I am changing jobs and relocating in about 3 weeks. In my current position, I was working interim open positions for my company until a permanent fulltime worker got hired. My company didn’t compensate me much for these interim roles. Manner of fact the boss paid me less than what was verbally agreed, and when I asked about it, she replied,” I said up to X amount.” This was a total lie. She verbally told me a $$ amount. This is all my fault for agreeing to all of this and continuing to show up and give 100% of myself. Currently, all of the roles have been filled, and I am back to the role that I was initially hired for. The new employee told me her salary; I didn’t even ask her. I was crushed; I was disappointed for not advocating for me. This leads me to how I messed up. I vented to a coworker who has been there for over 20 years and has a higher rank than new employee. I ranted about my salary and the new employees’, how it was not fair, how the company sucks, ect,ect. The coworker/supervisor I was ranting to became livid; she began to rant and vent that the new employee is making about a dollar less than her. The coworker tells me that she is calling the CEO, who she is friends with to vent and perhaps get a raise for herself, since it’s been 4 years. She also told me about how much of a better job I’ve done with the interim roles (I really did), and that the company pretty much screwed me over. (used me)
NOW I didn’t know any of the following had happened. Quite frankly I forgot about the salary thing. It was all about 2 weeks ago. In the meantime, yesterday, the coworker/supervisor proceeds to email the CEO and cc the HR director. The HR director tells the boss who then tell the new employee that a supervisor emailed the CEO upset about her salary. The new employee confronts me about it. She doesn’t know which supervisor emailed the CEO, she just knows that she told me her salary, and that she had her secretary handle paperwork with her salary information. I listened and denied everything. I felt so humiliated! I went to the coworker and pretty much called her an idiot for exposing me. Her excuse was that she thought I had already relocated and would not be exposed. I told her that if anyone comes to me, I will deny we had a conversation. Next week she will be on a vacation for a month. I have three weeks left at this job and I intend to complete them. I am a total asshole for getting emotional and venting to the WRONG person. I do truly feel bad for the new employee, it’s not her fault, she deserves her rate. Lesson learned.
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I am changing jobs and relocating in about 3 weeks. In my current position, I was working interim open positions for my company until a permanent fulltime worker got hired. My company didn’t compensate me much for these interim roles. Manner of fact the boss paid me less than what was verbally agreed, and when I asked about it, she replied,” I said up to X amount.” This was a total lie. She verbally told me a $$ amount. This is all my fault for agreeing to all of this and continuing to show up and give 100% of myself. Currently, all of the roles have been filled, and I am back to the role that I was initially hired for. The new employee told me her salary; I didn’t even ask her. I was crushed; I was disappointed for not advocating for me. This leads me to how I messed up. I vented to a coworker who has been there for over 20 years and has a higher rank than new employee. I ranted about my salary and the new employees’, how it was not fair, how the company sucks, ect,ect. The coworker/supervisor I was ranting to became livid; she began to rant and vent that the new employee is making about a dollar less than her. The coworker tells me that she is calling the CEO, who she is friends with to vent and perhaps get a raise for herself, since it’s been 4 years. She also told me about how much of a better job I’ve done with the interim roles (I really did), and that the company pretty much screwed me over. (used me)
NOW I didn’t know any of the following had happened. Quite frankly I forgot about the salary thing. It was all about 2 weeks ago. In the meantime, yesterday, the coworker/supervisor proceeds to email the CEO and cc the HR director. The HR director tells the boss who then tell the new employee that a supervisor emailed the CEO upset about her salary. The new employee confronts me about it. She doesn’t know which supervisor emailed the CEO, she just knows that she told me her salary, and that she had her secretary handle paperwork with her salary information. I listened and denied everything. I felt so humiliated! I went to the coworker and pretty much called her an idiot for exposing me. Her excuse was that she thought I had already relocated and would not be exposed. I told her that if anyone comes to me, I will deny we had a conversation. Next week she will be on a vacation for a month. I have three weeks left at this job and I intend to complete them. I am a total asshole for getting emotional and venting to the WRONG person. I do truly feel bad for the new employee, it’s not her fault, she deserves her rate. Lesson learned.
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Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
NTA, the whole secrecy with salaries is a complete joke and the only one benefiting from the secrecy is the company. IMO salaries should be discussed with coworkers and ENCOURAGED. That way you can tell if the company is screwing you over or not.
only business owners benefit from keeping employee salaries secret, it allows them to underpay people, especially long time employees. fuck them, i always tell coworkers my salary if they ask. NTA
Meh. You work in an organization that keeps salaries secret, so that is a red flag as you wind up with situations exactly like you presented; that is, some one is pissed off about their salary versus that of a co-worker. The co-worker told you her salary; her fault. Should you have repeated it? Probably not, but you did not sign a blood oath not to repeat it.
This is another reason to remember that with co-workers you can be friendly, but not friends.
ESH you violated someone’s trust and personal info, and in return someone did the same to you. CEO sucks the most for his treatment of you and the underpaid friend.
All of this is why you need these types of agreements in WRITING. Never accept an agreement that’s only verbal because either party can turn around and screw the other over, and there’s no proof of dishonesty.
