My boss just told me I should "be grateful I have a job" after I asked for a raise for doing the work of my 3 fired coworkers
My company recently laid off about 30% of our department. They cited "AI integration" and "restructuring." Management called me into a room, shook my hand, and told me my expertise is exactly what they need to navigate this new era.
I walked out feeling relieved. I actually felt like I had won.
A month later, reality hit. I am now doing the work of the three people they fired. I’m essentially acting as the "human API," silently fixing the hallucinations and errors of the very software that was supposed to make us infinitely productive.
When I finally approached my manager, presented the math of my doubled output, and asked for a title change or compensation adjustment, they didn't say no. Instead, they weaponized the macroeconomic fear perfectly.
My boss looked at me and said, "You know, with the recent layoffs in the industry and AI taking over so many roles, you should really be grateful to have such a secure position right now."
It hit me like a truck. This is the Gratitude Trap.
They didn't keep me because I beat the system. They kept me because replacing a load-bearing employee who knows how the legacy systems actually work is an operational nightmare. But it is financially profitable for them to make me terrified of losing them. They are outsourcing the company's anxiety onto my nervous system.
Because I have a "fixer mentality" and actually care about the quality of the work, I keep catching the system before it fails. I’m paying an "integrity tax."
Has anyone else experienced this recently? How do you mentally drop the shovel and stop subsidizing their incompetence with your unpaid sanity?