In the folklore of many countries from different parts of our planet, there is a fairy tale about a chicken that laid eggs with golden shells, but ended up in soup – simply because the owners wanted chicken broth. A plot that demonstrates extreme irrationality, bordering on stupidity – and which, alas, can be seen more and more often in contemporary business.
For example, in the Reddit Antiwork community, a post recently appeared from the user u/VonCattington about the disappointing outcome of communicating with her own superiors about a pay raise. A well-deserved raise, I must say – after all, the author, in her own words, earned the company 12M in 2 years. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post was hired to a big company as a sales rep over 2 years ago
Image credits: Anna Shvets (not the actual photo)
The woman did a great job and gradually became the company’s best performer
Image credits: VonCattington
However, no one ever offered her any raise – though her own manager promised it, but a mere promise never helps
Image credits: Pixabay (not the actual photo)
Image credits: VonCattington
Finally the employee got a meeting with one of the bosses and asked for a raise, referring to the 12M she made for the company in sales
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)
Image credits: VonCattington
So when the boss heard about the numbers, she literally spat her coffee on the webcam
So, the Original Poster (OP) got hired on as a customer service rep in September 2021. A little over a year later, she was promoted to Sales, but the salary was still the same as before. Our heroine proved herself to be an excellent employee, and gradually became the company’s top performer. It should be noted that this was a billion dollar company making 10M+ profit per month, with a large number of staff.
Still, the OP was the best, and it was stated that she brought the company 12M through her sales pipeline in the report that she compiled for her performance review, which she demanded for a long time and unsuccessfully for several months.
To begin with, our heroine asked to arrange an evaluation meeting with her immediate boss, but he claimed more than once or twice that this idea had been floating around among his higher-ups for a long time. And finally, when the original poster, having lost patience, reached out to that very woman who had once hired her (yes, walking around her manager), the interview was still scheduled.
The employee, pointing to the profit she brought to the company, as well as the positive feedback from her manager, asked for a raise. A 20K increase to her base salary, which, taking into account everything stated above, doesn’t at all look like an exorbitant and impudent demand. Quite the opposite, isn’t it?
And then the employee was faced with two unexpected discoveries at once. Firstly, her interlocutor (the meeting was online) immediately stated that it was the first time she had heard about a request for a promotion from the OP (and all this despite the fact that her manager had been saying the opposite for six months!) But then the boss asked about the raise numbers desired. She answered – and the manager literally spat out her coffee on her webcam…
Need I say that our heroine couldn’t stand such a spit in the face, literally and figuratively? She began to actively look for a new job – and three weeks later she happily received an offer from another company, with a 50K increase, plus better commission terms. The funny thing is, the OP admits that if her boss had offered her a 10K raise then, she would have been damn happy. But everything, as they say, is learned by comparison…
But that’s not all. After some time, our heroine found out that many of her male colleagues were making 30kish a year more than her – even despite lower performance metrics. But this, as they say, is a completely different story – alas, one that’s also quite common these days.
Image credits: Anna Shvets (not the actual photo)
“The situation is very unpleasant, although, unfortunately, not so uncommon in modern business,” says Kirill Soliar, the founder and CEO of Solar Digital creative agency, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment on this case. “I always say that in a company, especially if it’s large enough, it is very important to build a reasonable and transparent system for promoting employees, with clear and achievable financial bonuses.”
“No, of course, it’s nice when your immediate boss wholeheartedly praises you, when you’re called ‘Performer of the Year’ and whatnot, but over time this must be supported by monetary motivating factors. Otherwise, sooner or later you will lose a valuable employee. Which, in fact, happened in the story described.”
Most people in the comments to this story massively supported the original poster, arguing that she did exactly the right thing by leaving a company where she was so underrated. Moreover, as the OP herself said in the comments, she went to the direct competitors of her former employer – and they, in turn, hired four new employees, trying to cover the whole range of duties the author did alone.
No, they tried to keep her – and that lady boss even made a new offer (finally!), but now, according to the author’s words, it was already a matter of principle. By the way, to the advice of one of the commenters to sue the ex-employer over gender discrimination, the OP replied that the male colleagues were U.S. citizens, while she was Canadian – and this was explained by “differences in wage levels in different markets.”
Well, many commenters are not at all surprised that the original poster could not get a promotion for such a long time. “Only way to get raises these days is switching jobs,” some of the people in the comments summarized, and they are actually not far from the truth.
Well, management often makes mistakes regarding staff and sometimes they become critical. As, for example, it happened in the story from this post of ours, about a new hotshot manager who recklessly got rid of a “not flexible enough” employee, thus making an expensive mistake. By the way, if you have also heard or witnessed such tales too, please feel free to share them in the comments.
People in the comments unanimously sided with the employee, claiming that such cases aren’t that rare nowadays
