Employee requests salary raise after years of unpaid extra work. What happened next revealed the ugly side of office politics. 'Boss told me I could not succeed'

For many employees, taking on extra responsibilities, getting good performance reviews and eventually earning a promotion can seem like the natural path to a better salary. But asking for that raise can sometimes change the relationship between an employee and management, especially when the company already believes the worker is being paid well. A Reddit user's experience has raised questions about what happens when a routine pay discussion is followed by suddenly negative feedback, anonymous complaints and a Performance Improvement Plan.

The employee said he had been working for the same company for several years and had received positive yearly reviews and regular good feedback from his manager. During that time, he also took on more responsibilities and started new initiatives.

Last year, he asked for and received a promotion, but the promotion did not come with a salary increase. He accepted it because he wanted to first prove himself in the new position.


Looking back, he admitted that he had expected his work to eventually speak for itself.

“I will show them my value, and then they will recognize it” was how he described his thinking at the time. He later added, “I was super naive.”

At the beginning of this year, he asked for a raise to match the additional responsibilities. The company eventually refused, mainly because he was already one of its highest earners.

The employee acknowledged that he was paid well and above market rate, so he said the rejection itself was not a huge surprise. But the conversations that followed made him more uncomfortable.

He said his request led to several discussions about why he was "unhappy." According to his account, he was even told that if he were happy with his job, he would not need a raise to feel validated.

Then the feedback suddenly became negative

A few months later, the employee said he went into what he believed was a normal meeting with his bosses. Instead, he received 45 minutes of negative feedback.

“Apparently multiple team members had anonymously complained about me, and management now considered my performance in my new position very poor,” he wrote.

The employee said this was completely different from the feedback he had received previously.

Management then asked whether he wanted to return to his old role. However, he was warned that even doing that might not save his job because the company would need to hire someone for his current position.

There was also a particularly blunt message from his boss.

“My boss also explicitly told me he didn't believe I could improve enough to succeed in the role,” the employee said.

After thinking about it for several weeks, he agreed to step back.

The proposed solution changed again

The situation became even more confusing after he accepted the offer.

The bosses appeared surprised by his decision, according to the employee. They then told him that stepping back was actually not possible.

Instead, he was placed on a two-month Performance Improvement Plan, or PIP. He also said he was required to write the PIP himself.

That left him questioning what management actually wanted.

“If they don't believe I can improve, why give me a PIP?” he asked. “If stepping back wasn't possible, why offer it? And if they simply want me gone, why not fire me?”

The employee also pointed out that he was not working in the US and said a PIP did not give his employer any special legal protection in his country.

Reddit users saw several warning signs

The post attracted a large number of comments, with many users advising the employee to start looking for another job.

One commenter questioned the claim about anonymous complaints, saying, “Multiple team members had anonymously complained…” and arguing that the employee should ask for evidence and clarification about how such complaints were being handled.

Another focused on the PIP, writing, “You don’t write a pip yourself. A PIP is a formal process with HR.”

Several commenters also believed the company might be trying to make the employee resign rather than formally dismiss him. One wrote, “They're trying to get you to quit so they don't have to fire you.”

Others warned that being among the company's highest-paid employees could itself have become a problem during cost-cutting.

The discussion also returned to the original promotion. One commenter offered a simple warning: “It's never a promotion without a raise. It's just a change of responsibilities.”