Employee stands up for themself and quits job after being asked to work more for less money

Ask any employee about the essential motivating factor in their job and many will say their paycheck. However, companies have entered a juncture where they cannot afford to pay their employees. They put employees in difficult positions with significant pay cuts which eventually leads to them quitting their jobs. In a recent Reddit post, an employee detailed why he left a job after his employer attempted to cut his pay.

The employee, who goes by u/cjmaddux on Reddit, explains that he worked as a consulting salesperson in the building materials industry in a small town for long hours. He ended up in charge of nearly half of the business. He mentioned that the long hours and pressure from larger companies made him miss family time and began to take a toll on his personal life. "I asked my boss to either reduce my hours while keeping my annual pay the same or pay me more per hour to stay on the same schedule, as my time with my family was too valuable to me to continue the way we were going," he writes.

Fast forward to a month later, when the boss hired a "business consulting" company to tell him what was going wrong with his business. The boss eliminated all overtime for the workforce, including the Reddit user, due to the company's inventory overflow and expensive labor costs. He told his boss that his entire budget was built around the annual income for four years or so and that he could not compensate.

"Salary me, adjust my hourly rate, give me more responsibility, but I cannot afford my home if 30 hours of overtime per 2-week paycheck went away," he added. The boss lashed out at the employee, calling him selfish and saying he was "missing the bigger picture." He mentions, "I was already woefully under-compensated for my work compared to the same position for even our competitors, and he conceded that point and said that he could not afford it. So I said, I am sorry, but I cannot afford it either."

He handed in his two weeks notice and offered to stay and train a replacement, but his boss was not having it and asked him to leave immediately. He writes, "I pointed out that I was owed three weeks of vacation and cashed that out, too. Accounting cut me a 5-week check, and I walked out."

He left his workplace and contacted a former vendor to inquire about job openings. He was given the job and asked to fill out some paperwork. "I have been at that job for the last six years. I work a normal 8-5 schedule and get paid far more than before," he shared. Pay cuts are so critical that many employees are willing to jump ship and look for better job prospects elsewhere.

The equation here is simple: You slog out five to six days a week, and it is only fair that you are rewarded for your hard work and efforts with generous pay. If not, walking out on your company can be a better option. Money motivates people and when companies provide financial incentives for performance, innovation, or length of employment, they feel valued. The Reddit user ended the post by saying, "In all fairness, my former boss was a great guy who helped me and my family a lot. He could not afford to keep me, and I could not afford to stay. The saddest part for me was hearing about how he told anyone who would listen how I betrayed him and the business in his time of need. His business closed six months after I left after over 100 years of service."