I'd had a job offer from another agency. I didn't really want to take it - I liked it where I was, had good friends there and enjoyed my work. But I'd been there for a while and was getting frustrated at the lack of progression.
I thought I could use this job offer as a bit of leverage. They were offering me a senior role on a good wage, all I wanted was to open a dialogue about this being matched.
The first chat went well, or so I thought. My manager told me he'd hate to lose me and that they'd see what they could do to keep me.
The next day I was invited to talk to my creative director. 'This is it,' I thought. 'My moment.'
Alas, I was wrong. The response I got was, word for word, as follows:
"We can't offer you any more money when you're behaving like this. We'd like you to seriously consider counselling. Of course that other agency would offer you more - they don't know you."
For clarity, I am not mentally unstable. I just wanted an extra £5k a year. I declined the counselling and left.