About two years ago I was working as a video editor for a local company here in Corvallis, and I quickly realized I was being underpaid. While at first I was very happy to be making money again, the long hours, tedious work, and constant stress about deadlines made me question whether the $12 an hour was worth it. As a result of this, over time I found myself putting less effort into my work and began to become very unmotivated when it came to my tasks. A few of us enquired to our employer about a potential raise, but our requests were quickly shut down. This rejection by our boss made us feel as though we weren’t a valued part of the company and that were merely there to be paid barely enough to get by while enduring extreme stress. The compensation in this situation (or lack thereof) was one of my main reasons for eventually going on to leave the company in search of a working environment. This situation made me realize just how important compensation is in the workplace and how big of an affect it has on our day-to-day work tasks. What it came down to was feeling as though my employer didn’t value the skills I had to offer, and the compensation plan simply reflected this sentiment.
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