Found out my VP lied to my face 18 months ago about my pay. I am furious about that and the broken trust. After I calm down…what should I do?
About a year and a half ago, I found out I was likely near the very bottom of the pay band for my role (Sales Manager, 10 years with the company, 5 years in the role). At the time, I had just finished as one of only a few managers out of about 14 who hit goal in a down year.
I wrote a professional email to my VP laying out why I thought I deserved an adjustment based on performance and market equity. I also raised the issue of trust and integrity in the way I even found out. When we met to discuss it, he looked me in the eye and told me flat out that my information was wrong and that I was simply mistaken about where I sat on the pay scale. He got visibly emotional, talked about how critical mutual trust was between us, and promised he’d push for the highest possible merit raise for me at the next cycle since he couldn't get an off-cycle raise approved right then. I took him at his word, assumed my info was bad, and put my head down and worked. We’ve had a great relationship and dynamic this last year and a half.
Fast forward to this year. I got a top rating and a decent merit increase at my next review. Performance has been great. Two weeks ago, I had a meeting with my VP and our Chief Sales Officer about a future VP role for me, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. No promises made, but that’s not the way things work in my company and I didn’t expect one.
Two days ago, I was in my VP's office for our most recent one-on-one. I was the top-performing manager to goal in his entire org for the quarter. While we were talking, he accidentally shared the wrong monitor. On the screen was a spreadsheet listing the exact salaries for all 10-11 managers reporting to him.
Turns out I'm second from the absolute bottom.
There are only two managers who make less than me, by about $3k. (We’re all six-figures.) One has been here for three years, the other for about one year. The next person above me makes $6k-$7k more with less tenure. The rest of the team makes significantly more than I do.
When I pointed out what was on his screen, he realized the mistake, made a joke by waving his hands to make me forget what I saw, and I told him it wasn't that easy. That was the end of the discussion.
I'm dealing with two issues here. One is the pay equity, which sucks after five years of consistently out-producing people making way more than me. But the much bigger issue is that my VP blatantly lied to my face 18 months ago while giving me a whole speech about trust and integrity. He could have told me pay was confidential or that my band was set based on when I was hired, but he chose to lie.
At this point, I don't see how I can ever trust him again or keep working under him.
I'm trying to figure out how to play this. My options seem to be:
- Go directly to the Chief Sales Officer, explain what happened, and ask to be moved to a different reporting line in the company.
- Confront my VP directly about the lie and the breach of trust. I am not that sure I am interested in repair.
- Take it to HR.
- Keep quiet, start interviewing elsewhere, and either leave or use an outside offer to force a raise/move internally.
How would you all handle this situation? What advice do you have for me? I do recognize that there is no decision to make while I’m angry and seeing red. I have my regularly scheduled therapy appointment next week lol.
Thanks!