Employee goes from $80K analyst to $95K team lead in 8 months, then tells his boss he wants a $100K base salary at the next review; now fears he may have ‘soured’ their relationship

Talking about money with your boss can get awkward pretty quickly, especially when you have already received a raise and a promotion in quick succession. One 26-year-old employee on Reddit says he may have made things uncomfortable after telling his boss that his next salary goal is a $100,000 CAD base salary.

The employee shared his situation on the platform’s popular subreddit r/askmanagers, explaining that he joined his company in November as an analyst earning $80,000 CAD. He said the position was being “basically bottom of the corporate ladder” at the company. However, things moved after that.

Employee got a raise and promotion within 8 months

The company normally has strict rules around compensation and promotions. Employees can receive a maximum 3% merit increase during the April review, while they generally need to spend 18 months in a role before moving into another position.

But the employee said he received the full 3% increase after only about five months. Then, after eight months in the analyst role, he was promoted to Team Lead. His salary increased to $95,000 plus a 10% bonus.

That is when he decided to tell his boss about his next target. “Last week I told my boss (VP of the department) that one of my next goals for the next merit review is to get to $100k base,” he wrote.

According to him, his boss responded by pointing out that his total compensation was already above $100,000 and appeared to suggest that he should be satisfied with that.

His boss also reportedly said that the company had already “broken a lot of the rules” to get him to his current position and would be difficult to make another increase.

Salary goal was not meant as a demand

The employee said he noticed that conversations about compensation had become tense, but argued that he was not demanding an immediate raise. The job listing for his Team Lead role had a salary band of $102,000 to $150,000, which made him believe his $100,000 base target was reasonable.

“I genuinely like the company and value what I’m learning here, but I also have salary goals for myself,” he wrote.

Later, he clarified that compensation was only one part of a much broader conversation about his career goals.

He said he had discussed short-, medium- and long-term goals across seven different categories, with most of the discussion focused on developing his leadership and communication skills.

“I wanted to be transparent, but I can see how it can come across as ungrateful,” he added.

He says he is already doing some manager-level work

The situation went on to become more complicated when the employee explained why salary mattered to him. His team currently does not have a dedicated manager. A previous manager had left after five years, while another most recent manager left within three months.

As a result, some responsibilities that would normally fall to a manager have gradually landed on him.

He said he had initially asked his boss to clarify what tasks he should handle as a Team Lead so he would not end up “doing 2 people’s work at once.”

He also said there was a history of what he viewed as underpayment within his team. According to him, one of the team's top performers was earning less than its lowest performer.

He had already pushed for a raise and promotion for that employee, which he said was successful.

Now, the Reddit user is trying to make sure he does not end up in a similar situation himself.