Throughout our working lives, we all undergo several experiences through our professional careers, and have either been promoted or fired at some point. It is part of our working lives. If you have been at a company for more than five years and you haven’t faced a promotion after consistent efforts, this could be a clear sign time to leave. Often times this can be difficult, feeling guilty about leaving a company you have been committed to for years. Sometimes it’s anxiety surrounding announcing your two-week notice. If you’re anything like myself, you don’t enjoy this confrontation. Whatever the case, majority of people have worked some job they didn’t enjoy making them feel distressed about usual work tasks. It can be so draining, that it takes away all motivation to wake up in the mornings. When employee’s reach this limit, we see a drop in organizational commitment that can negatively affect the larger functions of the business. Recognizing these signs is important to reduce this issue that is known to drastically hurt employee productivity.

I will use my previous employee the Home Depot, as an example. In the middle of the academic year, I found myself unhappy and ready for a new opportunity after working in retail the last two years. At my two year review, I had a meeting with the store manager in hopes of a new increased role. I had already began bridging out of my department since day one, working towards climbing up the leadership ladder. Unfortunately at the time, there was no need for a department head or supervisor at our store. It was also the middle of a pandemic. I brushed this off as I expected things to be rough, my ultimate goal was to highlight my contributions to the company in hopes to receive a raise. I had credentials to operate almost all machinery and trained across multiple departments. In short, I put my strong efforts forward to increase my role. Weeks after the performance interview, it was “crickets”. I soon met with my supervisor and expressed to them that I am considering leaving since I knew my skills were in demand elsewhere, especially as I near degree completion. The main point I made were my attitudes towards my current hourly pay. Nothing changed. For about two months I was job searching and quickly found another role, with a high ceiling for growth with the University. During these two months, I depleted my commitment to the Home Depot. At times I was negatively hurting the store with my increased lateness, and using up all my sick hours. I was no longer committed to the Home Depot and I wanted to make sure they knew through my reduced efforts. After being with the company for two years and the Corvallis store for 14 of those months giving my top effort, I gave them regular output “David”. It was noticeable, bringing up my job description and responsibilities to my supervisors when asked to do tasks I usually would do without question.

After a few weeks of my “mentally exiting behavior” there was another manager meeting. I was told how my behavior was noticed and they wished to keep me, though my tardiness has became an issue. There was no discussion around a change in compensation or benefits, rather addressing my reduced commitment. I knew it was time to pack it up when I received praise for my work, but was not reflected in my compensation. I understand through my business courses sometimes HR has their hands tied, though I believe I gave a fair warning toward about my leave. In my final week of work I met with my manager again who asked if I wished to keep working there. I had told them at that same meeting, that I applied and was accepted to another job position already. They were shocked. Without a doubt they wished to realign my commitment to the organization, although it was too late.

I chose this experience because throughout this process I hadn’t necessarily wished to leave, just be compensated more for my work. I was torn on what to do, whether it was wrong or right. I realized that things would not change and I had to take action towards my intentions. I share this experience to encourage you and everyone in speaking up towards your management figures and ask for that raise. If you are a hard contributing worker like myself, strive to become familiarized with your job description and responsibilities so that you can accurately reflect your compensation and benefits, and maybe not exit your current employer on bad terms.