By day two, the truth became obvious. The salary she negotiated came with responsibilities no one had warned her about. She wasn’t frustrated with me—in fact, she quietly admitted she respected the way I handled it. She’d accepted the job thinking the workload matched the pay, not realizing she was stepping into a role that had consumed far more than one person’s time for years.
My boss, meanwhile, paced the hallway making frantic phone calls. Hiring someone new didn’t magically replace all the unpaid labor I had once given out of loyalty. He saw that now. On the final day of “training,” I handed in my resignation—effective immediately. My replacement hugged me goodbye. Two weeks later, I accepted a new job that finally paid me what I was worth. And this time, I negotiated even better.
