a 10% raise.... FML

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After working for this small company for a year, the guy who had been promising me a raise for the past 6 months finally pulled through. He gave me a 10% raise. I've never felt worse in my life. I make about $10,000 less than the average salary for my job (for my area) and most of the guys at this company make 50% more than me. The type of work I do, very few others would. It involves an equal amount of janitorial work and heavy lifting/construction work. all of at a poverty wage. I've never been hit so hard by my aspieness in my life. I work like a horse every day and my employers dismiss my needs like i'm some sort of pet dog asking for too much. My employers act like they are doing me a favor by keeping me working.... it makes me feel useless and ret*d eventho I know I contribute an immense deal. Examples: I skip lunch every day, I don't take needless breaks, I work fast and don't waste time with socializing or small talk... I may just be the most productive employee doing what I do at this company... yet I feel really down right now. Like all my efforts have been in vain. anyone been thru this before?

Yes, I certainly have. I worked my butt off in my first job and what did it get me? Practically railroaded out the door. I have a good if not too easy job right now and my advice is take your full lunch and breaks and relax a bit. One thing that you (and I mean this in a general sense not you personally) need to be mindful of is not to be a lapdog or to be perceived as a butt kisser. I've met a few of those and higher ups love to take advantage of them. Don't be afraid to be assertive and stand up for yourself: something I wish I did years ago.

I think you're right about that. I don't think of myself as a butt kisser but i have complemented my boss and others who are doing a good job. I was genuinely trying to make them feel better and giving them props... not trying to gain anything out of it. But in retrospect this might have hurt me. This is my first full time job after working for a small family business for 5 years. I'm not used to having to compete with coworkers and having bosses not care at all about your needs.... it's taking some getting used to and there is a lot i still have to learn it seems

that was a good advice by gianthockeyfan.....
dont work more than you are paid for....
just enjoy your work like you would enjoy a picnic
do complete your task without expectations...
and welcome to the club most of the aspie's face the same problem me too......

Welcome to the world of bosses with no conscience at all, who will promise the world, then deliver nothing and still pretend to be your best friend. I'm sorry about your experience, but the sooner you accept it and learn to protect yourself, the better.

I've mostly been very fortunate with bosses, but I did work for a guy once who I now believe to be a psychopath in the true sense of the word. I honestly believe he had no empathy whatsoever, but he was incredibly good at faking it. He had this amazing ability to inspire trust in others, both customers and staff. He would then screw them over in some way. He always seemed to know just the right thing to say and was by far the best salesperson I've ever seen. It never ceased to amaze me. He was so good at this, that even I took about 3-4 months to be sure that he's full of BS - and I consider myself an excellent BS detector!

As I see it, you have a few options now:

1) Talk to you boss and try to get a higher raise. It may work if he actually does recognise your value to the company, but wants to avoid paying you more for as long as he can. I would be assertive, like GiantHockeyFan said, and mention data that supports your point (the work you do, how efficient you are, the results you get, salaries for comparable jobs), but I wouldn't threaten to quit unless I was prepared to go through with it right then and there.
2) Use the experience gained in your current job to find a better one. Whether you can do that depends on a lot of factors, of course. It won't be easy, but it's probably the only long-term solution.
3) Reduce the quality or quantity of your work to match the pay you're getting. That may work to send a message to your boss, but it could get you fired as well. It really comes down to whether you need the company more than the company needs you. I'd use this only as a fallback option if the first two failed.
4) Do nothing and let things continue as they are. It's not a good option, but it's the easy one.

I'm sorry you are underpaid for such hard work but when I saw 10% raise I initially thought what a lucky duck you were, before I read it all. I realize it doesn't bring you up to where you should be but in my experience that's a huge raise. I worked for 13 years and didn't get a single raise for probably the last 7-8 years. They only gave raises to people who actually turned water to wine. You should probably look for another job if you are so underpaid, but with the economy as it is, that might not be an option.

Your colleagues may be the type that kiss the boss's butt. I lost a seasonal job because I didn't get along very well with the big boss at a company and was one of the best performers out of the season. I didn't get along with the boss's friend (who was an a-hole and acted like you were inconveniencing her to ask for help or she actually had to pick herself up and work) and that was why. I probably would have stayed on if it wasn't because of that. Now I'm working in a tech phone support at a really awesome company full of nerds (one of my Aspie talents is computers/technology) and do good between the work and socialization since we can talk about my interest since it's theirs too.