This was a few years back. I was working at car exhaust place. It was pretty intense manual labor between the saw cutting, pipe bending, repairing, and welding. I was great at that job and they started looking at me as a manager for the new shop that was opening up. I would fill in as acting manager whenever they were short or a manager took a vacation. The extra duties included opening and closing the shop, ordering materials, taking inventory, booking appointments, and balancing the register. I did a great job at it and customers love me. I was doing all this despite not receiving any extra pay. Christmas time comes around and we all receive our bonuses ($250 each, despite the owner having 5 shops that all pull in $400k+ a year) spaced out over about a week, because everyone rotated shops daily and it depended on when you’d see the owner. I finally see the owner and he gives me my bonus and says, “There’s a little extra in there for doing a good job at managing the shops when needed.” I open it and it’s $250. I’m a little confused so I ask the other guys if they got $250 because that’s what the word was that everyone was getting. They did. That’s when one of them tells me that this other kid (we’ll call him John) got a $500 bonus and everyone is talking about how it was a mistake and was supposed to go to me. John was a complete shit head that was bad at the job and called in constantly. I go to ask the owner about the mistake and I tell him I think John got my bonus by mistake because it was more than mine and he hadn’t managed any shops. My boss looks me dead in the eye and goes, “Ha, what do you want me to do about it? Guess you’ll have to work just as hard this upcoming year.” I basically did double duty for 2-3 months of work and got nothing for it. That was the day I decided I’d start looking for a new job. That day came when I broke my foot and the owner told me I wouldn’t get “any special treatment” and was expected to work under cars and weld with crutches. I ended up finding an office job in an entirely different field and I now make triple what I was making there while his shops have an insane turnover rate and an average employee age of about 19. Know your worth and take a chance on yourself because it will pay off.