My boss told me to stay late every day to train my replacement. She was hired at $85K. I made $55K—for the same role. When I asked HR why, they shrugged: “She negotiated better.” I smiled and agreed to help.
The next morning, my boss froze when he saw two neatly labeled stacks on my desk: “Current Role Tasks” and “Tasks Performed Voluntarily.” I explained—cheerfully—that I would only be training my replacement on what was officially in my job description. Nothing extra. I didn’t want to overstep.
For years, I’d quietly handled work far beyond my role: client escalations, vendor issues, system fixes, cross-team coordination. Now, I taught only the basics. When my replacement asked about advanced tasks, I smiled and said, “You’ll need to ask management—that wasn’t part of my role.” My boss’s panic grew by the hour.
By day two, my replacement realized the higher salary came with unspoken expectations. She wasn’t angry—just stunned. My boss, meanwhile, paced the halls, finally confronting how much unpaid labor I’d been carrying.
On the last day, I submitted my resignation—effective immediately. My boss stared at the piles of work now falling back on him. Two weeks later, I accepted a new job that paid me what I was worth.
This time, I negotiated better.
