Would You Quit a Job Over $1?
I’ve been feeling rather bold lately. I don’t know if it’s my new-found connection with Penelope Trunk’s writing and the fact that I can almost relate to her, or if it’s just me getting older (my 32nd birthday is this week) and really not giving a shit about what kind of trouble blogging might get me into.
But the fact remains, I once quit a job over $1.
Granted it was a dollar an hour, so maybe it’s more precise to say I quit a job over $2,000. But I was hourly…so life back then was measured hour-by-hour.
I had been Mohegan Sun’s in-house copywriter for a couple of years. My list of duties had grown, and I was becoming increasingly relied-upon to get shit* done. And based on my salary at the time and reasonable comparisons in the local market, I deserved a raise.
So I did what most people in corporate America won’t do. I asked for my raise.
But, I knew I had to play my cards right, so I did my research, got my information together, and even gave the casino some options:
A $2/hr raise, or…
A $1/hr raise and a title change to SENIOR Copywriter.
I figured the second option was a no-brainer. My plan, I thought, was flawless. I knew the power the word ’senior’ would give my resume if I were to ever leave Mohegan Sun’s advertising department. And to be
honest, the $2 option was just thrown in to make the 2nd option appear that much more appealing.
Throughout it all, I hadn’t planned for one slight twist: I wouldn’t be making my case to human resources or the Mohegan Tribe. No, that was done in secret by my immediate boss. I wasn’t even invited to offer any of my salary comparisons or to personally defend my position. So, I’ll never know what was said by my boss to back me up or what questions the tribe/HR raised and how my boss responded. However, I did trust her to make my case - that point I want to be clear. It was the process that I had a problem with. For a company that touts it’s human resources efforts, this was a total contradiction on Mohegan Sun’s part.
But talk about removing control from somebody’s career/self-determination. I waited…and I planned. I’d seen enough of how Mohegan Sun’s HR system worked to know that my desired outcome was no sure thing. A few weeks later, I was given the news. It was a no-go. Shortly after that, I quit for another job. If I wasn’t worth an extra $2,000 a year, then they weren’t worth my time.
Don’t get me wrong, there are no hard feelings. I could simply no longer justify working for a company who made decisions about my career in secrecy like that. In fact, had I received the raise, I might still be stuck there in Connecticut where gas prices and utility costs are among the highest in the nation, and making ends meet on a casino salary (below the title of manager) is next to impossible. Turns out it might just be the best decision an employer ever made for me.
*In addition to being bolder, I find I’m swearing more, too.
Jason Pedley is a freelance copywriter and legal permanent resident of the United States. His clients are in places like Dubai, Barbados, the United Kingdom, Canada and throughout the U.S. Don’t be shy, follow him on Twitter.
July 28th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I quit my last position over $0.50 an hour. I was informed that the generous raises that they used to give were being reassessed, and they made a last minute decision to be more “conservative” for the new year. I felt like Clark Griswold getting his membership to the Jello of the Month Club.
Actually, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. There were many other negative factors, but the lack of recognition for extra time and effort was too much. The moment I received the “great news” about my raise, I made the decision to create my own company and take control of my own earnings.
I was tired of being valued based on their view of how compensation levels should reflect the org chart template they downloaded from the internet.