raise. Finally the paycheck comes with my new raise and I see the wage per hour: $10.33. I worked every week, literally never called out sick once, made sure the store was in good shape, opened and closed, etc. basically did everything you’d expect a good assistant manager to do, and that’s how they rewarded me.

A thirty three cent raise, they couldn’t even be bothered to make it an even number like $10.50 or something. I started looking for a new job right away and w/in a half year had left for something else. Now I wasn’t gonna stay at Rite Aid forever, but once I realized they had no respect for me and my contributions, it made my decision to leave that much quicker.

The kicker for that is a 3.3% raise would be seen as a solid annual increase in a lot of companies. The fact that the base of $10 makes the $.33 feel like a pittance (and it is) but I've been in several companies where even 2% was a reach.
 

todd360

Member
I've been a temp with a Fortune 500 company for almost a year now and they have told me there were better candidates to do the job I'm already doing. Can't even get hired to be groomed for the next position :(
 
How does one accumulate vacation time if you keep switching jobs? I just got my third week, I think I'd go crazy without those weeks.
 
This is crazy to me. It's hard to raise a family with the constant upheaval that frequent job changes causes. Really makes me appreciate my government job- I would love more money in the open market but the stability and dependability of the work is more valuable.

I've been in government too, and the stability is nice, but really the only way to increase your salary significantly is to go work somewhere else and have them beg you to come back. Often they are only competitive if they are recruiting, but are never competitive when trying to retain.
 

todd360

Member
I never know what to make of this because basic clerks at Walmart and Costco are technically working for a Fortune 500 company...

Good point. It's a life insurance company. They have money. Enough to not need temps.

At this point I just want the paid vacation I'm not entitled to. Someone else got hired for real and got 15 days of paid vacation right away.
 

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
How does one accumulate vacation time if you keep switching jobs? I just got my third week, I think I'd go crazy without those weeks.
I think you have to negotiate for them. You go "my old job had three weeks" and if they want you enough, maybe they'll go with it.

Me, I lost a week of vacation time when moving to my current job. Shit sucks ass.
 
This is certainly interesting. I work for a great company in a stagnant role. I want to move but the company is insanely good. Not sure what to do because I'm going no where right now.
 

FLAguy954

Junior Member
I wouldn't consider changing jobs more frequently if I got more than a 2-3% raise annually.

I was also going to bring this up.

What the fuck is a 2-3% annual raise vs an 5-10k raise at the next job?

Blame the employers who try to keep their workers earning the same amount while inflation continues over every day goods

If you keep the same salary year over year, you are actually getting a PAY DECREASE

Fuck you reminded me of the story about that guy from Chicago who walked 20 miles to work everyday (40 mile round trip).

IIRC Dude was making fucking $10/hr for almost 15 years with no pay increase :/.
 
The only way to get ahead nowadays is to job hop every few years. This article is spot on

Loyalty is no longer rewarded by most companies

Indeed. It pays to network, and keep that network relevant, or you'll be up the creek when your boss's boss's boss's boss decides that they need to save some money, so let's get rid of the employee that's making $90,000 and replace them with someone that will do the work for $55,000.
 
how about rewarding loyalty instead :/
Welp I've got a solid good pay, much higher than the median in Italy, but if instead of doing goody two shoes, I had put my feet at the door every time (which I'll do soon) I could earn two times as much..
Nowdays most private companies give you almost everything they will give you in your first two//three years..
After that you can leave, imho :)
 
I wouldn't consider changing jobs more frequently if I got more than a 2-3% raise annually.

Yeahhhh I've been at the same company for 4 years largely because I've gotten an average raise of 10% each year, plus the bonus cap went up 5% last year.

We have a real problem training anyone new, though, so the incentive to retain people is extremely high. It takes like a good 6 months to get most people capable of doing their job on their own, longer to get them competent with the domain knowledge they need here.
 
I know a few people myself included that were given adjustment (not merit based) raises. We all work in different fields

I'm going to ass to the pile and say that I make much more money than my first starting job around 5 years ago based on job switching.

I'm a registered nurse so it's much easier for me to jump ship, but I'm taking advantage of what I can, when I can, when it suits me
 

oneils

Member
I'm in government and mobility seems to be the fashion here too now. I think I get it's advantages in the private sector, but there are some definite drawbacks in the public sector. When people move a lot, we tend to forget why certain policy decisions were made even if well documented. It's really not the same as having those people around.
 

Moose Biscuits

It would be extreamly painful...
I dislike my job, but thinking about changing jobs makes me ill. It's such a load of hassle! It took me six months searching to find this one!

Plus I've got no qualifications and the only experience I've built up is with customer service (which I hate). If I was going to search for another job, it would have to be something in the same vein, which I have no desire to do.

I'll just keep ignoring it, and if I do get laid off I guess I'll just die.
 
I dislike my job, but thinking about changing jobs makes me ill. It's such a load of hassle! It took me six months searching to find this one!

Plus I've got no qualifications and the only experience I've built up is with customer service (which I hate). If I was going to search for another job, it would have to be something in the same vein, which I have no desire to do.

