It seems to be SOP these days for a lot of large corporations to cultivate the environment in such a way that it’s very clear to everyone involved that if you want a raise (past the pittance that you get each year that doesn’t even keep up with the cost of living) or a promotion, you must leave the company.

The attitude seems to be that you must leave the company I work for with no more skills than you walked in with, EVER. Frequently employees who get training on their own are seen as being “disloyal” by trying to improve their skill set. Why? Because if you’re making yourself more marketable, clearly it means you’re not interested in staying in the position you have that doesn’t require those skills, and are dissatisfied with the opportunities that you’ve been granted at your current company. (The fact that those opportunities are frequently described as “no fucking way” never enters into the thought process.)

Why large corporations seem to be so incredibly phobic of encouraging the professional growth of its employees is a mystery to me. It’s so incredibly pervasive that many companies have stopped hiring IT staff *altogether*. Instead they hire “contractors” (read: “temps” or “slaves” or “disposable humans”) to do the jobs that need to be done for the continued functioning of the company. The contractor gathers experience about the computing environment over the months (or, more likely, years) that they’re there, which is rendered completely useless to both the contractor and the company when one of the following happens:

1) Some beancounter arbitrarily decides that payroll is too high and forces someone to lay off contractors regardless of the importance of their role,

2) The contractor is fired (oh, excuse me, “has their contract terminated”) because of some incredibly minor infraction of the rules, their failure to take abuse from a permanent employee, or just because, or

3) The contractor realizes there is no place to go from where they are, and decides to leave. The company has to go hire and train another “contractor”, during which time the (usually critical) work the contractor was doing goes undone, to the detriment of the entire organization.

This isn’t restricted to IT by a long shot. A close friend of mine had been in the same job for 4 years. His supervisor left to take another job, leaving the position open. This friend of mine had more seniority and experience than others in his group (not to mention being the only one in the group that actually did any work, the rest spent most of their time talking about Pro Wrestling and NASCAR.) His supervisor wrote a letter recommending him for the position once she had left. A golden opportunity to reward a valued employee for hard work.

Rather than promote him (even in title, maybe not with a raise), they decided to eliminate the position. That’s how much they didn’t want to promote him (or anyone else). A lot of corporations have raised the concept of “penny wise, pound foolish” to an art form.

These are just several reasons of why I am currently looking for employment elsewhere. Not necessarily because I want more pay, but rather because of the negative attitude and backlash I have been dealt for going to school. I have literally been punished for bettering myself and I refuse to continue putting up with it.