Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Frist: I love this article on salary secretiveness. It’s brilliant! Read the follow up comment roundup as well. Mighty fascinating.

Given that I just got a raise, I should tell you a little about how this happened. I work for a former client. I quit my job about 18 months ago and called a client asking if he had any openings. Fortunately, he did. I felt I got lowballed at the salary offered, but I was ok with that since I was going to work for one cool guy. I would argue for an appropriate adjustment as time wore on.

Fast forward a year later, to last month. I apply for a job in Seattle on a whim. Part of the reason I do it is because I know I’m underpaid at my current company and I wonder what I am worth out on the open market. I am ultimately relieved not to be offered the job. But then they call me a week later and say they want to offer it to me. I am shocked and flattered. I start running the numbers. Flat out numberswise, I should take this offer, fears of selling or not selling my condo aside, I can make it work. But now I have my leverage to ask for a counter-offer. So I hint to my boss that I’m looking for more money next year. And eventually that hint becomes, “I’d like to know what you can do for me today.”

I was drastically uncomfortable with this conversation. My new boss is an old friend, but we’ve had many a beer discussing salaries at our old firm and general philosophies about compensation. He totally understood that I just wanted what was fair compensation for what I do. I never told him what the other company offered. I just gave him a number to beat, which was less than my offer in Seattle. I told him what the other intangibles were that he needed to hold my interest at work. (Our project list looked dreadful for 2007.) I’m not completely greedy or consumed by money. I have to like what I’m doing and our work wasn’t setting me on fire with excitement. You have to leave a few negotiating items out there. It’s a package deal and sometimes money really isn’t everything. I love training and learning. I love money. I love autonomy. Where do you stand on these things?

Later on, I meet a old co-worker at happy hour. He tells me what he thinks I am making. It’s an eyebrow lifter. He and another former co-worker figured I was making about what I had originally requested. Very interesting. My peers evaluated me to be worth a certain number, which is the same number I had evaluated myself. My co-worker tells me his old salary at the time of his departure and it’s the same as mine. VERY FASCINATING. My company really screwed me over, more than I knew. I’m irritated by this, but I’m just looking for an adjustment. Not a lot, just some parity on my perceived market value.

Low and behold there are no promises just some happy chat. I don’t know what to think. There’s nothing in writing. I am discomfited by this, but I know a personnel action form has been filled out. Now we just have to wait for the numbers. All that stuff I’ve written about negotiating and working with your management is true. You have to give them a chance to do the right thing. Don’t walk away from them without giving them a fair shot at making things right. But be prepared to walk. My friends and family cautioned me away from asking for a counter-offer if I wasn’t prepared to pick up and leave for Seattle. But frankly, I could have turned down that offer, not received a counter-offer and still found another job in DC in 90 days or less. It’s basically the same thing.

Luckily I have a happy ending. I got a raise. I attribute a lot of that to the good managers I have at work. I don’t get along with them 100% of the time, but I think there is a mutual respect for what we do for one another.

I don’t know about you, but perhaps it’s what I do for a living. I work with dollars and cents on a daily basis. Sure I bash up data and it could be in different units, time, barrels, miles, boardfeet, etc. But I can quantitatively point to my value in dollars pretty quickly. Yes, I get a bang out that. But it also makes it very easy to point out that I’m asking for $5K and working on projects that will save the company $10-20 million. Is that a lot to ask?

Perhaps I’ve said too much. Perhaps there is a nugget in there for you to take up for your own cause.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1) Know what you are worth. I was shocked to find that my peers and I agreed on what I was worth. Salary.com kids. I can’t plug them enough.

2) Give your management a chance to make things right. Everyone can walk away feeling good knowing they tried or did not try, but never shut them down with no opportunity to ameliorate a situation. If you do, you probably should have quit a year ago.

3) Negotiate for several things at once. Don’t limit yourself to just dollars. Make it about your whole job. Happiness at work isn’t only about money. What are the intangibles you need to make your job worthwhile, and be prepared to negotiate for that. Flexible hours? More vacation? Training? Autonomy? Take tip from SingleMa on this one. The lady is good. Real good.

*Please note that I personally recommend Fisher & Ury’s Getting to Yes. It’s kind of silly because it seems commonsensical, but you’ll shake your head at how much people forget common sense in negotiations. Plus their maxim, negotiate interests, not positions, has stayed with me for the last SEVENTEEN YEARS since I read the book.