Employee Complains About Working at Job 18 Months and Still Not Getting a Raise

Kenneth Maxwell (TikTok:@kenmaxborn) works in marketing and says that he's devoted a solid 18 months of his time to being the best darn employee that he can be. This is probably why he found it a bit weird that management didn't approach him to let him know that he would be getting a raise, or at the very least set up a meeting to discuss a possible merit increase.

In his first video about his gripe with the business, he says: "I work in marketing. I've worked at this company for 18 months. I have gotten no cost of living adjustment, merit increase. Promotion. Nothing over that eighteen months I have gotten absolutely zero, zero changes to my compensation. I have no growth plan, I've no idea what's going on. And so I'm having a one-on-one with my boss this week to talk about how this kinda sucks."

He continued with his diatribe: "I know it's like not a great job market and we should all be like so blessed and grateful to even have a job at all but I just am not buying that I feel like you need to create an incentive for me to stay if you want me to continue working hard and being happy like you need to take care of me."

The TikToker then delineated what philosophy he was going to adopt headed into his meeting in order to walk out of it with some kind of raise: "So the language that I'm going to use in this one on one is you do not accept zero percent growth for our clients why are you asking me to accept zero percent growth for myself? I have no idea how that's gonna go but I felt like it was pretty powerful language...feel free to steal it."

So how did Kenneth's attempt at nabbing himself a better salary work out for him? Well, he thankfully uploaded a follow-up video where he shared all the nitty gritty details as to what went down when he met up with his supervisor to discuss his prospective raise.

He said in his clip, "I didn't have the conversation today and the way that I framed it was you know, look, you know I've really been exceeding your expectations going above and beyond my time here I just wanna understand is...why haven't I had a merit increase or like even had the conversation about that yet."

Kenneth went on to say that following his discussion with his supervisor, he was left with a very "thank you next" attitude towards the company. That's because his supervisor wanted to table any discussions regarding a raise/merit increase until March of 2024 and that the business doesn't necessarily follow any particular guidelines when it comes to standardizing when raises occur.

According to the TikToker, his manager informed him that the current "business needs" and "climate" of the workplace meant that any discussions pertaining to a raise just weren't a priority...which left him feeling like his current place of work wasn't exactly a priority either.

He said that even though his attempt didn't work with his manager at this company in getting him a raise, he still thinks that the language was "powerful" and that it "resonated" with a lot of people on the platform for a reason.

Commenters who saw his video agreed with Kenneth's expectation for some type of salary increase and believed that it was more than fair for him to, at the very least expect a conversation on a merit increase, especially since he was there for 18 months and killing it.

"I don’t think expecting additional compensation after 18 months is unrealistic at all," one person wrote.

Another penned, "After 1 year it’s normal to get some type of raise. I don’t get the hate comments"

Someone else said that after seeing the way his manager responded to his request for a raise, then he could now, without guilt, perform the amount of work and put in the effort that is tantamount to what he is earning: "Now you know you can pull back and do the job at the level they’re willing to compensate you for without feeling guilty. Good luck on the job search," they wrote.

Someone else said that's responsible for the marked dip in quality for goods and services from US companies over the years: "The way worker retention seems to be devalued so much is so in line with the quality of everything decreasing"

What do you think? Is 18 months too short of a time for an employee to expect or even request a salary increase? Or do you believe that Kenneth wasn't out of pocket at all and it was pretty lame of the company to not even bring up or suggest a possibility for a future merit increase after he had done such good work for them over an 18 month period?