Woman wants raise, boss does literal spit take. They're shocked when she quits.

On Reddit's r/antiwork, a community that exploded during the pandemic and has grown to nearly three million subscribers — we get one of the most satsifying stories of workplace karma we've seen yet. Enjoy.

'Boss spit her coffee out on webcam when I asked for a raise during my review.'

u/VonCattington

Got hired on as a customer service rep in Sept 2021. Was promoted into Sales in Nov 2021 (with no change to base salary) and became the company’s top performer within a couple months. My one person department expanded to 40. I brought on direct customers and made them more money in my hybrid position, wearing many hats.

It’s now Sept 2022, I’m still getting paid my original customer service base, and I start asking about my yearly review. It finally gets scheduled after multiple run arounds for Dec 2022. I brought a two page report outlining the 12M I’ve made the company through my sales pipeline and requesting a 20k increase to my base salary.

My manager told me he believed I deserved it and he’d go to bat for me. After months of following up, getting the run-around, filling out rubrics etc. My feedback was 100% positive, my manager even said “if I could clone 17 of you, I’d hire all of them” “you’re the top performer on our team” etc. but no word about the pay increase.

Finally in June 2023, I reached out above his head to the woman who’d hired me. We hopped on a video call and I told her I was being given the run around about my pay/performance increase for 6 months now and I’d like her to take over my review process.

She hadn’t heard anything about it despite my other manager saying for SIX MONTHS that it was all under discussion. She asked how much I was requesting. When I told her 20k, she spit her coffee out on webcam.

Keep in mind this is a billion dollar company making 10M+ profit per month.

It felt reaaaally good when I quit three weeks later for a 50k increase at a new job, plus better commission terms.

The funny thing is, I would have probably stayed if they’d met me at 10k increase. I will never forget her spitting in my face, quite literally, at my simple request.

As the cherry on top, after I left I came to find out my coworkers were making 30kish a year more than me despite lower performance metrics. All males (I am female). So gross

In the comments, OP responded to supportive commenters with a few more juicy details.

avicario96

Only way to get raises these days is switching jobs.

Christank1

You go, girl. I hope they lost a lot since you left

OP

Last I heard they have 4 new employees running around trying to replicate what I was doing by myself. Plus my new job is with a direct competitor and a lot of the same clients. They’re going to eat dirt.

AtomicSamuraiCyborg

Yeah, the first thing I thought when you switched to sales with no salary change is "did you ask your coworkers what they make?"

It's an uncomfortable question because capitalists make it faux paus but you need to know what you should be making first.

tkdyo

Really odd she would react like that when all your coworkers were already making 30k more than that. I guess she got too used to employees only asking for meager 3 to 5% raises if they were feeling bold.

OP

I think that’s exactly what it was. It caught her off guard that I knew what I was worth.

Keep in mind, this woman makes (low estimate) a few million a year in her own compensation package.

LetsGoBubba6141

Power to you. You learned a valuable lesson. Don’t underestimate yourself or your abilities. You were lied to, undervalued and unappreciated and you did something about it.

Naniposa

Proud of you ✨ you’re inspirational ! Congratulations on getting what you deserve no matter what 🎉

Striking-General-613

What did they say when you gave notice?

OP

Well, I booked a two week vacation to use up all my vacation days, then turned in my notice the Monday after I got back.

My manager said he felt like I kicked him in the stomach. The female boss asked if I was leaving because of him (yes, I was, his management was horrible).

Then they half-ass tried to offer me a counter, but I told them not to worry about “crunching numbers” and my resignation was final.

They had to walk me out immediately due to company policies, thankfully I live in Canada so they had to pay me for those two weeks (plus the commission payout that fell in there)