this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Unethical Life Pro Tips

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An Unethical Life Pro Tip (or ULPT) is a tip that improves your life in a meaningful way, perhaps at the expense of others and/or with questionable legality. Share your best tips you've picked up throughout your life, and learn from others!

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I had 6 weeks of annual leave saved up. Im changing to a job that pays significantly more than my current salary. When my boss asked me what it would take to stay, I asked for a salary increase of 35% which he begrudingly gave me. Then I quit. This equated to an entitlement payout of about $10,700 instead of $8000 on my previous rate, an extra $2700. And the new job still pays more than the increased rate I asked for.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Alternative take. Fight hard for a promotion, of course if you can get a raise and promotion that is ideal. But usually companies get hung up on money.

If you can't get both don't hesitate to say, "I just want the title I don't need extra salary or anything. We can even take some of the extra work I've been doing and make them a normal part of my key responsibilities. "

Then as soon as you get it start applying to new jobs with that as your title. New jobs will always pay you significantly more for your new better title than the 2k or so you would get from a raise. I used this trick to triple my salary over 6 years, moving through a few jobs and from a receptionist to a Sr manager.

[–] themoonisacheese 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Why not just lie and say you have the title anyway to prospective employers? It's not like they have any way to check.

[–] NorwegianBlues 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In the UK we have a thing called references where they call your former employers and confirm your role and dates of work...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

They do have a way to check, and they always do for higher level jobs. Most great jobs include a 2-4 week background check period where they verify literally everything you've told them and some things you haven't told them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It’s hit or miss. Some employers check your references diligently and others don’t.

When I hired someone (creative field) we definitely checked their job title in conjunction with what their portfolio looked like, whether they passed a test and how well they interviewed.

Some had great references, but not those other things.

If you can’t do your job and don’t know basic things, I don’t care who you know. They would get further screened for educational and criminal background anyways.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Are references not a thing where you're from?

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Non Union people are so abused you think this is unethical.

One of our leave types pays out in March any hours over 96 if we don't ask to carry it over to the next year. We can take our overtime pay as leave (at 1.5 hours leave to 1 hour worked), and bonus holiday pay as leave.

This year the local negotiated a cost of living increase and eliminating the bottom two step increases, resulting in an approximate 14 percent pay bump for most employees. I also received a promotion this year.

I banked hundreds of hours of leave earlier this year from overtime and holidays that will payout in March next year 26 percent higher than when I worked it. I've done this every year I have promoted, and we are expected to do this since it is one of the ways we can burn our leave totals without taking off. If I had been really smart I would have carried over my leave from 2022 so it pays out next year, and I would have seen a single paycheck next year that was equal to half my years base pay last year.

When that pays out I will still have nearly 6 months of leave banked.

Your employer can afford to pay you. Make them pay you.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't forget to also use that leave to take care of yourself mentally and physically. It's not worth it to skip on enjoying your life now in favor of more money when you retire.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Of course. I also take almost a month's worth of vacation every year. The way my shift schedule rotates I can often take a single day off and go away for more than a week, making it easy to accrue leave if I'm only slightly picky with my schedule. The last few years I've started to pick up skiing.

I was sick for several weeks last year, which sucked but my sick leave covered it easily. That will get me 5% on my pension per year accrued at retirement and I'm still on pace to get a year. Partial years are counted but that's the easy number to remember

During the entirety of the pandemic we obtained free leave for a positive COVID test for the duration of the illness.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is pretty much what I did, although it was coincidental. Felt bad for my boss because he fought pretty hard to get a meaty pay rise for me, and then a month later I quit.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Dont feel bad for them. The company is doing more money, and if they ultimately give you a rise, that means you were working while you could have made more money.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I've been that boss, and I understand.

Fighting hard for my team to get fair pay is part of my job. Usually that means they stick around. Sometimes it doesn't.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Not a smart boss or HR department. A proper way to do this would be to give you a small raise plus a generous lump sum up front, but require you to work for 1 year or pay back that lump sum if you leave before a year is up.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

If you agree to "pay your employer", then you're a fool.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

An actually smart boss would pay employees you want to keep a generous salary instead of waiting to freak out when they try to leave for a better job

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

The only makes sense if they actually wanted to keep him that long after he tried to quit. We don't know for sure but potentially they just wanted to keep him around long enough to find a replacement (since he just told them he's quitting).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My next paycheck will be - worked 2 weeks (not full), PTO 2 weeks, 1 week of substituted pay (same as if I worked), 4 weeks of unpaid PTO.

I am quiting and I worked about week but my paycheck will be best in whole year I work here.

[–] NorwegianBlues 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

My bad, unused, in my country employer have to make sure you use your PTO or he has to pay you.

And if you have PTO from last year you can inform employer that you take it 14 days before and he has to approve it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I saw the name of this community in /all and my face pretty much went 😏😈