That said, NTA. I personally think employees discussing salaries holds the company accountable, and employees will know how much they’re being screwed over (or, ideally, they’ll learn that everyone is being paid fairly – unrealistic, I know).
As with so many workplace disputes between coworkers, the company is the real asshole.
They should be paying you and the senior coworker adequately and fairly, and when this is brought to their attention they should not make it seem to the new coworker like people are upset with her because of her salary.
New coworker is mad at the wrong person. You are mad at the wrong person. The three of you should be upset to work at a place with unfair compensation practices.
NAH except the company.
Live and learn. Good rule don’t talk to coworkers about pay.
NTA. This actually makes me sad this question was even asked.
In the US the NRLA states you have the RIGHT to discuss salary. If you are penalized for speaking about salary your employer is breaking the law.
The reason there is an anti work movement is because of shit like this. Corporate America has created this environment where people give so much to an employer that doesn’t give two shits about you.
Know your rights.
You realize it’s not legal for them to force you to keep your salaries secret and that it’s just a tactic corrupt businesses use to stop employees from comparing salaries and asking for more. It’s the company that’s in the wrong, not you, they can’t do anything to you about it.
You did the right thing!
Sharing salary info benefits employees, and new employee volunteered info. If a little daylight caused issues for company – it’s a sign that the company was not being equitable/fair with pay. That’s not your problem.
NTA.
Normalize talking about your salary with ALL of your coworkers. People have a right to know if they’re being ripped off.
NAH. Salaries should not be secrets. The only bad guy is the company that’s likely making employees feel like they did wrong by discussing it.
Your coworker can tell you, you can talk to others about how it’s unfair given your comp, and those others can complain and use it to negotiate their own salary bump.
When they got the complaint, HR/CEO should have just quietly made the necessary salary adjustments after negotiations but otherwise kept their mouth shut about why it was happening.
The only reason HR let it leak back to the new employee (which was totally inappropriate imo) was so everyone would know that they should not share salary information.
The HR director called your boss instead of the CEO? So basically you’re being retaliated against for someone else’s complaint?
The new person told you her salary unprovoked, if she wanted it secret she shouldn’t have told you. NTA and if your boss and the CEO are different people, I’d tell the CEO what is happening. None of this sounds fair/reasonable
The company/whoever reviews the salaries is the AH – new employee deserves her salary (according to OP who knows better than me), coworker in higher position who’s worked there for a while deserves a higher salary and OP should have been correctly compensated for their work.
OP you did nothing wrong. You should not feel bad.
You should file an HR complaint against your boss and the HR director for creating a hostile and retaliatory situation.
Yes, against the HR director – they should know better. File the complaint with the CEO directly.
NTA
A lot of people think salaries should be shared widely, which I don’t have objection to. You are free to share your salary, why share someone else’s? I think people who are voting “not” are missing the point here. It should be the other person’s right to do so at her discretion or with permission.
Sounds like you talked to the exact right person if they have pull with the CEO and are also being fucked over just like you. You coworker being mad has nothing to do with it and they need to get over it and be mad at the company too.
You shouldn’t deny the conversation. If someone asks you should say YES I talked about it because discussing salaries is allowed legally in the US no matter what you’re company says. In fact you should say “YES I got paid X amount. They get paid Y amount and other person gets Z amount. How much do you get paid??”
Did they ask you not to share the salary information?
If they did and you agreed not to, then YTA, if they didn’t then NTA.
NTA
Thanks to open discussions around salaries, my direct supervisor has started telling all new hires that they need to negotiate their starting wage
We had a new hire who took it upon himself to negotiate. He was hired at a similar salary to a couple employees who had been with the company for several years. HR is notorious for discounting the employees value
My supervisor has done everything in her power to get her people paid as much as possible. The world needs more of her
Wait, so by denying you did it, the other employee would blame her secretary? If that’s the case, not cool at all.
Also, who cares that you blabbed about their salary? Especially as you are leaving. It’s their fault for opening their mouth and telling you.
And it’s truly the fault of the bosses at that work for not having transparency and set wages. The whole atmosphere where they pay people differently based on what they can get someone to take is wrong.
NTA about sharing the salary, YTA if someone else gets blamed for your actions. Hopefully, the second part didn’t happen.
No worker benefits from their salary being a secret. Only the corporations do that want to make it unfair.
You shouldn’t be mad that “you told the wrong person”
you should be mad that you got fucked over.
What did V (Veteran) do? She did the right thing – she emailed people about everything. She said “why is the new guy getting paid so much (aka: where are my raises?) and why is the intern getting fucked over?”
Lesson? Talk to people instead of “head down, shut up”.
Nobodies the asshole except the people trying to keep secrets. Divide and conquer.
NTA. You didn’t ‘disclose’ anything. Disclose would imply you revealed information you knew from your job role. You did not. The new person told you their pay, which you then told someone else. The new person shouldn’t have told you if they wanted it secret, it’s not like they knew you. Avoid gossip at work in the future. Vent to friends and family.
Its still wild tp me that some places dont want people to talk about salary.