A lot of managers eat their words at one time or another without even realizing that they have been alienating the workers they need to value.

And if you don’t want to lose the people you have, you probably shouldn’t challenge them to leave.

Watch this situation prompt a worker to take a big step in her career.

If you tell your employees that people who want more money should work somewhere else, don’t be surprised when they quit.

About four years ago I worked for a company that provided behavior services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

We did individual counseling, parent trainings, data analysis, etc.

Think highly specialized mental care and support in home and community settings.

But the rewarding nature of the work wasn’t enough.

After two years of working there and getting another certification, I asked my boss for a raise.

I was newly divorced and raising 3 kids, so I really needed the money.

I had been working 10+ hours a week of overtime to stay afloat.

My boss also knew about my situation.

My evaluations were great and I had been told I would be moved up to supervisor soon, so my boss had to have known this conversation was coming.

This man looked me dead in my eyes and said that he knew I wanted to make more money and my reviews were great, but he wanted to make sure I was “loyal to the company mission.”

He told me he can tell when people are “Just looking to make more money. And we tell those people to go work somewhere else.”

He wanted to make sure that the new supervisor would “Put the company mission and families they support first.”

He told me that he couldn’t offer me a raise at that time but he would get back to me.

No date was set for a follow up meeting or anything.

So she realized her worth and went for it.

I started applying for new jobs that day.

Within two weeks I had found a new position making double the salary for only 40 hours of work a week.

As it turns out, I was being severely underpaid (shocker, I know).

The day I handed in my notice, my boss and the owner were in a meeting about my new position within the organization.

Of course no one said anything to me about it beforehand.

They sent me an offer, which I politely declined because it sucked.

Then they tried to hire me on as a contractor at a rate that was at least 25% lower than every other contractor rate in the city for my position, so I turned that down too.

My boss and the owner were both shocked that I rejected their offers, especially since they were willing to offer me “so many perks,” they were giving me the opportunity to “become a leader in a great company” and believed I was “a great clinician” who would do “so many great things within their organization,” etc.

I reminded my boss that he is the one who told me to go work somewhere else and then I stopped responding to their messages.

Here is what folks are saying.

But! But! We have a ping pong table and salad Wednesdays! (Rolling eyes.)

Exactly. It’s code for: “We’re toxic.”

Yep! But they never get it.

Exactly. The gaslighting is ridiculous.

That’s it. Really!

I hope lots of people in the same boat read this and make their move.

You have to know you’re own value.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.