The saying goes that people don’t leave a company — they leave a boss. And this story is a perfect explanation of its popularity.
Recently, content creator Mary E Frost released a TikTok video, explaining why she believes that many Boomers in managerial positions appear to be out of touch with the current job market.
It immediately started gaining attention on the platform and was eventually stitched by business and finance expert Chris Gerbig, who described his own experience of entering the workforce 14 years ago and said he faced the same problem back then, too.
This woman called out Boomer bosses for not following the job market closely enough
“Your whole generation is so out of touch with what the going rate for everything is. How much are you paying these people? You’re just like, ‘Well, I start them out at 12 an hour,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, like $12 an hour is what I got paid as a lifeguard in high school in like 2001.'”
Then, business and finance expert Chris Gerbig joined the discussion, sharing his own personal experience
“My first job when I graduated college with a finance degree, was a bank teller making $9. My take-home pay every two weeks after taxes and health insurance was less than $600. So I was bringing home $1,200 a month as a grown man with a college degree working full time in America. My boss was a boomer, she was probably 55 at the time, and this was 14 years ago. We’re sitting around one day talking in the lunchroom, and she says one of the employees is getting married and we should chip in for a present. She wanted all of us to chip in $30. I told her, ‘Sorry, I can’t do that. I can’t afford it.’ And she looked at me like she was blown away by my comment. She said, ‘How can you not afford $30?'”
He broke down the numbers
“And I said, ‘Because I’m working full time at this bank and I’m making $18,000 a year.’ And she just kind of shrugged. But that $1,200 a month I was making had to pay for an apartment, car payment, student loan payments because I’d just graduated, health insurance… Gas at the time was $4 a gallon. This was 2008. I lived in Goodlettsville. And the bank I worked at was Bank of America in Bellamy. So I was commuting at least 20 miles each way and paying for $4-a-gallon gas. I had no money, I couldn’t afford this $30 wedding present”
And the insulting “great news” his boss arrived with
“She comes to me a month later and says, ‘Chris, I have great news. Guess what? I’m giving you a raise.’ I get excited because I need a raise and I need more money. She says, ‘I bumped you up to $9.10 an hour.’ What? Yes, she found it in her heart to give me a 10-cent pay raise, which equated to about four bucks a week or $200 for the whole year. And the sad part was she had no idea how insulting that was.”
Gerbig’s video has since gone viral
@chris_gerbig #stitch with @maryefrost I’m still bitter about this. #boomer #bank #recession #2008 #2008recession #bofa #finance #financedegree #wages #payincrease #firstjob #teller #banktellerlife #bankteller ♬ Sunday – HNNY
And inspired a heated discussion
