I worked at a place where it was against policy for anyone to know what anyone else was making unless the informed party was responsible for payroll advice. I was sales management, not general management, so I didn't know what anyone else made. In fact, my boss advised me several times to stop helping a warehouse manager with his online access to his company profile because I risked exposure to his compensation, including payments and benefits, none of which I was supposed to see. I wasn't gonna let the guy keep not knowing how to see his own statements though.
Anyway. I had an excellent record, both for personal sales, and the sales of my teams when they worked for me compared to when they worked for others. I also wasn't supposed to sit in on the weekly district general managers conference call, but I was called in to teach the rest of my district how I was training my people on one aspect of the gig to the tune of an extra $14,000/month in one specific measurable. When other managers borrowed me to cover for a shortage, their teams performed markedly and demonstrably better under my leadership.
I quit after one too many issues with my general manager. I wanted her to stop being abusive. She wanted to keep being abusive. Creative differences. LOL
Anyway, she was a horrible tyrant. I had one particular super star associate. She hired him, so she must have seen it in him too. He was a beast. I could name any outrageous number, and come back and bring me those sales. I said whatever he needed to hear to feel powerful, trusted, respected. It was easy. I believed he was powerful. I trusted him. I respected him. But he hated our boss. I constantly has to baby his ego to keep him at the top of his game. When he was hired, I typically asked associates to bring me between $2,000 and $5,000 in sales during a six hour shift, depending on my goals, how much staff I had, the weather, and day of the week or time of day. I would ask him for $5,000 to $15,000 and he never once let me down. He was a beast. Seriously, I asked him for coaching while I was his boss and I learned a ton. He began to carry the store. He made more than the corporate goal for the whole store by himself one day. But he only worked like that for me. On my days off, or when we were on opposite shifts, he rarely made the tiny goals other managers set for him. Everyone asked how I got him to work. I told the truth. The job was beneath him. I have no idea what's going wrong in his life that he came to us, b it I've seen his resume and performance, and he doesn't belong here. So, I talk to him like I would if he was my husband, and been between jobs for a long time. I remind him that he is a man, a good man, a decent and capable man. I remind him that he can do anything. I downplay my own abilities and praise his. I verbally kiss his boo boos when he comes to me or steps on my sales floor full of hate and bile because my boss is an asshole who values no one and sees us all, even a rockstar like him, as disposable. I baby him when he's a baby, and gas him up when he's deflated. Business is war, managers are generals, and associates are soldiers. I win my soldiers' loyalty and love, and in turn, they are willing to die on my battlefield daily. But it's like all of that went over everyone's heads. Everyone on my team worked much harder for me than for anyone else. But my sway with this guy was astonishing!
Anyway. I warned my boss many times that he hated her and could be trouble for her stats if she didn't get her manners under control with him. Just be polite. I kept him from hitting people. I kept him from quitting. I kept him from refusing to make sales, at least while I was in charge. I warned her he was a delicate snowflake, super high maintenance.
She never thought I was bright. I heard her calling me stupid behind my back a few times. When I quit, she disregarded my intel about this guy. She promoted him to my job. He couldn't handle the stress, didn't understand the difference between his job and the more administrative tasks of the managers above that level, and quit within a month. He never even learned to do the accounting or paperwork associated with the gig. SMH they paid him $6 more per hour than they'd paid me, even after my raises. They gave him perks I never got. They also bonused him out, even though when I was supposed to get my third and fourth bonuses they conveniently changed policy to exclude me from eligibility to bonus. He didn't even last a quarter, and quit during 4th quarter (so had I) but they bonused him, even though the numbers for that bonus were the results of MY hard work all year. $6/hour more than my highest wage there to start, AND my fuckin' bonus. That little bitch-made flower couldn't hack it for a month. LOL
I remain close friends with one of the kids who was my boss (was weird having a teenager *19* in charge, let me tell you) under that psycho at the top. She's the one who told me about the payroll. She also tried to give me a third of her bonus when corporate cut me out. What a weird gig. Anyway. That's the clearest wage discrepancy I ever saw.
