I spoke with my coworker beforehand to compare notes. He got a 2k bonus, but a pathetic 1% raise (doesn't even keep up with inflation.)

I got a 3% raise (unfortunately, that's about average for this year), but no bonus.

I had to rush from another meeting right before meeting with my boss, so I was not mentally prepared for the discussion..

But I figured I'd ask about the lack of bonus, and use that to gauge whether it was safe to ask for a larger raise.

And my boss was all like "we can't really afford to give you a bonus this year, but we'll try to find some way to make it up to you later in the year." Aka vague promises that probably don't mean anything.

After the fact, I did the math and realized that I'll actually be making less money this year. Great.

And I think I'm just getting trapped in working with their in-house systems. Clearly, I won't see salary increases very fast this way, and I'm not really building skills I can use elsewhere.

I'm so sorry it went badly