His Boss Took Away His Bonus For Being Bilingual, So He Refused To Work On Files In French Until He Got A Promotion
by Michael Levanduski
When you have special talents, your workplace should compensate you for them if they are putting them to good use.
What would you do if you were bilingual and able to work on files in both English and French, but your boss refused to pay you extra for it?
That is what happened to the man in this story, so he refused to work on French files, and after his boss threatened to fire him, he got a promotion to a different department.
You won’t pay me for being bilingual so which language should I work in?
This happened back in the late 1990’s.
I had worked for the government at the lowest paid position for 5 years.
Due to the high unemployment and fluctuation of workloads, I would be temporarily promoted to 3 or even 4 positions above my base position for between 3 to 8 months at a time.
I was very lucky because when the lay-offs came every year, I was always their cut-off and managed to stay employed without a break in service during this time.
I am bilingual, and so every person I interacted with would be spoken to in the language they started talking to me in.
And then HR got involved… which is always fun!
There were two ladies in our HR who had an argument over which was my mother tongue.
They called me into HR, and asked me if I was French or English.
I told them it didn’t matter, I was completely bilingual.
They insisted that I choose one based on my early schooling, which was done in English.
I was then sent on language testing for French, which I passed to their satisfaction.
Suddenly, I had a slightly bigger paycheque than I had anticipated, and was told that I was eligible for the bilingual bonus as I worked on files and dealt with people in both languages.
During my entire tenure, I worked in both English and French.
Every little bit helps.
The perk amounted to about $32.00 every two weeks, so not really a huge bonus, but enough to get an extra case of beer.
Fast forward 6 years, I was transferred to a much larger office in lieu of being laid off; but at my base salary.
My immediate supervisor was one level higher than I was, but she was drunk with her perceived power.
I met her on my first day, and it was quite bizarre.
She stomped into our work area (there were three others plus me) hopped up on a table, and stood there yelling at the top of her voice “Get over here! Come on! Hurry up!”
When the four of us were in front of her looking up, she began wagging her finger at each of us in turn (like we were naughty kids at daycare), yelling that there were forms that needed to be completed and sent to certain places, and that we had to do it properly, or there would trouble etc., and so on.
When she stopped yelling to breathe, I calmly put my hand up and asked her “Are these new procedures or are you angry that they haven’t been done properly?”
(Remember, this was my first day and I had never even met her. I was not going to be chastised for something that I wasn’t even there for.)
She glared at me infuriated that I would ask a question in one of HER meetings and she began to berate me.
I tuned her out, and sat waiting for the “Meeting” to be over.
I knew this was a BAD job situation; so I kept my mouth shut, and took notes.
About a six weeks into this childishly stupid situation, I received my pay cheque, and I was short almost $100.00!
I looked it over very carefully, and discovered that not only was I not being paid my bilingual bonus, but that they were clawing back the bilingual bonus I had received the two pay cheques before.
I approached my supervisor to ask why this had happened.
She said “Little people like you, at your level, don’t qualify for a bilingual bonus, so tough. Now, get back to work or I will write you up.”
I made an appointment to speak with her supervisor who was 2 levels above her.
What does free parking have to do with anything?
He said “I don’t have time for these petty arguments, what the heck are you complaining about; you get free parking?!”
I shouted at him, rather rudely, “What the heck does free parking have to do with this?!? I don’t own a CAR!!!”
I was furious!
Not only because I had been denied my bilingual bonus, but that they did not considered me to be worth speaking with.
Their attitude made it quite clear, that they believed that they were the top dogs in the hierarchy, and I was less than a peon.
Cue: Malicious Compliance!
I walked into my boss’ office first thing the next morning, and I do absolutely no work until she arrives.
She tells me to get to work.
I told her that I needed to know which language I was supposed to work in.
She says it doesn’t matter, I can work in both.
I insist on seeing, in writing, my language of work.
If he is English only, then that is the only work he should be doing.
It takes her 20 minutes to find the right paperwork, but finally, she stabs her finger down on a piece of paper and goes “There, you are in an English only position, now Get Out Of HERE and WORK!!!!”
I calmly walk back to my work station, and I work all day long, BUT when I see a form I am supposed to stamp and file in French, I simply place it in a growing pile on my desk.
(I work 9.5 hours a day, so that I could leave early on Thursdays, and have Fridays off .)
At the end of my day, I clean and lock up my work area, and head into her office with a pile of papers that was just under a metre in height.
I drop my load on her desk, and some of it falls over onto her work.
She is MAD!
“What the HECK is THIS!!!”
I smiled as I calmly said “It’s all your French files.” and I turned and left for the day.
The entire office could hear her cursing at me and screaming for me to get back there and clean it up.
I laughed quietly to myself as I stood waiting for my bus, planning on enjoying my long weekend.
The next day (Friday), my friend called and told me that she was furious and was going from crying to yelling to just sitting there.
Well, at least he gets a couple weeks notice.
Monday morning, I show up at work, and am greeted by her boss; he told me that I had a bad attitude, and that he was going to lay me off because there were cut backs coming, and that he was going to give me two weeks notice when the budget was finalized.
I was not surprised, so I spent the morning looking for other opportunities and positions to apply for.
I didn’t do a single bit of work, and my boss never poked her head out of her office.
Later that afternoon, I received a call from HR, and I’m thinking “Crap, here it comes…” but instead, I am told that the competition for a position that I had applied for was completed, and because I had landed in the top 10 of the English position, and in second position in the French position, I had the choice of which office I wanted to work in.
I was very happy, because I could choose to work at my old office with all my friends.
I danced around the office a little, and no one could miss the absolute joy on my face.
I spent the next two weeks doing absolutely nothing, and my bosses just ignored it because…
BONUS!!!
The position I took, was 2 levels higher than my supervisor’s boss, and he was required to ask for my permissions to change anything in his office.
My former supervisor was demoted because of my complaints to the union; and she lost her bilingual bonus.
I started in the mailroom, and learned so much about the organisation, that I was able to be placed anywhere and work effectively.
I had a degree, and certificate in two polar opposite fields of study before I started working here.
Sadly, most bosses will never realize this.
Just because someone is working for minimum wage, it doesn’t mean that they are stupid and you can treat them like crap; because you never know, they just may be your boss one day.
Although I was VERY upset at the way I had been treated, I never used my position to be punitive to them.
I could have easily done so without any suspicion, but.
Nah, they needed to learn how a boss should treat their staff, not be subjected to abuse.
This must have been quite a shock for his old boss.
Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say.
Absolutely true.
Yeah, good point.
This would have been funny.
Yup, this manager was terrible.
This is quite a jump.
There are plenty of skilled people making minimum wage.
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.

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