I already knew my male colleague had been offered more money, so I’d assumed it would only be a few days before my raise would also be approved. When I brought this up with my boss and HR, the reason they gave was he had "done a few extra shifts than me". It’s true, he had started doing some shifts first, but only by a couple of weeks as I’d been on annual leave at the time. At the point we asked for more money there was absolutely no difference in the amount of work or hours we were doing. My boss then said he wanted me to continue doing the work as I was “one of the most valued members of the team”, but he would understand if I didn’t want to. I was in a catch-22 situation. I could have just refused to do the shifts and gone back to my normal duties – but then I’d be taking myself out of the game. I’d worked hard to climb the ladder. I wasn’t about to let my colleague get ahead.