I want to be making at least six figures, I remember him griping.
I nearly choked and was able to get out, Yeah!
You definitely should be!
Credit: Simon & Schuster
Did he notice the inflection in my voice the pause or maybe the choke?
A few minutes went by and he asked, Wait .
What do you make?
I felt the power dynamic shift.
I was making more money than him.
And he had just caught on to that.
I tried to back-pedal.
I told him I had just been given a bump to $105,000 (not true).
- It wasnt a big deal (not true).
I tried to deflect.
I deserved that salary.
I worked my a off for that salary.
Things changed after that.
His rooting for my success turned more into resentment.
He dumped me two months later.
He just looked at me and told me he never loved me and so on, so forth.
The breakup was brutal but probably exactly what the doctor ordered for his broken ego.
He made me feel small, not special, and not important.
He seemed to want me to be disposable because I had power over him.
The setting of this chat, BTW: my Prius.
The same location where he had learned I was earning more money than him.
It was a smart car all right.
One that knew exactly what I needed.
I just feel so bad telling you this, he told me.
I sat in on a meeting where he blatantly said you should be let go.
He said you were the last to be hired, so should be first to be fired.
This is NOT, Id like to note, anything like slow to hire, quick to fire.
His logic, which my bosses had clearly listened to, is not good biz advice.
I felt like I was going to throw up.
I couldnt believe it would come down to that, but it all clicked into place.
The picture became clear who he was and who I became around him became crystal clear.
Shortly after I had revealed my higher salary, my alpha male partner could not cope with this information.
And the rest, as they say, was history.
The Corporate Climbers true colors had come out.
Good-on-paper doesnt always translate to happily-ever-after.
Leave our workplace and our relationship.
*This is a lot of money.
I dont want to downplay it or let you think that I am throwing six-figure salaries around unappreciatively.
Salaries are not always linear or on upward trajectories.
Ive taken pay cuts since this time.
Ive made more since then, too.
I know its an uncomfy topic.
But I dont want it to be, and well talk more about money in the next chapter.
