<prompt> Human: tl;dr at the bottomIm 25 years old and this is the first time Ive requested a raise with this company. I make 36kyear currently. Ive worked here for a little under two years. I work 50 hours a week AT MINIMUM as well as being on call one weekend a month, which requires me to go in for a few hours on Saturdays and work from home the rest of the weekend. Since I started here, Ive held three different positions. In the first position I held I was one of, if not the, top performers in the company. My numbers were always at the top in the monthly company-wide newsletters and whatnot. About 7 months into my employment there, they asked me to help start a brand new department for the company. I was excited for the opportunity so I accepted. I did not receive a raise for my time but was given the opportunity to finally make commissions off my work. I was okay with that. Day 1 was just me and two Vice Presidents for our company. I was the one who trained every new hire for this new department. And now the department has almost 20 people in it. About another 6 or 7 months into my new position, I ended up hating the work. I never slacked off and still pulled consistently high numbers, but it was not what I wanted to do at all. So, I approached one of the VPs and told them. They were fine with it and actually offered me a position to work on an exclusive team for our companys largest client. By taking this new position, I lost the opportunity for commission. Again, I didnt mind that. I have never been a complainer. Ever. I express my feelings and opinions on things, but I never whine about the workload or anything. The team I am on is horribly understaffed. My boss knows it, the others in the office know it, everyone knows it. My direct supervisor even said out loud that I, me personally, have too much work and that people shouldnt be coming to me with issues because I need every minute I can to try and stay caught up. After just a few months, we have over double the workload we originally had from our client which is great, but have had 0 additions to our team. And if Im being honest, the other members of my team are unreliable andor checked out from the job. Its annoying. However since we are so short staffed for this team they dont want to make any cuts and instead are taking forever to bring on a new member for the team. So I finally decided to request a raise. I obviously didnt mention this when asking for the raise, but I know what others in the team and throughout the office make. Everyones work is easily measured and accessible for literally anyone else, so I know the kind of work and numbers people put up. I can say that without a doubt I am probably the most productive person on this team, and in the entire office itself. Theres not a shadow of a doubt about it. It took them two weeks to come to the decision of giving me a 2k raise. This would put me on par with the SECOND least paid person in this office. With others making 40-43k, and some of those have commissions too. I went back to my boss and explained that this wouldt cut it as not only are my student loans increasing by almost 2400yr in a few months, but that I know I deserved more than that. My work was worth more than that. That day I went on Christmas vacation and I wont be returning until January 2nd. On one hand, I love the people I work with and the company culture, but me liking my job doesnt pay the bills. Im eager to see what they decide when I get back, but should I just go ahead and start submitting my resume to other companies? Any insight or advice you guys can give me is appreciated.tl;dr Gone above and beyond for this company and after almost two years they give me a raise which barely covers inflation and doesnt even make up for my increase in student loan payments. Do I look for employment elsewhere?  <response>: Thats like a 5.5 raise, quite a bit more than typical inflation. If youre not satisfied with the raise and thats the most theyll go, start looking for a job elsewhere. 