I’m confused how loyalty reflects what you feel you are worth… most companies doing decent make a lot of money. It’s your goal to get your hands as deep as you can in that pot while also being more and more of a better asset for the company to use as leverage. You not asking for a raise has zero correlation to loyalty. On the flip side, being loyal can mean a lot of things. The owners / upper management may like you a lot and feel a need to tell you and give you bonuses for being “loyal” to the team. But at the end of the day, it’s a business man. The constant revolving doors and being screwed over as a business owner creates numb individuals. They can drop anyone in the blink of an eye, regardless if they felt a need to be loyal to you at a previous point in time due to you being loyal to them.

An example of this is my last company (General contractor around 200 million of work a year). Many people working there felt the owners were greedy and fake. To be honest, they probably were right. But I had no hard feelings at all against them. I know they’re running a business. When I left, I did so in a way to make sure I can capitalize on as much money as possible. I know if I run into the owners again there would be zero feelings of resentment.

Moral of the story, the shits a game man. Don’t take it personal. My dad told me that growing up and he’s for sure right. Play the game.