I'll just keep ignoring it, and if I do get laid off I guess I'll just die.

I went from CS to Marketing to Sales. Earning has gone up enough to comfortably support my family, with relative job security (only as good as your last and don't piss the boss off).

Search for something. Read a few books and practice them on the phone/face to face with customers. Build that confidence and, while doing that, apply. Worst that happens is that you keep learning, best case scenario you get a better gig.
 

Moose Biscuits

It would be extreamly painful...
I went from CS to Marketing to Sales. Earning has gone up enough to comfortably support my family, with relative job security (only as good as your last and don't piss the boss off).

Search for something. Read a few books and practice them on the phone/face to face with customers. Build that confidence and, while doing that, apply. Worst that happens is that you keep learning, best case scenario you get a better gig.

I've been doing this job for several years. I still loathe talking to customers on the phone, it stresses me out.

My ideal job move would be to go away from interacting with customers in any way, but without qualifications I have little hope to manage that while holding onto my salary and not having to basically start over.

In addition I've basically sworn off education since my last attempt at it went disastrously because of my lack of effort.
 

dpunk3

Member
This is an interesting article to read, especially seeing how things are even for older people. My grandfather is a PHP programmer and he's been job hopping for the past 5-7 years after the recession, and he hasn't been at a job longer than 3 years.

It doesn't help that he's in his late 60's, so employers find it hard to invest in someone that may die soon.
 

ATF487

Member
As much as I complain about my company, I have got some decent raises recently. Doing the math just now, my salary has increased 57% since I started in 2012.

It's involved two out of cycle increases to get me up closer to the median range of the pay bands, so I was underpaid for awhile, but I can't say that anymore. I'm job searching now but more for quality of life issues than pay. In fact I may take a 10%-15% pay cut in order to go from working 50-60 hours most weeks to something closer to 40 with a shorter commute.
 
I work in software development and I have to change jobs every few years to get any kind of decent raise. The only raise I've gotten at my current job is because another company was trying to lure me away and my company gave me a counter offer with a good pay increase. I hate programming interviews with a passion though, so I am probably good where I am for now.
 
Let's put it this way. I successfully talked my way to a 15% raise. I am still underpaid for California standards after the 15% raise. I am hoping my next IT certification pays off. I will put my resume out there and see how much more another company sees me as worth.
 

entremet

Member
The lot of these white collar office jobs seem like such hell and uncertainty.

When I switch careers I'm taking up a trade.

Good call. If I had a time machine, I'd do the same lol. I do enjoy my work, but the constant "hustling" is something I'm getting tired of.
 
A recent illustration of the ethos came when American Airlines, having decided that its current levels of compensation were not competitive, announced an increase to its staff salaries. The company was, in fact, funnelling money to workers instead of to its shareholders. Wall Street's reaction was immediate: American Airlines' stock price plummeted.

This is such nonsense. Looking through Google they made the announcement in April 2017. Looking a their stock prices, yeah they did dip, but they've rebounded and increased as normal. So basically employees got better compensation and the stock had no long term damage. Both parties (employees and shareholders) won.

0X3qnoL.png
 

Robotguy

Member
I recently accepted a position at a new company. The raise I'm getting by moving is 25% more than the total of all raises I've received during the 10 years I've worked here. I should have left sooner.
 

entremet

Member
This is such nonsense. Looking through Google they made the announcement in April 2017. Looking a their stock prices, yeah they did dip, but they've rebounded and increased as normal. So basically employees got better compensation and the stock had no long term damage. Both parties (employees and shareholders) won.

Shareholders are extremely myopic. They fuel this mess. But shareholders can't predict the market and they thought it would be a negative thing.
 
Shareholders are extremely myopic. They fuel this mess. But shareholders can't predict the market and they thought it would be a negative thing.

I get that, but using short term highly reactive stock prices as proof that it was a bad decision is terrible. And I think the reaction of shareholders was overblown. It's not like they asked the CEO to step down or anything, which would be the case for a major fuckup
 

Lunar15

Member
The weird problem I'm in is that I'm really proficient at my current job, but I haven't gained any really transferable skills. I feel hopelessly stuck and I'd really like to move on.
 

Dazzler

Member
I recently accepted a position at a new company. The raise I'm getting by moving is 25% more than the total of all raises I've received during the 10 years I've worked here. I should have left sooner.

My only raise in my current position came over two years ago, and it was a $2,000 a year raise.

I start a new job next week that instantly pays me $7,000 more, rising to $15,000 more in four years

Loyalty doesn't pay
 
I never planned on making this my career (been here about nine months). They were pretty much the first agency to hire me out of college. I even told them during the interview that I’m pretty much just using this as a stepping stone to get where I want and they were cool with it. I mean I could have this job for the rest of my life making good money and not having to worry about job security, but I just don’t like the field. So no amount of money is worth it to me. Now, if I get the job I’m currently going for, yeah I’ll spend the rest of my life there because it doesn’t get any better than that.
 

harSon

Banned
I only stayed with my current employer for so long since it's difficult to jump into a management position from the outside without already having some under your belt. Now that I have it though? I'll be jumping ships like a motherfucker.
 
Top Bottom