Landing a dream job with a 48% pay raise sounds like a massive win, but for one finance employee, it still wasn’t enough.

When a new Big 4 auditor discovered that his firm’s independence rules could force him to liquidate nearly half of his and his wife’s carefully built investment portfolio, the dream job started looking a lot more complicated.

Soon he wonders if renegotiating with HR could get him better terms, or just shown the door.

Keep reading for the full story.

WIBTA If I contacted HR to have a discussion about compensation after just getting hired?

I (29M) just got hired to a Big 4 firm as an auditor on Wealth and Asset Management clients (hedge funds, private asset managers, etc.) because a lot of my background has to do with market valuations.

At first, this new hire had absolutely no complaints.

My compensation when I accepted the position was “great” — they hit my range and even sweetened the deal with a nice bonus when I told them about the competing offer I had with another Big 4 (I started a bidding war).

It was 48% more than I was making. Seemed great.

But turns out, things weren’t as great as he initially thought.

But this is where things get tricky.

As part of my onboarding, I’m required to go through an Independence Check.

Because I work in the public sector, I must maintain independence in both fact and appearance — meaning I can’t hold certain stocks or have relationships with certain clients because it could sow public distrust in our audit procedures.

He soon realized this was going to pose a bit of a problem for him.

As I’m going through my independence check, I realize that a good number of my private holdings in my personal accounts could violate independence.

I let them know about which ones before I was hired — nothing from them. I figured I just couldn’t work on those clients at all and it would be fine.

But the company saw things very differently.

Wrong.

I asked our independence team about one particular holding and was informed that I was barred from holding it at all, even though I’m not working on that client.

I am required to liquidate it.

This isn’t something he takes lightly at all.

Almost half of my portfolio could be like this, and they may make me liquidate all my holdings without any consideration for the tax ramifications or the amount of time and effort that went into my research to justify the purchase.

Absolute zero — and I think it’s complete nonsense.

The rules also apply to his family.

I won’t even get started on my wife, but she would be held to the same rules as me. She earned major stock from a major company — that I told her to hold forever — before she left to pursue other interests.

Again, completely unfair.

He weighs whether it’s worth filing a formal complaint about this.

So I would like to approach my HR rep again to re-discuss my compensation. If they are going to make me liquidate nearly half or more of mine and my wife’s holdings, I think we should be compensated for the trouble and inconvenience.

I feel like I have leverage with my previous offer, and with the amount of turnover in Big 4, they couldn’t afford to lose me right before busy season.

WIBTA?

Sounds like a risky move. Is it really worth it?

Reddit is sure to have some strong opinions about this.

This user isn’t a fan of this new hire’s attitude.

Having so much experience in this field, this guy really should have known better.

This request could put him on the outs with this company for good.

This commenter doubts HR would go for something like this.

He knew what he was signing up for.

You can’t just decide the rules don’t apply to you.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.