Woman regrets 'loyalty' after leaving PR firm with debt and no 401(k). How to protect your pay, benefits and future

For generations, sticking with 1 leader was considered the harmless bet: a dependable climb, predictable raises and a status waiting astatine the end. But for 1 communications professional, that publication didn’t play out.

After 7 years of loyalty, Andie Mercer says she walked distant with debt, nary 401(k) and hard lessons astir however today’s workplace truly works.

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“I utilized to judge occurrence was astir checking each the close boxes: degree, promotion, title, loyalty,” Mercer wrote successful an effort for Business Insider (1). “Now, I spot it differently.”

Her communicative is simply a reminder that vocation stableness isn’t guaranteed — and that adjacent radical who judge they’ve “done everything right” tin inactive find themselves financially exposed.

In her effort for Business Insider, Mercer said she began her vocation astatine a boutique PR and communications steadfast successful New Mexico, moving her mode up from intern to vice president portion earning an MBA on the way. She believed loyalty and hard enactment would construe into semipermanent information for herself and her family.

Instead, erstwhile she near successful 2023, she says she discovered her status savings were efficaciously nonexistent.

Mercer said she had enrolled successful the company’s 401(k) aboriginal on, contributing 3% to seizure the leader match. But erstwhile she reviewed her accounts years later, she recovered the equilibrium was inactive zero. The relationship existed, but nary contributions had ever been deposited. She contacted the program head but ne'er got a wide explanation.

At the aforesaid time, she was carrying astir $12,000 successful MBA-related indebtedness and struggling to find unchangeable work. A noncompete statement she signed aboriginal successful her vocation restricted her from moving successful her tract wrong her authorities for 2 years, forcing her to trust connected declaration gigs and broadside work, including nutrient transportation driving, portion continuing her occupation search.

Looking back, she believed she had followed the accepted playbook — enactment loyal, enactment hard, put successful acquisition — lone to find that those choices didn’t warrant fiscal security.

“Sometimes, the champion happening you tin bash for yourself is pause, inquire questions and advocator for your aboriginal self, adjacent erstwhile it feels uncomfortable,” Mercer wrote.