‘I [said] $200 per hour… minimum 4 hours’: Senior admin quits after denied a raise, company can't function without him and has to agree to 5x his initial salary

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Oct 18, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

It's not always easy to take the high road, but when it comes to your career, it's important to choose that path. Like I said, it's not easy, but if you don't you could ruin your whole career. Sure, it would be way more satisfying to burn some bridges and tell all those incompetent coworkers and upper management off, but you just have to walk away and hope for better thing. 

Sometimes, however, your high road still leads to a satisfying ending. For example, the reddit post this senior admin commented on. He worked at a company that totally took him for granted, but he was left alone to do his job and he was content. Until the hired two junior admins to work with him and he found out they were making way more than him. Everything would have still been cool if they just gave him a raise, but when he requested one he was denied. He started rage applying to new jobs and had one in less than a month. He peaced out taking the high road and left happily. However, just a couple of weeks later he started getting panicked calls from his old job. They had no idea how to do his job and needed his help. 

Oh, so he quits because you won't give him a raise and now you think he's going to advise you for free? I THINK NOT. He said he would only help them if they paid him $200 an hour with a 4 hour minimum and he is NOT training anyone. At first they resisted and were even offended by that, but why would he care? He went on living his best life at his new job. The quickly called back and agreed to his terms and signed an agreement. 

Now he has a new, better paying job, AND a side hustle from his old job that is paying him 5x more than they had initially been paying him. So as you can see, sometimes taking the high road can be just as satisfying and burning them bridges. 

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    Font - r/sysadmin Posted by u/punklinux 1 day ago Schadenfreude: has anyone ever found out that after they left a sysadmin job, they were actually screwed without you? Either fired, quit, laid off? What happened? Work Environment I always hear about people claiming that "this company will collapse without me!" Has that ever happened? I know a lot of departments that suffered without me, but overall, it was their toxic management of poor business plan that did them in.
    via u/punklinux
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    Font - ency 23 hr. ago When I started with the company there were 400 employees. I started off as a Jr. admin and worked myself up to a Sr. admin, by then the company had over 8000 emplyees. They never added to the IT
    via u/ency
  • 04
    Font - department it was a small but skilled crew. Starting as a Jr admin I had managed to become the owner of all the systems the sr admins did not want to deal with and I did it all well enough everyone forgot that the systems needed
    via u/ency
  • 05
    Font - management and that I was the one doing the management. Well after 5 years there they approved hiring two jr admins to assist me on some of the more high profile projects. I found out the Jr admins were
    via u/ency
  • 06
    Font - making more than double what I was making. I setup a meeting with HR and the CIO to ask for a raise. Documented all my work brought in regional salary ranges and even made a powerpoint.
    via u/ency
  • 07
    Font - When I got to the meeting HR said they knew what the meeting was about and it was up to the CIO to approve a raise. I looked over to him and he said the best he could do was a reference letter.
    via u/ency
  • 08
    Font - This was right after the recession and the job market was starting to pick up but the higher ups still thought they had everyone by the boils.
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  • 09
    Font - I left the meeting with my tail between my legs and just started rage applying to every job I could find. I landed a Sr admin position making almost 5 times what I was making and sent HR my resignation letter the day
    via u/ency
  • 10
    Font - my 401k was fully vested. They took a week and a half to let my management know and when they found out they started to panic. I spent two days getting the Jr admins and a few of the sr's spun up on the high
    via u/ency
  • 11
    Font - profile stuff and finished up the week. two weeks later I started getting panicked called from my old coworkers and director. I told them I could not help as I was not an employee. A week later the CIO called
    via u/ency
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    Font - begging for my help. I had a contract drawn up already for 200 per hour minimum 4 hours any time they called me. I would fix things but not help train any one. He told me to f off and I went back to work. A
    via u/ency
  • 13
    Font - week later he called me back and agreed to my price. I made more than my requested salary in less than the six months took them to replace the systems I managed or got some one trained up to manage them. Oh and
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  • 14
    Font - they had to hire 2 more jr admins and 2 more sr admins to do so. So because they would not pay me the same as my peers they ended up
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  • 15
    Font - having to pay 5 times what it would have cost to keep me along with all the money paid to licenses and seats for new applications to rebuild what I managed from scratch.
    via u/ency
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    Font - suaveknight 19 hr. ago ● I need a cigarette after that one.
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    Font - TheTomCorp. 5 hr. ago "The CIO called begging for my help" "I said best I can do is a reference letter" Drops the phone Puts on dark sunglasses.
    via u/TheTomCorp
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    Font - ency - 5 hr. ago I wish I had done that but I knew they would come crawling back for help. five years there and I knew where all the bodies were buried and
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  • 19
    Font - all the weird one off servers and programs that only certain sites used and no one from corporate knew or cared about.
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  • 20
    Font - TheTomCorp. 4 hr. ago I'm old enough and should be mature enough that I should be proud of myself for not burning a bridge early in my career.
    via u/TheTomCorp
  • 21
    Font - However, anytime I think back about it, I regret not telling them off. I think it's because the further I get in my career, I understand more and more that the dude I worked for was a terrible manager.
    via u/TheTomCorp
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    Font - I was a contractor, workers' contracts got renewed for 6 month, me my co- and another person got renewed for 3 months, and they hired 2 new people. I
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    Font - requested a meeting with the boss (I never saw him, I was on the night shift), so it was the first time meeting him. He basically said the 3 month renewal was based on feedback someone provided him. He
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    Font - wouldn't tell me what feedback, who said it, or what I could do to improve. I asked how he knew the feedback was truthful. He explained he doesn't need a reason. The 2 new people didn't work out, got let go, and I found
    via u/TheTomCorp

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tech job failblog junior admin satisfying quits side hustle IT job sysadmin computer tech raise workplace senior admin Reddit working it internal raise workplace story
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