Isn’t it insane when some workplaces think they can easily manipulate you and get away with it?

This guy shares how his company wanted to keep him for contract work but offered horrible hourly rates so he refused to stay.

Check out the full story.

My work asked me to contract with them after resigning and then insulted me with their offer

I was making almost $27 an hour in my salaried role. With payroll taxes, healthcare premiums, and a 403b match, this cost for my employer was about $39 an hour. I did the math.

I resigned on good terms and they asked me if I would be willing to contract for them maybe 10 hours a week after starting my new job, which will pay me $34.18 an hour.

This is where it gets interesting…

I was totally open to this, but told them I would expect $50 an hour. I have done my research, and viewed this as a kindness towards them.

Many people would demand more.

In my mind, I’m doing them a favor by keeping things running, training my replacement, etc. This is only $11 an hour more than what they pay to keep me as a salaried employee.

He knows where he stands with his work!

Additionally, contracting would mean I’m giving up a clean break, an immediate release of stress, and would mean I’m working 50+ hours a week while starting my new job.

I genuinely felt like I was doing them a favor. There’s only 4 people on my team, including my boss.

My other manager left on September 2nd, 2025, and their hiring process is so slow that her replacement started on January 1st, 2026.

She’s still practically new so she’s going to struggle to take my workload.

Originally, they seemed really anxious about me leaving, even offered to work something out to keep me, which I declined. They had literally told me no to opportunities for promotion before I resigned.

UH OH…

Their fault. But I ended up agreeing to contract for them anyways since we did have a great working relationship and I valued them to some degree.

Anyways, they come back and tell me that there’s no precedence for $50 an hour, that it’s completely out of budget (hard to believe), and that other employees who decide to contract do so for much less.

They implied they were doing ME a favor by offering me a contract, and offered $30 an hour. That is CHEAPER than their cost to keep me as an hourly employee.

They would be saving money!

That’s INSANE!

I very bluntly told them that their offer was not acceptable, and that I wasn’t willing to save THEM money on my hourly rate and held firm.

My boss got upset, tried to push back by implying that they were just “helping me make a little extra money,” but irritatedly accepted my rejection of their offer.

I’m already making an extra 20k with my raise. Why would I need their “extra money?” I could make more than 50 an hour by working overtime at 34/hr.

Why the hell would I accept that?

He knows his worth!

Now they’ve just ticked me off. It doesn’t seem like they expected me to decline. Oh well. If they come crawling back I’ll tell them my rate has increased to $60 an hour.

That would still be a kindness to them that I’m now feeling like they don’t deserve.

AWESOME! This guy stood his ground!

Why can’t workplaces just compensate their top performing employees?

If you enjoyed this post, check out this post about a hardworking employee whose management refuses to give them one single break.

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this one.

This user knows the contract work would have made things worse.

This user applauds this guy for standing his ground!

This user suggests not doing the contract job.

This user suggests keeping emotions aside!

This user has a great suggestion to get into contract work.

Somebody here has a strong head!