I just read this great article: “When the Boss Says, ‘Don’t Tell Your Coworkers How Much You Get Paid’.” Here’s a few lines:
Under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA), all workers have the right to engage “concerted activity for mutual aid or protection” and “organize a union to negotiate with [their] employer concerning [their] wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.” …
This is true whether the employers make their threats verbally or on paper and whether the consequences are firing or merely some sort of cold shoulder from management.
When I was a temp worker at a corporate office here in Omaha, I had a sit-down with my boss about exactly this.
She’d asked me to come up to meet her in her office. Once I was seated across from her, she said that someone had complained because I’d been talking about pay. “That is just not something we do here,” she said. “It’s not part of our culture. It makes people feel uncomfortable.”
My face went red. I was embarrassed (I hate being reprimanded). I also felt I’d done something wrong and was being shamed, but I didn’t understand. I hadn’t talked about pay that I could recall. I sort of verbally purged everything I had said in the past few weeks that could be construed as talking about pay.
I said something to the effect of, “Oh-I’m-really-sorry. I-don’t-remember-doing-that. I’m-quite-happy-with-my-pay, but-I-never-said-how-much-I-made-or-asked-in-return.”
And then, “Oh. I did ask one co-worker how much she charges for her other freelance work, since I’m going to be freelancing. But I told her she didn’t have to tell me if she was uncomfortable. So she didn’t.”
“It wasn’t just another [temp] who complained,” my boss said.
All this sit-down meeting did was land me confused. Finally, some time after I left her office, I figured out what it probably was.
Three or four of us had been hired on temporarily just for one big project, for something like four months. Near the end of the four months, the higher-ups had indicated that they’d select one of us temps to stay on longer, full-time. The person selected had been the first of the temps hired, so it seemed fair. I knew it wouldn’t be me because I’d told the president of the company I didn’t really want to do this work long-term.
And I was fine with that. I don’t know if I even would have accepted the position for the added résumé experience had it been offered to me. The “culture” there didn’t suit me.
But I believe the issue in question came when we were casually talking about insurance one day. The young woman who’d been hired was [very] pregnant. I asked her if this position would give her good insurance. I think I also asked if she would have maternity leave.
I sincerely hope I didn’t make my co-worker uncomfortable (I was genuinely concerned for her well-being), but maybe I did. However, my suspicion is that one of the other higher-ups had overheard me and tattled. Made sure I was kept in line.
I wish:
- That I would have known then what I read in this article today.
- That if I’d known, I would have had the guts to confront my boss’s gag rule.
Live and learn, I guess. But I can promise that I won’t again readily accept shame for something I didn’t do wrong.