#54 “My manager brought me in for a 1:1 one day and said he had a long talk with his wife... and prayed about me. He decided he would cut my salary by $25k…”

“I worked at a small tech company in Atlanta. Started as the Executive Assistant to the CEO and COO, but I took on so many other responsibilities for this start up that I was given (not promoted to) EA/Office Manager then to EA/HR & Admin Manager. I previously had a great daily working relationship with the COO, who really ran the company, and worked as his right-hand person on all projects. We had, what I thought was, a minor disagreement, but he never spoke with me the same way again. I was being iced out, but still expected to take on new responsibilities for this startup.

My manager brought me in for a 1:1 one day and said he had a long talk with his wife (who didn't work with the company in any way) and prayed about me. He decided he would cut my salary by $25k despite the fact that I wore multiple hats, took on all responsibilities of running the office and the HR lifecycle (hiring, training, administration, firing, benefits), and managed the offices finances. He said he could not justify paying someone of my education and what he described as a "secretarial" role the salary I was making. I told him my salary was competitive for someone with my skill set in this market, responsibilities, and experience.

He said that he spoke with God on this and felt that I should be thankful to have a job with his growing startup. He has hired 6 other people since then to own different areas of my previous role. None of them stayed because they felt overworked and he was eventually asked to leave the company.”