The Loyalty Tax is real and I paid it for 3 years
I started my career at service company fresh out of college. Like a naive idiot, I believed in learning and brand. I grinded 12 hours a day almost most of the days.
My first hike was 3-4% hike each time max, despite me being made to feel like a top performer
Meanwhile, my batchmate who did bare minimum work but switched companies every 1.5 years is now sitting at 35 LPA at a startup. I used to judge him for being too risk taking. Now I realize he was just smart.
Recently I just told my manager that I have started looking out (we have good relationship). He suddenly started mentioning how this year my hike is expected to be much higher (now the fuckers have suddenly some budget for me).
It honestly makes me sick. They value you only when you have one foot out the door.
For anyone thinking loyalty pays off in corporate India: it doesn't. You are just a resource on an Excel sheet. The only way to beat inflation and actually save money in Bangalore is to jump. Don't let HR gaslight you into staying for 'brand'
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Shouldn't have told your manager that you are looking out.
Why?
Behaviour changes.. they were good because you made their life easy and they had to get their deliveries done with you.. now that you have shown your cards they may not be the same.. also instead of you leaving and higher ups questioning him on why you left.. it might be better for manager to present it as if you weren't performing good so it's good that you resigned.. this thing that this time you would get better hike is just a trick to keep you hooked with false hopes and give him time to save his skin.. that's how corporate is..
Rarely you will find genuinely good manager but why to take risk by revealing your cards..
Bro..my manager made me wait for 2 years every time saying "this time we are going to give you a promotion with a double digit hike.". I didn't even get a single penny at least. I simply left the org after 3 years without even getting one rupee hike.
Did u confront him as to why he couldn't get u promotion?
He will say some stupid reason, but I know what exactly happened - I'm not a bootlicker. I put my 1000% effort and do my job. Even my colleagues know my work.
Maybe I should’ve learned office politics as well, haha..
Telling manager is a risky move, last person to share that with
True. After working tirelessly for two years at a product-based company that sold tea leaves online, I received a raise of only ₹900. Ironically, despite their sales skyrocketing during COVID, they cited COVID as the reason for the minimal hike. I eventually left and made a switch, but now at Accenture, I find myself facing similar practices again.
Just wondering, which company sells tea leaves online ?
You are under wrong impression that you have a good relationship with the manager
If you did the grind, you learnt a lot.
Now that you've learnt corporate bullshit companies pull, move on. Don't wait for the next hike here. Only 50-50 chance.
But don't take it as a sign to switch every 2 years. Take it as a sign to negotiate well during every switch, that it's worth the switch. Aim for 3 years
Rule of thumb never tell anyone in your current org you are looking for a change.
Use that hike as platform. I was in same boat, i got 0 perc hike for all the 4 years of my experience in infosys. I left my project and took project and worked hard for 6 months on it and then put my papers as it was good enough for switch. I got the new job for 70% hike. Its been 8 months and I do like the work culture here. I'm looking for good start up now to gain some skills and see how things work in that setup. My only advice for you is to get out asap.
Bro corporate loyalty tax is insane. I was a delivery manager in Wipro. Resigned as it was clear there was going to be no hike in 2025 even though I got a 5 rating.
Once i got the new offer , I gave my old L1 and L2 counter offer for retention of 40 percent hike.. even though the new offer is at 60 percent.
Both said no budget and won't be able to do it. Now 2 AVPs and 1 Delivery Manager(Senior manager) designation are doing the same work I was doing.
Somewhat similar situation for me but in different scenario. I came from a hard-core 3 years masters in Computer science background and always wanted to work in deep system software kind of projects in C, C++ etc. I always looked down upon ERP projects in SAP, Oracle, Salesforce etc. Now I see that my batch mates who worked in those areas are better off and have much better job security and WLB. Sometimes it's not worth doing the hard things in life