Good Morning, 

Looking for a little bit of insight here. Fully aware of inflation, costs of food, etc. Having said that. I work for a railroad company in Transportation. I oddly enough, ended up getting a raise at the end of last year, was 8%. Just clearing the inflation percentage I believe of around 7.8% or something along those lines.

Anyway. I am in Management. Nobody else, including the two people above me on the food chain within the department received a raise increase. I don't think anybody is aware that I have. I tend to keep that information to myself but it's pretty clear my team is upset about not receiving anything, let alone, it's been over three years since we received any bonuses under new ownership.

Question. Has anybody ever been in this spot before and should I be concerned? There's technically a merge happening this year between two divisions that operate very similar but not quite. They'll be rebranded but still apart of the railroad. That doesn't directly impact me but it is a group of people, two technically at the moment, that we in fact work with daily.

Should I be concerned or take it as a sign that my raise means I'll be sticking around for awhile with the possibility of lay-offs incoming for the rest of the staff? It doesn't make a lot of sense to me outside of that thought. I can understand why they would want to keep me. I am approaching 15 years of service with this company in April and I will only be 35 that same month. 

I am pretty knowledgeable when it comes to a wide variety of this company and how our systems operate. I simply just "know" things and know how to resolve them, speak to them, etc. So, I get that line of thinking when it comes to me personally. I am just wondering if this means with nobody else getting pay increases that [BLEEP] is about to hit the fan here. 

I know about tech companies already laying off people in droves. I also know about the challenges and struggles with some of these trucking companies and carriers also having similar challenges. There's also Class I railroads having HUGE challenges of their own regarding labor negotiations, turnover within the engineer/conductor area, etc. 

Appreciate any feedback here.

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