A conversation between me and my skip-level manager in a 1:1 –
Manager: It's unprofessional to discuss salaries with coworkers.
Me: It's illegal to prevent employees from discussing salaries.
Manager: It's unprofessional to discuss salaries with coworkers.
Me: It's literally illegal to say employees can't discuss salaries.
Manager: It's unprofessional. It looks bad and reflects poorly on you.
Me: It's illegal to prevent employees from talking about our salaries.
Manager: It's extremely unprofessional to discuss salaries with coworkers.
This went on a while longer. Round and round. Like the capitalist merry-go-round of death. Guess he thought he was being sneaky by not explicitly saying “you can't discuss salaries”. Eventually I gave up and ended the meeting.