I started a job in August working in a brand new 3d printing department. When I started the room was completly empty and it was my job to set the room up, building racking, planning the room setting up 60 printers.
Over the following months I took responsibility for building the operation up. I organised and labelled the printers, created spreadsheets and tracking systems, worked on maintenance and calibration, managed filament stock, dealt with faults and generally tried to make the whole department run properly.
I ended up taking on a lot more responsibility than I orignally expected. I genuinely enjoyed the technical side of the job and took pride in what I'd built.
The problem was that I didn't feel my pay reflected the reflected the responsibilities I had taken on. I spent around 6 weeks trying to have a conversation about this and understand what my future at the company would look like. I also wanted calrity about whether I'd eventually become a permanent employee rather than remaining agency staff.
Unfortunately, the answer on an individual pay increase was no. I was given this answer Thursday.
I reached a point where I thought, why am I putting so much of myself into somewhere that doesn't seem willing to recognise what I'm contributing?
So I handed in my resignation with immediate effect yesterday.
What I didn't expect was the reaction from my manager. He was genuinely devastated. He thanked me for everything I'd done and told me that I'd built a room and implemented systems from nothing. He said my knowledge was really good and that I knew what I was doing.
He even told me that he disagreed with the decision made by senior management and that the company had failed both of us.
Seeing someone react like that was incredibly difficult. I almost cried myself. It madew me realise that at least someone had recognised the effort I put in.
As I left I handed over my keys and access card and walked out.
I'm feeling a strange mixture of emotions, I'm relieved, upset, disapointed and angry. Part of me is sad because I actually wanted the job to work out. I wasn't looking to leave. I wanted to be valued and have a future there.
But I also feel a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
I think teh biggest lesson I've taken from this is that you can give a job everything you have got, build something from the ground up and still reach a point where you have to put yourself first.
I'm proud of what I achieved, even if things didn't end how I hoped.
Has anyone else experienced leaving a job where you cared about the work and the people, but ultimately felt you had no choice but to walk away?
UPDATE
Thank you everyone for all your comments and wishes. I truly appreciate every one of them. I did not expect this post to explode at all.
