Some Companies/Managers...
Some will be like that. It's the old 'hardliner' approach to employees that was taken back in the assembly-line days, "You're lucky to have a job! Get back to work before I fire you!" It took advantage of the employee usually not having the information of what jobs were out there, what the average salary should be, etc... and backing down. With the company laughing all the way to the bank.
I'm guilty of doing this as well. I've told TONS of people to threaten to leave, even if they had no job to jump to. EVERY time, when they went so far as to start walking out the door, they've ended up with a sizable increase in pay...and probably STILL are being 'underpaid' as far as the company was concerned. (This is in Canada, mind you. Slightly different situation than in the US.)
Just can't do it myself... Must be the 'IT Low Self-Esteem Syndrome' thing... *Shrug*
