could expect to be making between X and Y within three to five months: it's now been six months and this raise doesn't even bring me up to the minimum amount." "I'm sorry to hear that you're disappointed. Did you get that in writing when we hired you?" (Mentally slaps forehead.) "No. No, I didn't." "Well, I'm sorry, Tom. There's really nothing I can do about that then...." I was annoyed: I felt like I had taken a salary of less than I was worth with the under- standing that this would be rectified within a relatively short period of time once I had shown I could perform. Was I not performing? Or was I just getting screwed because this is how every company works: they hire you for as low as they can get you, and then give you incremental raises, but rarely a "step" raise. I found out the answer to whether I was performing a couple of weeks later when I got word that I was being shifted from David's group to work for Janet Delfino in the infra- structure group. While this made sense based on the projects I was currently working on, it felt like a demotion. I had been traded for one or two programmers in Janet's depart- ment, and in looking at the guys that David ended up with, I felt like I was getting shoved off to the minors. I was crushed and felt fairly worthless--or more specifically, like I was *