After working in a toxic environment for a year, I changed jobs to work in another media company. The role was advertised as a features writer but was actually a copywriter and I didn’t expect to find myself in this field. I worked there for nearly four years on €30,000 and left last month. Although my experience had grown and my role had changed vastly over the years (and I had furthered my education by doing a master’s), getting a salary increase was a battle. I eventually got a 10% increase to €33,000 in 2020 but this was after months and months of meetings and fighting my case. This was mostly due to my manager not advocating for me, despite my monthly one-on-ones always being completely positive. Fighting for a salary increase and title change took quite a toll on my mental health so I knew that when it was time for another increase, I’d rather leave than have to go through the process again.
