Shoutout to the guy at the Irving gas station who told me to keep a work journal, it got me a $6 raise

William Schmidt · 2026-09-22T22:25:04.603584+00:00

I know that sounds like a made up internet story but stay with me. About 14 months ago I was working second shift at a warehouse outside Worcester and I was stuck at $17.50 an hour with no path forward. An older guy named Dave who I'd chat with on smoke breaks told me to start writing down one line at the end of each shift about what I fixed or figured out, nothing fancy, just a notebook in my glovebox. I did it for 5 months and when review time came I flipped through and realized I'd solved the same conveyor jam issue 11 times that nobody else had written down, plus trained two new hires on the label printer. I walked into that meeting with actual numbers and dates instead of just saying I work hard, and my supervisor looked kind of stunned. Got bumped to $18.60 that day and then another jump 3 months later when a lead spot opened up. Has anyone else kept something like this and did it actually help in an interview, or am I just lucky my boss cared?

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Shoutout to the guy at the Irving gas station who told me to keep a work journal, it got me a $6 raise | Career Advice - Rigidtalk