Also please explain where he 'blackmailed' his boss?
Good managers let their employees vent, when necessary, and don't take it personally.
Insecure ones get all uppity about things like that.
Wikipedia: "Blackmail is an act [..] involving unjustified threats to make [..] cause loss to another unless a demand is met."
Regarding your Wikipedia quote, leaving a job in which you are abused and underpaid is not at all unjustified.
And I understand that you don't want to see yourself as a blackmailer.
"I'm more worth than that" and leaving is standing up.
"Give me more money or I leave" is blackmail.
"Regarding your Wikipedia quote, leaving a job in which you are abused and underpaid is not at all unjustified."
Leaving is not the blackmail part, threatening to leave is the blackmail part.
No one would ever be found guilty of blackmail for simply saying "Give me a pay rise or else I'll resign". (But, "Give me a pay rise or else I'll report your illegal activities to the authorities" would be blackmail.) The essence of blackmail is demanding money for an illegitimate reason - money which you are not legitimately due - and there is nothing inherently illegitimate about demanding a pay rise. It simply means that you put a different value on your own labour than your employer currently does, and if you and they cannot reach agreement on that value, you'll look for someone else with whom you agree more.
It is absolutely the correct call. He was being taken advantage of. He used his only point of leverage to get a fairer deal.
And it's not extortion because the "threat" was not wrongful; the boss is not his owner nor is he entitled to his work.
The word you're looking for is haggling, and it's a common part of negotiations.
HN regularly mentions the book "how to win friends and influence people" or talks about hacking various interpersonal processes.
This is just an interpersonal hack. Saying "give me more money or I'll leave" causes many - but admittedly not all - managers to respond with "go ahead and leave then", even when the manager knows that replacing the leavig employee will require a higher wage than the employee is currently getting and some expenditure on the recruitment process.
People are not rational and they do mot make rational decisions. We know that management, and recruitment, is very broken.
Blackmail is defined as a demand for money in exchange for not revealing compromising or injurious information.
"Give me more money or I will publish these naked photos of you" is blackmail.
One of those is illegal. The other one isn't.
"This bounty hunter is my kind of scum, Fearless and Inventive"
When dealing with sociopaths,, to negotiate from a position of strength; you need to have an offer in hand from another employer, because it is very likely that you could be fired on the spot when you confront this type of individual. The sociopath doesn't care, and will just find someone else to exploit.
What he did was give his boss an entirely reasonable ultimatum.
I can see how it might seem threatening to someone who feels threatened by the thought of an employee standing up for himself.
WRT your definition of blackmail, I'm getting "the action, treated as a criminal offense, of demanding money from a person in return for not revealing compromising or injurious information about that person." It's a VERY specific term having to do with hidden information.
What you cited seems closer to the definition of extortion ("the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats"), but frankly, as long as what you're threatening to do is legal, that's business.
Your relationship with your employer is first and foremost a business relationship - they are not your best friend, your family, or your surrogate father. You have no obligation to play nice with their feelings.
I understand your impulse to not give in to an employee that demands like this, but you need to drop the moralizing BS - what you're saying is "they know what they're worth and I can't afford to pay that, so I'll only hire employees who don't know what they're worth". Sound accurate?
That is bs, leaving is the only leverage you have as an employee. If you do't use it, you might have a problem, because you lack the ability to negotiate. The age of feudalism is over you know...
To be fair, this could have been wrapped up in some better language, like "I don't think my salary is reflecting my talents", but in the end it all boils down to leaving for a better opportunity
A manager who knows someone is worth it but would still rather let me go than pay market price for their labor (because he doesn't like negotiating when he's not in a position of absolute power) is probably doing so because he can't man up and negotiate with someone his own size figuratively speaking. The stereotypical "I'm not letting a woman tell me what to do." sort of insecurity/attitude.
Employees have been "on the bottom" in the traditional work relationship for so long, it can seem "unfair" to employers to have to deal with employees on a more level playing field.
that's exactly how salary negotiations work. If I don't do a good enough job, you demote or fire me. If I do a good enough job AND the market says I should make X, then X - Y isn't fucking good enough, and you should be warned that I'm happy to find an employer that WILL pay me what I ask for.