Imagine doing a great job at work. You know you’re doing a great job because you see your stats. What would you do if you weren’t rewarded for your hard work but were treated just the same as employees whose stats weren’t nearly as good?

In this story, one employee is in that situation, and he decides that he doesn’t want to be held to a different standard.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

We hold you to a different standard.

Several years ago, I started working for a medical testing lab in the IT area. We supported the doctors offices looking for results.

Prior to this, they had only hired from within, so no one in the department had a background in IT, however they knew the internal system.

When I was hired, they allotted 4 weeks for training.

By the end of week 2, I was bored out of my skull, and asked to be put on the phones.

OP was REALLY good at the job.

After a few months, I started blowing their stats out of the water. I was doubling or tripling the number of calls taken, and spending way less time on them.

Judging from what I overheard some co-workers suggesting people do to fix problems, I can see why.

Some of the instructions were just off the wall, and made me wonder if they knew anything about computers.

This doesn’t sound fair.

Cut to a year later, and I’m getting my annual review.

I KNOW I’ve done well, they told me each month what my stats were.

However, they gave me average marks across the board on review.

What?!?

Well, those people giving the weird solutions also received average marks across the board.

No, it’s really, really unfair.

Now, this effects my raise, so I’m confused.

I had the best stats in the department, and should have received the 2 step raise, but didn’t because of this.

I go back to my manager and ask about the marks they gave me. “Well, we hold you to a different standard, and you’ve been meeting that standard.”

I was MAD. It just kept repeating in my head.. Different standard… Different standard….

That was about to change.

So, I made note of the exact standard everyone else had, and started bringing my work to that level.

Well, as close as I could get – I still can’t bring myself to give bad advise.

But, if the user needed to put me hold, I wouldn’t argue that pressing the power button only took a second – just let them put me hold as long as they like.

I even suggested they go help patients, and get to me when they could.

And there were more ways he slowed down at work.

Took extra time in documentation, every second of my breaks.

If a coworker asked for help, I would follow then back to their desk, and assist them through the WHOLE process, instead of just sending them the directions.

It really backfired for the manager.

Well, come to find out, I had been raising the average for the whole department prior to this, giving the manager a nice bonus every 6 months.

Well, with my compliance to that “standard”, the manager ended up missing a 6 month bonus, and I changed jobs shortly after that.

It was worth it.

I’m upset on their behalf that he was cheated out of that raise. That’s really not fair. That company doesn’t deserve his hard work.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This would be better than no bonus at all.

Here’s another story about an unfair performance review.

Here’s a story about working at Amazon.

Sometimes it’s better just to leave.

An unfair performance review is a great way to tank employee morale.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.