'[You] told me you would bump it up to $29 in April': Boss goes back on promise to employee by dangling a raise over their head

Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor

Apr 20, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

Negotiating a raise is always a tough conversation. For employees who have a cheapo boss and have been taken advantage of their entire career, it's dang near impossible to get what you deserve when it comes to salary improvement. One woman recently debated quitting her job on the spot after dealing with months of BS with her heckling boss who'd hired an incompetent coworker to help 'lighten her work load'.

u/Maximum-Sun-8455, the sole female hire at a small company, recently struggled with severe difficulty in getting an appropriate raise. For context, she was paired with a new hire, a friend of her boss's who was a raging alcoholic and an incompetent partner. Because of this pairing, MaxSun was consequently in charge of doing the work of two positions as well as the occasional alcoholic babysitting on the job. These conditions were pretty terrible so she rightfully asked her boss for a raise so that her wages would at least match the alcoholic partner's. The boss agreed to a small raise immediately and promised her that he would give her an even bigger raise when their busy season rolled along.

Well, busy season is here now and MaxSun is not only babysitting the alcoholic partner at work, but also training new hires that are also making more money than she is.

In a last ditch effort for equality, she called out her boss on that raise he promised and he hemmed and hawed over the entire process. Even after he fired his friend who was making $25/hour, he was still squeamish about giving MaxSun a $2 raise like he promised. Now, after foregoing several job opportunities because of the promise of the raise, MaxSun is debating quitting on the spot. Frankly, to us it seems like she shouldn't be letting her boss take advantage of her anymore and she'd find something else with better working conditions and a big fat raise waiting for her.