My Boss Micromanaged My Hours. I Found a Job Paying 52% More

I’ve been contracting in IT for this company for a while, and my boss has always been extremely controlling. They would ask me what other employees were doing, whether certain people were actually needed, and even warn people that their jobs could be at risk if they weren’t pulling their weight. Then I was asked to verify other contractors’ timesheets before my boss approved them. I always reported that their hours looked accurate. But my boss seemed unusually focused on contractors logging fewer hours rather than simply trusting them to report the time they actually worked. Then the same thing happened to me. I had been working part-time and usually logged around 3 to 3.5 hours a day. When I moved to full-time, I started logging 8 hours because I was actually working 8 hours. My boss saw 40 hours on my timesheet and called me. We spent almost 30 minutes going back and forth about it. I calmly explained that the hours were accurate and that I expected to be paid for the work I was doing. That conversation was the moment something clicked for me. Instead of arguing, I started applying for other jobs that same week. I ended up getting an offer that paid 52% more than what I was making. When I told my boss I was leaving, they were completely stunned. They apparently didn't see it coming at all. The timesheet argument wasn't really the reason I left. It was the final reminder that I was working in an environment where I felt I had to constantly prove that the work I was doing was legitimate. And apparently, the market valued me quite a bit more than my current employer did. Sometimes a manager doesn't realize they're pushing someone out until that person has already found somewhere better to go.