All too often, loyalty at work gets rewarded with more work instead of more pay.

One longtime employee practically ran a small business after the general manager left, so when he asked for a modest raise, the boss shut him down and told him to find another job.

So when he took that advice, the hands-off boss was forced to suit up himself for a change.

Keep reading for the full story.

Tell me to find another job after asking for a raise? Will do.

I started working for a small business when I was 20.

Fast forward 5 years and I’m practically running the place with just the general manager and assistant manager above me.

The GM leaves, so the assistant manager takes over naturally.

This employee felt entitled to a promotion, but was soon disappointed.

I waited 5 weeks for the owner to promote me to assistant manager.

It never came, yet my list of responsibilities grew and grew.

Both the work and the stress continued to grow.

We never hired anyone to take on my role, and we never hired anyone to replace another coworker who had left a few months prior.

We are so badly understaffed that it got to the point where if I didn’t show up to work, the only person that could open the business was the owner himself.

The boss was used to being pretty hands off.

That was not standard as he’s been semi-retired for 20 years.

He only comes in to check on things and pay the bills, about 5 hours a week at his desk.

I was currently making $12 an hour.

Finally, this employee pushed for a raise.

Five weeks after the GM left, I told the boss I wanted $15 an hour.

Not unreasonable considering the general manager was making $20 an hour and the assistant manager was making $18 an hour, both with full health insurance benefits.

I was not receiving health insurance through the business at the time.

The boss didn’t seem keen on rewarding this employee’s hard work.

Anyway, it took my boss 5 weeks to get back to me.

He kept ducking me.

If you’re keeping track, it’s now been 10 weeks since the general manager left and I still don’t have a raise.

So when they finally meet, the boss shares disappointing news once again.

When we finally have our sit down, he offers me $14 an hour but promises to give me a raise to $15 in a year.

I explained to him that $15 an hour was more than fair considering I don’t need to be on the health insurance plan.

He said the business was doing badly and that’s all he could afford.

The employee immediately clocked this as a lie.

For the record, the business was doing poorly compared to the previous year, but 75k or so had just cleared up on his payroll, so cry me a river.

They bring up the competition.

I told him Walmart is hiring cashiers for $13 an hour, Target for $14 an hour, and another local supermarket chain for $14.

I flat out said, “Why would I want to keep managing a business for $14 an hour when I can stock shelves at the grocery store for $14?”

The boss was growing impatient and basically shows the employee the door.

He kept his cool for the most part but was visibly upset.

He said, “Look, we just don’t pay that much here. If you want to make that much then go work for those people.”

Malicious compliance it is.

The employee decides to take the boss up on it.

Ok, you got it.

I gave him an extremely generous 60 days notice.

I needed to save a little more and I didn’t want to leave my coworkers hanging.

This was also a test.

I also wanted to see if he’d budge.

He didn’t.

The boss really didn’t seem to care about the future of the business.

During this time I expected to train new employees.

It never happened.

He never hired anyone.

He ended up picking up much of the slack himself.

Fast forward a few weeks after my departure, the boss himself has to work part-time to make up for my hours.

He’s now clocking in 20 hours a week after going 20 years without working a 9-5.

My old coworkers tell me he’s miserable.

I feel kinda bad because at the end of the day he was a nice enough person, but I’m not going to let myself get taken advantage of.

One day, the employer came crawling back.

Anyway, they called me just a few days ago and wanted to know if I wanted to work the summer, our busy season.

I explained that I have 5 years of experience in this field and left as an acting assistant manager, so if you want to hire me seasonally you’re going to have to pay me $17.50 an hour.

The manager told me they couldn’t afford that much.

So the former employee got real.

I said if you want to hire a high school kid for minimum wage during the busy season then go for it, have fun training them.

If you want to hire someone with years of experience that is already trained you’ll have to pay me $17.50 an hour.

He never got back to me.

Luckily, they found another job willing to pay more.

I’m currently making $18 an hour at another small business.

Maybe you shouldn’t tell a valuable employee to find another job when they ask for a reasonable raise.

Their loss.

Overworked and underpaid — a tale as old as time.

What did Reddit think?

No hardworking employee should be forced to accept less for good work.

Employers all too often underestimate their employees.

This boss doesn’t deserve any pity as far as this commenter is concerned.

This boss sounds way more manipulative than nice.

Turns out when you underpay the backbone of the company, you end up carrying the weight yourself.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.