You Can’t All Quit at the Same Time!
Many employers are stupidly short-sighted and self-defeatingly penny-wise but pound-foolish.
The last time I had a “real job” and asked for a raise, the company president told me something really frustrating.
“Ron, you’re doing a great job. But you’re capped out at what we have budgeted for your position. If I paid you any more, I wouldn’t be investing in the position; I’d be investing in you.”
It was demoralizing to know that I’d been hired to do a job, and that I was doing it well, but was now being told I had capped out and there way I could advance further.
In a sense, I had “reached the top,” but the top of what?
If this was a mountain, it was a small mountain, and reaching the summit just wasn’t very impressive. All I could see from my vantage point was lots of other mountains that were much bigger, and with my new perspective standing there on the summit, I could now clearly see that what I wanted was out there in the distance.
I liked my job, but my wife had just given birth to our fifth child, and I wasn’t making enough money to pay our basic bills. We also didn’t have benefits like health insurance. Staying in that role looked good on paper, but it would have meant just surviving.
I couldn’t imagine sticking around for much longer: as a Marketing Director, there was nobody above me except the company president. So, he would have had to make a massive change in my compensation, or at least offer me equity or something that could really give me a solid vision for the future and something big to aspire to and grow into.
Instead, I was told that this was it—this was as good as it would get.
So, I left and found another company that valued me more. I couldn’t understand how a company could be so short-sighted.
That line has stuck in my craw for years, ever since I first heard it.
“I’d be investing in you.”
I’m still mad about that. Why on earth would an employer choose not to invest in their people? Do they not know or care that we, as employees, are investing in their company?
I had no ownership interest in the company. If I made the company fabulously profitable, it really wouldn’t result in any big windfall for myself. What was in it for me?
The most frustrating thing was that I had asked for a raise on my first anniversary in the role. When I took the job, I had given myself an ambitious goal: to double our recurring monthly revenue from marketing services. …and I had.
I had literally doubled our MRR (monthly recurring revenue) from marketing services in 10 months—two months earlier than my goal.
I was really proud of that. I had worked really hard to make that happen.
But the company didn’t care: he was saying I had reached my peak, and it wasn’t worth investing more in me as a person—only in the position itself.
So, I left and took myself with me, leaving behind the position for someone else to fill.
The strangest thing about all this was how, right around the same time, several other employees—many of whom had been there for several years—decided to quit as well. We secretly high-fived each other in the break room when they told us the news.
“You got a new job? No way! Where at? That’s so great! Congratulations! Tell me more!”
But all this turnover caused the company’s president to panic. At one point, in frustration, he literally shouted out to everybody and nobody in particular.
“You can’t all quit at the same time!”
I didn’t feel sorry for him at all. It was clear I wasn’t the only person feeling the same thing.
What a strange experience. I couldn’t understand how a company could be so shortsighted.
Since then, unfortunately, I’ve learned that it wasn’t just him. Many companies—and company owners—are like this.
They’re “penny wise, pound foolish,” thinking they’ll save a few bucks by not giving their employees what they’re asking for, or what they’re worth, but then end up paying through the nose to replace them when those employees leave.
Why on earth would an employer choose not to invest in their people?
The clear lesson to me was: if you don’t invest in your employees, they won’t invest in your company, and they’ll find someone else who will.
At least that’s what I did, and now I invest in myself by running my own business. And I haven’t had to ask for a raise in years.
And if I ever did, I’d tell myself: “Yes. Because I’m willing to invest in you.”