It can be really good for employee morale to promise a raise after a certain period of time. It can encourage employees to stick with the job.

But what happens when the promise of a raise ends up being a lie? Will employees stick with the job anyway, or will they look for a job that actually pays fairly?

Let’s see what the security guard in today’s story decides to do.

“If your pay raise isn’t enough, quit.” OK then.

I got a job as a security guard after leaving the Army, because I wasn’t qualified to do much else, and I hadn’t decided if I was going to college yet or not.

The company refused to pay very much so they had high turnover. Because of the turnover, they had small raises built in at 90 days, six months and a year as an incentive to stay on.

I needed a job, and until I had my stuff together, this would do. So I showed up and worked.

He didn’t get his one year raise.

My one year anniversary rolls around and I don’t see my 50 cents an hour raise in my paycheck, but something more like 35 cents.

So I called the boss.

My three and sixth month raises had been delivered with no issues, so I was surprised my one year anniversary hadn’t shown up.

Supposedly they wanted to give all employees a raise, so they did. And yes, I got a small raise, along with all the other guards – a few hundred of us. It was something like 35 cents an hour for each of us.

He asked again about his one year raise.

Ok, fine, but what about my promised 50 cents an hour? As far as I was concerned, this 35 cents an hour was something you initiated, after promising me more, so this is bonus.

When I called the manager, I was told I wasn’t going to get a raise for my one year raise because, “You just got a raise. No one gets two raises at once. If your pay raise isn’t enough, quit.”

In other words, they were trying to claim a 35 cent an hour raise for every employee somehow was over-riding the fact that I was owed an additional 50 cent an hour longevity raise.

I’m sure there were others caught up like that.

Time to look for another job.

Fine. They want to give me 35 cents an hour of a raise and tell me that is equal to the 85 cents an hour? I’ll find something better.

I spent the next week calling in sick and showing up late while job hunting.

Called the office at the end of my last day, and told them I was done and they could find someone else, giving them no notice at all.

Panic mode ensued.

Everyone else was at 40 hours for the week and they hated paying overtime. One of the salaried managers had to cover for me.

He made a major career change.

They told me to quit, so I did.

I’m a teacher now, near retirement. My raises are still bad. But at least I can (barely) live off of it and I have a (bad) union for now, which is more than I had then.

A few more cents an hour and they could have kept me as a wage slave. Crazy that I would even consider it now, looking back on it.

At least I enjoy my job today, as crazy as the kids are.

It sounds like it ended up working out for the best that he didn’t get the raise they owed him so that he would be motivated to get a different job.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

When will they learn?

Yup. This is what happened.

This person also quit over a raise.

Here’s another story about someone quitting over a raise.

If you don’t pay your employees fairly, don’t be surprised when they quit!

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.