Update: 'I trained the man who makes $31,000 more than me': Employee creates elaborate spreadsheet of salary breakdown after discovering coworker Greg's pay

Was Greg flaunting his higher salary in the face of the coworker who trained him, or was he trying to help her advocate for better pay?

This woman had been working for her company far longer than Greg had. In fact, when he was first hired for the same job title, she was the point person during his training process. Over the course of the next few years, the woman never questioned Greg's salary. Instead, she was under the impression that, if anything, she made more than he did, given the fact that she had been working there longer. 

Well, it was a bit of a shock to her system when she accidentally looked at his computer screen to see his offer letter zoomed in at 400%, revealing his higher salary. And no, this wasn't just a minimal difference. Greg was getting paid $31,000 more than the woman who trained him. 

Throughout the ensuing week, the employee began to rethink everything and even made an elaborate spreadsheet of "Greg data" as she tried to figure out a way to move forward and advocate for herself. When she returned to work the next week, it turns out that Greg was aware of how much she was getting paid compared to him.

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  • A female employee makes an elaborate spreadsheet at her desk.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    A female employee makes an elaborate spreadsheet at her desk.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Below is the original post

    I work in a open office. My coworker Greg sits directly across from me. Our monitors face each other. I have never once looked at his screen on purpose. I want to make that clear because what happened was entirely an accident and also entirely his fault.
    via techiee_
  • Greg got up to go to the bathroom and left his screen unlocked. Normal. People do this. I don't care. But he left a PDF open and it was zoomed to like 400%. I don't know why anyone would zoom a PDF to 400% but
    via techiee_
  • Greg did and because of that I could read it from four feet away without even trying. It was his offer letter. From when he was hired. With his salary. In 48pt font basically. He makes $31,000 more than me.
    via techiee_
  • A male coworker expresses excitement as he looks closely at something on his computer.
    via Vitaly Gariev

    A male coworker expresses excitement as he looks closely at something on his computer.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • We have the same title. Same team. He started eight months after me. I trained him. I trained the man who makes thirty one thousand dollars more than me. I
    via techiee_
  • showed him how to use our project management tool. I walked him through the client onboarding process. I sat with him for two hours explaining our filing system which honestly even I don't fully understand but I pretended I did because I was his mentor.
    via techiee_
  • And he makes 31k more than me. I cannot stop doing math now. Every meeting we're in together I'm calculating. Ok this meeting is one hour, he's making X per hour,
    via techiee_
  • I'm making Y per hour, the DIFFERENCE between us sitting in this same meeting listening to the same person talk about Q3 projections is $14.90. I am losing $14.90 of relative value every hour I sit next to Greg. I've started a spreadsheet. I know this is unhinged. The spreadsheet has columns.
    via techiee_
  • The worst part is Greg is good at his job. He's not some failson coasting on nepotism. He's competent, he's pleasant, he brings in those little stroopwafel cookies for the office on Fridays.
    via techiee_
  • He has never done a single thing wrong to me. This man is my friend. I went to his birthday dinner last month. I bought him a gift. A GIFT. With my lesser salary.
    via techiee_
  • I looked up his job posting from when he was hired. It listed the salary range. The range started at what I make and went up to what he makes. So technically we're both in range. I'm just at the bottom and he's at the top.
    via techiee_
  • Same range. Same title. Different ends. Like two people on the same bus except he's in first class and I'm sitting on the wheel.
    via techiee_
  • I know I should negotiate. I know I should talk to my manager. I know the mature thing to do is advocate for myself. But instead I've been silently tracking the cumulative salary gap between me and Greg in a google sheet that I have named "Greg Data" and password protected even though nobody would ever want to look at it.
    via techiee_
  • We're at $6,100 since I found out. Fourteen working days. I'll stop tracking it when I get a raise or when I lose my mind, and honestly at this point its a coin flip.
    via techiee_
  • Greg just offered me a stroopwafel. I took it. It was delicious. That makes it worse somehow
    via techiee_
  • TL;DR: My coworker left his offer letter open at 400% zoom, I accidentally saw he makes $31k more than me for the same job, and now I've been tracking the salary gap in a password- protected spreadsheet called "Greg Data" for two weeks instead of just asking for a raise like a normal person.
    via techiee_

  • At first, it seemed a bit convenient in the story that Greg would casually leave his desk with his offer letter open on his laptop and zoomed in so much. My thought process initially was that the author was trying to hide the fact that she was snooping around. However, it turns out that this was not the case at all. In fact, Greg deliberately revealed this number on his laptop screen, hoping for the author to see it. 

