Katharina Buczek
This 27-year-old woman is a software engineer, and recently, she got married to her 33-year-old husband– who works in construction management.
Since she grew up very poor, though, her current salary makes her feel like she is loaded. Apparently, she makes $120,000 a year; meanwhile, her husband makes about $80,000.
“I’ve gone from counting literal pennies because my budget was that tight to not having to worry about buying anything we need,” she said.
But recently, her boss decided to offer her a promotion– specifically a Program Manager position. During that conversation, though, she was told that her salary would not be reviewed until the next review cycle.
So, she decided to do a bit more research and grabbed a drink with two men– one who had the job now and one who had the job before.
While speaking with them, she ultimately learned that the current guy was essentially cheated out of a raise because he took the promotion when a salary increase was implied. And that raise just never came.
The guy who had that position before had a similar story, too. Apparently, he was making less money than she was currently. Yet still, his requests for raises kept getting rejected.
Afterward, she decided to talk to her husband about what happened– detailing how she wasn’t sure if she should take the promotion or not. Once he heard her out, though, he still encouraged her to take the position for her resume.
So, she went to work the next morning and decided to ask her boss what the salary would be for the promotion. But, her boss just claimed the compensation would be up to HR during the next review cycle.
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