25-year-old employee learns he's making $2,000 more than his office mentor: '[He] has worked 50 years in my current company!'

Being a company man is not all it's cracked up to be. After all, you might spend decades working hard and maintaining loyalty, only to have that rug ripped out from under you.

This author had the unfortunate experience of watching his own mentor go through the realization that his loyalty to their company was not properly rewarded. The mentor, who had spent over 50 years at the company, had introduced himself to the author when he was a new hire. At the time, the author was straight out of college and very green, not just in terms of his time at the company but also in the working world in general. The company man could sense his naiveté and unease in the office, so he decided to take the new guy under his wing. 

He showed the author the ropes, gave him advice on how to impress upper management, and even helped him advocate for himself when it came to raises, reviews, and promotions. Eventually, the author's wishes were granted, and he was given a well-deserved promotion after three years of hard work. Now 25, he was excited to share the news with his mentor and to thank him for all of his guidance.

Unfortunately, that conversation did not exactly pan out as the author had intended. When the author revealed how much he was now getting paid, the older man suddenly went quiet. It seemed as if all the energy was sucked right out of the room. It turns out that the author was now getting paid $2,000 more than his own mentor… You know, the person without whom this promotion might not have been possible. It's not that the author did not deserve this raise. Please, you'll rarely see folks at FAIL Blog argue against an employee's rightful compensation. 

The problem is that the mentor had put in decades of work and had established a belief that he was being treated well and was valued at the company. At the end of the day, a younger person with less than 1/10 the amount of experience was able to earn a better salary. We feel for the guy, and we hope that he seizes the moment to advocate for a long overdue rate before his retirement.