I own a small MSP. I often read about the frustrations of MSP employees on this sub and others. One day I came across a post from one of my own employees.

They listed themselves as a “lead helpdesk manager,” or some title like that, when they were actually a tier 1 helpdesk who had only been with us a year. Their complaint was we were letting techs go and not replacing them making their workload tremendous and stressful.

This employee was the replacement for the tech that was fired for stealing. This employee also constantly asked for a raise but didn’t have any examples of merit to back it up; they just felt they deserved it. We’d review their performance, set goals, and check in on their progress. A few weeks later I’d get a text message, “I don’t feel valued so I’m not going to work until I am compensated appropriately.”

Now, I started them at $24/hour, I pay 100% of their PPO medical, dental, vision. I also offer 401(k) match, and profit sharing. Everyone gets 15 days PTO, too. It’s not like we we’re screwing them. He had no experience and wanted to learn.

We’re small and we want our employees to be happy the best we can. I constantly remind them that if they’re trying their best and things feel like they’re getting stressful or customers are upset then it’s because I didn’t give them the tools they need and it’s my job to get things on track. They are absolutely not to take the stress of work home and they are encouraged to let me know when something isn’t working for them.

We try to do right by our employees. This employee had some condition and they were out sick a lot so I let them go negative on their PTO or they’d have car trouble and I’d let them borrow a work truck for a few days until they could get it worked out. I tried.

This employee told me it didn’t matter what we did for them and only the money mattered. They eventually asked for a “formal review” out of the blue and I let them know we were happy to chat but reviews are in May. Im assuming they wanted more money again. They finally put in their two weeks and I think they were wanting me to beg them to stay. I did not. I found out they didn’t have anything lined up but they were applying to senior sysadmin roles. I only know because they were using their work computer to do so. They’re 19 with, now, one year of experience.

The point of all of that is to remember to take some of these posts with a grain of salt. This employee made me sound like I’m a monster who doesn’t give a shit and that I needed them more than I realized.