The process for the production manager role went well — several interviews, the last one with the hiring manager and the team. She had named 47k as her expectation at the very start; the ad listed 40–45k.
After the final round, the recruiter called. The team would offer 42.5k, he said, a figure set by “internal equity.” He admitted they should have talked about salary earlier. She said 42.5k was below her target and that she was still at 47. He asked how low she could go, said he was almost certain he could get 45k approved — “I’m not sure about 47.” She replied that she would like to stay at 47 but, if it wasn’t possible, they could discuss it. He said he would get back to her.
She hung up proud of herself; negotiation does not come naturally to her. She would have taken 45k. She was waiting for him to return, as promised, with a best and final.
Instead, an email: “Following a final internal review, we have decided not to take the proposed offer forward.” Nothing in it said the salary was the reason — or that she had declined.
So she called the hiring manager. He was, he said, genuinely shocked. He had been told something else entirely: that she had turned the offer down because she would not take less than 47k, and on that basis they had gone with another candidate. She told him she had never declined anything. He said he would look into it.
Two explanations, she wrote, and neither matched the conversation she thought she was still having.