Manager expects employee to take over late coworker’s $100k role, but claims there’s no budget to increase their salary, pushing employee to look for another job: ‘They're playing games’

Have your parents ever replaced a beloved pet of yours without you knowing, after the original pet was lost? (I have a point, bear with me…)

When I was 8, my pet hamster managed to escape our house and then completely disappeared with no trace. Instead of telling me the truth, my mom simply went into the pet store and got another hamster that looked as close as possible to the original one, and convinced me that the change in my hamster's fur color was because he was going through puberty.

Funnily enough, she actually pulled that off. I didn't suspect anything and was happy to keep taking care of my hamster. I only ever found out the truth when I turned 18, and my mom thought I was old enough to accept what really happened (I wasn't; it took me weeks to forgive her for lying to me all these years).

While some parents think they can replace pets just like that, this method cannot be applied to almost anything else in life. If my sister were the one to run away, for example, my mom couldn't have just replaced her with a similar-looking 5-year-old, right? Human beings don't exactly work like that.

In the workplace, however, employees get replaced all the time. Your coworker can "run away" from your workplace tomorrow, and it would only take days for your manager to find a replacement. And for some reason, we are all okay with that.

When the coworker in the story below passed away, it wasn't long before their position was posted online in order for the company to find someone else for the job. If that wasn't jarring enough, the boss then decided to turn to one of the employees and ask them to take over the role of the late coworker instead. Initially, the employee was willing to look past the idea of replacing a coworker who passed away, but they were only willing to do it if their salary was increased accordingly. However, the company wanted to do everything in its power to save money, so it refused the employee's demands.

Not only did the company not replace the coworker, but they also tried to pocket their salary and find someone who could do their job basically for free. Keep scrolling to find out how the employee reacted to these demands.