When was a time you thought "the worst they could do is say No", and you were completely wrong?

At my last job, I asked for a raise. I was well overdue, horrifyingly underpaid, and had smoothly completed several stellar projects well beyond my pay grade and job description. I was given a glowing review and a whopping $0.25/hour raise. The raise sucked but I was over the moon that they gave me SOMETHING, and that my hard work had been acknowledged in some way.

My (woman) colleague/counterpart was also given a glowing review and a quarter/hour raise. She was also happy just to get something.

My (white man) colleague/counterpart was also given a glowing review and a $1.75/hour raise.

I was completely crushed when I found out. It took so much for me to ask for that raise, they gave my woman colleague and me a pittance, and they turned around and gave a man 7x more for no valid reason--they just valued men (especially white men) more and made that abundantly clear.

/r/AskWomen Thread