Hospital employee negotiates higher pay during “lateral” transfer, HR calls furious after they reveal salary details to coworkers: ‘Compensation conversations are supposed to be handled by experts’ – FAIL Blog

I transferred to another department and negotiated a raise, and HR called me furious.

I work in a large hospital system in the US. Recently, I transferred to another department, and they presented it as a lateral transfer in terms of salary, but I pushed to get more money. My main argument was that I had an outside offer from another employer, and honestly, I used the two against each other a bit.

 

In the end, HR came back and agreed to increase my salary, even though they had previously told me that “pay is consistent across the board.” I knew that was nonsense, but they also told me not to tell anyone because supposedly they rarely make exceptions like this.

 

Of course, I didn’t stay quiet. I’ve always believed that talking about salaries is important. A few years ago, comparing salaries with my coworkers helped me get a raise, so I wanted other people to at least know that they could ask.

 

Another person transferred to the same department at around the same time I did, and they were also told the transfer would be lateral. Unfortunately, my coworker didn’t negotiate and accepted it as offered. We talked afterward, and I told them what I had done, and told them there was no real downside to asking.