    Below is an update from the author detailing how Greg acknowledged this fact. 

  • A male and female coworker sit next to one another at a table looking at a laptop.
    via Vitaly Gariev

    A male and female coworker sit next to one another at a table looking at a laptop.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Now, for the update...

    People wanted an update so here it is. Short one because honestly I'm still processing. First the math. A LOT of you pointed out that a $31k annual gap over 14 working days is not $6,100. It's about $1,700. I had a formula error. In the spreadsheet.
    via techiee_
  • The spreadsheet I built specifically to track numbers. Greg Data has been corrected. I left the old column in there labeled "wrong" because I think I deserve to look at it every time I open the file. Someone commented "this is why Greg makes more than you" and yeah. That's fair.
    via techiee_
  • Now. Many of you are convinced Greg left his offer letter open on purpose. That nobody zooms a PDF to 400% by accident. I kept telling myself no that's crazy, that's a conspiracy theory about a man who brings cookies to work on Fridays, and then Monday happened.
    via techiee_
  • Monday. I'm at my desk. Greg walks over and puts a coffee down in front of me. Not near me. IN FRONT of me. Like a delivery. And then he goes "hey so you doing anything about the pay thing?"
    via techiee_
  • I need you to understand something. I have never said a single word to Greg about his salary. Not one. I did not tell him I saw the offer letter. I did not tell him about the spreadsheet. I
    via techiee_
  • have told NO ONE at work about any of this. And this man walks up to me on a Monday morning with a coffee and says "the pay thing" like we've been having this conversation for weeks.
    via techiee_
  • I said "what pay thing" and he looked at me for a second like he was waiting for my brain to catch up with the rest of reality and then he said "never mind" and walked away.
    via techiee_
  • NEVER MIND. He said NEVER MIND. Like he'd asked me if I wanted lunch and I said no. I have been thinking about that "never mind" every single day since. I
    via techiee_
  • added a tab in Greg Data called "Evidence." I'm not going to say what's in it because if I'm wrong about all of this I will need to move to another state.
    via techiee_
  • I also need to mention Tingting. Tingting sits two rows over and leaves at exactly 5:00 every day. Not around 5. At 5:00. If there was a fire alarm at 4:59 Tingting would evacuate and then not come back at 5:00 because her day is over. She is the most reliable person I have ever met and I say that with complete sincerity. She becomes relevant later.
    via techiee_
  • Wednesday morning I get to my desk and there's a stroopwafel sitting on it. One stroopwafel. On a napkin. No note. Greg does the stroopwafel thing on FRIDAYS. For the WHOLE office. This was a Wednesday. This was just for me.
    via techiee_
  • I sat there looking at it for a while and then I opened Greg Data and added a new column. The column is called "Day of Week." The first entry says Wednesday. I highlighted it in yellow because it felt important. I don't know what it means yet. But I'm watching.
    via techiee_

  • Now that we know Greg showed the author his salary on purpose, what do we think his intentions were here? Is he rubbing it in the author's face, or is he trying to help her? The only way for the author to figure this out would be to confront him directly. At this point, that is going to lead to more concrete answers for her than any elaborate spreadsheet can.

  • Greg if you're reading this I am onto you. I think. TL;DR: Corrected my spreadsheet math (I deserve the lower salary range), Greg walked up to me unprompted and said "you doing anything about the pay thing" even though I've NEVER told him I know his salary,
    via techiee_
  • he said "never mind" when I played dumb, and then left a stroopwafel on my desk on a WEDNESDAY even though stroopwafels are a Friday thing. Greg Data now has a tab called "Evidence" and a column called "Day of Week." Something is going on.
    via techiee_

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