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Antiwork

My boss said she would fire employees for discussing salary

I wanted to share an incident that happened a while back now that I'm resigning. A bit of a rant about my boss and co-worker. Note that I'm in Canada where it's legal for employers to prohibit wage discussion. After losing a team-member, one of my co-workers applied to the role, fully aware of the workload and stress (she was warned against it but took it on anyways). Despite being trained by another team-member, she would often go to me for help with her tasks. Later my co-worker wanted to discuss wages in confidentiality and it turned out she was making less than me. It came as a shock to me because I naively thought we all made the same amount. Not long after, my boss pulled me into a meeting and I was reprimanded for sharing my wage. She said she would fire workers for discussing wages in the…


I wanted to share an incident that happened a while back now that I'm resigning. A bit of a rant about my boss and co-worker. Note that I'm in Canada where it's legal for employers to prohibit wage discussion.

After losing a team-member, one of my co-workers applied to the role, fully aware of the workload and stress (she was warned against it but took it on anyways). Despite being trained by another team-member, she would often go to me for help with her tasks.

Later my co-worker wanted to discuss wages in confidentiality and it turned out she was making less than me. It came as a shock to me because I naively thought we all made the same amount. Not long after, my boss pulled me into a meeting and I was reprimanded for sharing my wage. She said she would fire workers for discussing wages in the future. Turns out my co-worker told my boss that she knew how much I was making and demanded to be matched at my wage. I didn't expect that my co-worker was going to tell my boss that I revealed my wage.

I told my boss that it's illegal to prohibit wage discussion but she insisted companies are permitted in Canada and there will be consequences in the future. After Googling, I found out that this was true. When I told my co-worker that I was reprimanded because she revealed she knew my wage instead of saying industry rates to our boss, she admitted she already knew that we weren't allowed to discuss wages at companies. So I guess I was the only one who didn't know.

After her raise, my co-worker was assigned a couple more tasks. She became quickly overwhelmed because she hadn't fully grasped the role before her raise. The role is still an entry level position so you don't need much experience but the workload can be overwhelming. I felt bad she was overwhelmed, but I was already overwhelmed before having to help her. She asked me to walk through simple situations again and again. For months she would ask me to assist her with work she should have grasped by then.

When my co-worker found out I was leaving, she freaked out and I could tell she's not happy for me. She asked me if I could help her find a new job, maybe at my new company…lol.

I'm glad I'm leaving. I always heard how it’s illegal for companies to prohibit salary discussions but I guess that’s only in the US?

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