Sure, blame the employee for the 3% raise cap or the bonus pool that is too small. It's not the managers fault either. Companies have systems explicitly designe

Sure, blame the employee for the 3% raise cap or the bonus pool that is too small. It's not the managers fault either. Companies have systems explicitly designed to control salaries and bonuses. "I appreciate all that extra work you did but I'm sorry, we have a 5% raise cap.." Businesses give poor raises because they can. I never found it worth the effort to haggle for a raise when I could just give myself a raise by going somewhere that valued me more. I've been super lucky to work at companies that made me look forward to going to work but business is business.