This is pretty much my life. For a long time. Which shows how ineffective I am at dealing with it.
If you're right, demand enough money to make the drowning worth it. And right or wrong, it sounds like it's probably time to start poking at the industry competitors. Any spiteful rivalries to leverage? Someone might be happy to take you on just to stick a thumb in your company's eye.
Time to retire to the minivan?
Everything you've said in this post mirrors what I see at my work. Honestly, I think a lot of the problems we bemoan are simply "the way it is" and are common everywhere. It doesn’t reduce the frustration we experience, but the truth is that going somewhere else won’t change a thing.
Previous post still stands. You and your wife need to talk and decide how much you would need to retire in 5 years. Divide by 5, and that is your new salary requirement if your boss wants to keep your product running as is. Otherwise you dial back to whatever amount of work you are comfortable doing as 1 person. If that's not enough for the c suite, too fucking bad. You are doing the work of an entire team, so they need to pay you for it, or pay whatever it takes to get you those coworkers so you can have a sane work/life balance.
For awhile I thought one of my devs could replace me, but after today I realized how far behind me he actually is. Guy can code like no ones business but:
This isn't something to be ashamed of, and is 100% something you need to use to your advantage while it is true. $500k annual salary for 5 years minimum is what I would ask for. The product brings in millions annually, and will be lost entirely if they lose you. Tell your manager that you want to pass that knowledge on, as well, so that the company can keep the product going after you are gone. And get rid of your autist. If he can't use AI the way you are he is a liability and a waste of resources. Frees up more money for your successors.
I agree with moonarchia here, you have leverage and you don't particularly like the job anyway, whats the worst thing that can happen, they fire you for asking for a raise?
It's kind of a weird situation. My previous boss got promoted super high up the chain a few months ago so I have a new manager now. That previous manager knew exactly what I was worth and I was his golden child (I don't know how to word this without sounding douchy) - he involved me in a lot and told me he saw huge leadership potential. New manager has been extremely hands off so it's different.
Go to your old manager who is now pretty high up, go this new guy sucks and I’m feeling stifled, I’d love to come work for you again, put me in coach. I’ll be your guy! Which you will be if he gives you a big jump.
I wouldn’t try to convince the people who aren’t seeing your worth of it. I’d find people who do see your worth and ask them for jobs, like your old manager.
You can absolutely swing it. Get the actual data from sales on how much they are bringing in due to your product. Bring that in when you go see your manager, and tell him what you expect to be paid if they want to keep bringing in that amount per year. Don't sugar coat it, and say you expect to see a contract at that rate with a minimum of 5 years on your desk by Friday or you will be reevaluating your employment options. Honestly, you should be getting applications out anyways. A company too stupid to prevent an entire product line having a single person keeping it alive is going to fail sooner or later.
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No I get it, but that would be asking for a 100% raise give or take. They do need to do something though.
I'm going to hurl motivational quotes at you until you do it, man.
You are doing the work of 5 already. A 100% raise would be far cheaper than finding 4 more Noodles.
He works for Dell, right? Forget it. Large, public corporations don’t hand out raises on a whim, and they absolutely will not give raises over a certain percentage (probably around 10%). I had to leave my company and come back in order to get a significant "raise."
Not with that attitude they won't! You're probably right, I'm just pointing out the lack of downside here since he said he's getting burned out anyway. Ask for what you want and if you don't get it you were halfway out the door anyway, it's fine.
