Employee confronts CEO after getting denied her raise and discovering her coworker with less experience got one: 'The CEO literally says he wishes every employee was like me. And yet… nothing'

Imagine showing such allegiance to a young, growing company like this employee did, only to be blindsided by her CEO shortly thereafter.

When this lady started working at this small, fully remote startup company, there were only 10 employees. It was an intimate but mighty team, and everyone believed in the CEO's energy and passion. That included the author of this unfortunate anecdote. She was so committed to this company that she went out of her way to spread the word and even recruited a friend of hers to the team. This was outside of her job description, but it was appreciated by the CEO, since she was proving to be a valuable team player.

The author's friend who was hired also turned out to be a great asset to the team… so much so that she got a raise after just one year of experience on the job. The coworker messaged the author to celebrate the good news and to thank the author for helping her get this position in the first place. 

This should have been a pleasant exchange between the two employees, were it not for a bit of company secrecy that slipped through the cracks. See, the author had no idea that her coworker was getting compensated considerably more than she was. Now that her friend was getting a raise, the author couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't received one throughout her time at the company. After all, she had been working there for three years, not one, and she had more professional experience in general. What went wrong here?