Sometimes it’s better not to know how much your coworkers make because you could find out that someone who does less than you actually gets paid more.

That’s what happens in today’s story, and the person who makes less decides to quit and get revenge.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

Boss denies deserved raise… so I make him regret it

September of 2019 is when I am laid off by a former boss who was ousting people in order to hire her friends (and start an embezzling scheme as I later found out).

At the time I did not really need the 2nd income as my wife has a great job and we took the opportunity to do some home renovations.

Well in March 2020, I had the foresight to know that the Covid issue was going to come soon so I landed a role as a controller for a modest Property Management company here in East Cleveland.

It was a lower paying controller role, but I knew this was the next step in my career and it would benefit me in the long run to have “Controller” on my resume… so I took the gig.

OP decided to request a raise.

Fast forward to June of 2021 when we found out we were expecting our first child.

I knew I needed to request a raise, so I took multiple weeks to do market research on my role, experience, and company size. I even reached out to some recruiters I was connected with to confirm the salary range I should request to be in line with market standards.

I won’t give you exact dollar figures, but I requested a raise of $20K in order to get me up to the 10th percentile of market standards with all relevant factors.

I didn’t even ask for the average salary… just the 10th percentile!!! I did all this 1 week prior to my *late* 1 year review.

The boss didn’t want to give OP a raise.

Boss (also the owner) said he was disappointed in my letter requesting such a large increase and how sudden it was.

I stood my ground and said the raise was modest when compared to the market here in Cleveland.

I was told the raise was not in the budget.

Mind you that as the Controller, I CREATE THE BUDGETS!!! I know good and well where our financials stand and I knew my raise would be a drop in the bucket. But my boss is greedy and our turnover was way too high because of this… but I digress.

OP got a “pathetic” raise, and the boss hired his wife.

He reluctantly gives me a raise that was pathetic and not anywhere near the 20K requested. He gives me a dollar figure that the Accounting department must stay under and says that it is my job to adhere to this. **this is important later**.

At the time I did not have another option so I shut my mouth and planned my revenge.

2 weeks later, my AP person quit due to not getting a raise (no surprise there).

Boss brings in his wife to work 20 hours a week until we fill the role.

The boss is paying his wife way too much.

His wife is perfectly capable and quite smart, so I appreciated her offering to help. What I did not appreciate was seeing what he paid her on the next payroll.

She was being paid 25% more than what I was being paid… and she only worked 20 hours compared to my 50. And when compared to the prior AP person, she was being paid 70% more.

This fueled my fire even more.

We find a new AP person in September, but my boss keeps his wife on payroll as a “cONsuLtaNt” and continues to pay her 125% of my salary to do literally nothing. My internal fire is now white hot.

OP found another job.

Its now Feb 2022 and I have just received an offer letter from a larger manufacturing company that pays great, has great benefits, and allows me to work a ton from home.

I draft a letter to my boss for my resignation fueled by his instructions about staying within the defined budget for the Accounting Department. I am cutting a salary to meet that figure… my salary.

I gave 2 weeks notice, because it wouldn’t look good to my new employer if I just quit.

OP made sure to quit just before a lot of things were finalized.

I made sure that month end closing was started but not finished, made sure that my last day was 1 day prior to figuring payroll, and that all my intellectual property that helped with reporting and SOPs was deleted.

We were also wrapping up 2021 year end with our CPA, but I didn’t really feel like working my butt off to finish that. He did not speak to me the last 2 weeks.

Its now late April and I learned this morning that everyone under me has quit because they did not want to work for him after seeing how he dealt with me.

I don’t feel bad for him. He talks the talk about treating people fair and justly, but its time someone shows him that he doesn’t walk the walk.

That boss sounds horrible to claim he can’t afford to give OP a raise but then hires his wife at a ridiculously high salary. I don’t blame OP for quitting.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader loves OP’s revenge.

Another reader had a question.

Here’s a warning for OP…

Here’s the perspective of an accountant…

He deserved to be paid fairly.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.