I recently asked for a new discussion around compensation because I had received an offer. On call, the CEO of our well-funded, well-known tech company requested that I screen share the offer… while also trying to guess which company it was. Since the offer very clearly stated “Confidential” on the pages, I asked if I could call the company to ask if sharing the offer was OK before doing so.
He said it would not, and threatened to fire me on the spot if I could not produce proof that I had an offer with the compensation I was asking for.
The company is HQ'd in California. Threatening to fire a worker for something like this is ILLEGAL. Also, prohibiting employees from discussing compensation details with each other, which they said they put in every contract, is ILLEGAL under California's pay transparency laws.
I repeated that I was not comfortable sharing until I had asked the other company. They fired me. I accepted the other company's far more generous offer two hours later.
Do not allow your employer to bully you into things you are not comfortable doing. Do not allow your employer to infringe on your employee rights. In this case, bending to my former CEO's demands could have cost me my offer.
Know your rights, it can save you so much headache.