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Best way to negotiate a large raise?

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:23:37 -0800

How can I smartly/safely negotiate a substantial promotion and raise? I signed onto my current position at a salary in the mid-50s. I definitely undersold myself, but I came from a technical position in a non-technical field and didn't have a very high base to negotiate from. After some staff turnover in the last year, I've informally taken on a much more senior position running the team I was hired into.

Now I would like to renegotiate and make that position official. I spoke with several past employees who held this senior position and their salaries were $40k to $60k higher than what I am making. I've got the chops to be in that range: 8 years of experience, some fairly significant contributions to this company, and a hell of a lot of hours spent in the office. But I am worried that they'll balk at such a sudden increase, even if it's part of a promotion.

Any strategies or advice? Is it wiser to start high and negotiate down, or should I be wary of asking for too much initially and sounding like I'm just fishing?

Should I stay or should I go?

sperose — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:45:47 -0800

Currently working two jobs and wondering if I should settle for a dead-end job? I'm currently working two jobs.

I've been at Job A for about 8 months or so and currently make $8.50/hour as an assistant manager. Work environment is boring, but not hostile. However, my coworkers are slackers and leave most of the work up to me to be done during the slow times. The general manager doesn't seem to care about enforcing rules he sets up. The corporate office bitches about extremely minor things constantly.

I've been at Job B for a little less than a month, making $9/hour at entry level shift work. Work environment is crazy shifts with constantly changing hours and indeterminate shift lengths. I like the work, but the crazy hours are keeping me sleep-deprived and possibly making my bad feelings* even worse.

Job A recently offered me a promotion, for $11/hour now until March if I take on a less desirable shift (same number of shifts per week, unless I choose to take more) and $12/hour in March if I am willing to run the place by myself.

Job B has promotion potential every 20 shifts, but it's apparently very difficult to get because they're often denied.

I'm currently finishing my Masters and will be done in early December. I have no other prospects although I've been flashing around my resume. Job A is my first 'real experience' kind of job since graduating from college, where I worked jobs for similar lengths of time.

The question is, should I take the promotion from Job A, even though I'll be finishing my Masters' degree soon and therefore, become more marketable**? Or should I continue with my original plans and leave Job A at the end of October (as I had planned to do when I first started working there in March) so I can focus on finishing my Capstone project for my degree?

Thanks in advance.

* It's probably depression, but I don't have the money to get officially diagnosed.
** I don't have any sort of field that I'm itching to go into and will probably just get some sort of secretarial government job to get by.

Another "how to get a raise" question.. with a twist!

srrh — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 02:52:19 -0800

I applied for a promotion that I did not get, but my company still wants to keep me in that position's "training program," which has the same responsibilities as the position, but without the pay raise. I work for a small company (about 30 employees), and while there have been ups and downs, I generally like my job and my work environment quite a lot. However, take the small size of the workplace, and the fact that it is dominated by women (there are two men in the office), and that leads to an, at best, tight-knit, and at worst, backstabbing and gossipy place to be. What I'm getting at is that it's very informal, and everyone knows everyone's business, for lack of better phrasing.

About a month ago, a space opened up for a supervisory position, which I applied for. Myself and three others were accepted into the "supervisor training program," and basically went through a bunch of rigamarole such as strange homework assignments and awkward group interviews, and today the new supervisor was announced.

It wasn't me, and I am ok with that; I thought the whole promotion process at this company was really strange to begin with, and to be honest, a lot of me was just relieved that it was over. But I was wrong. Our ops manager informed the three of us that were not selected that we were still going to be considered supervisors-in-training, and would be called on to supervise on days when the regular supervisors needed days off. And also that we would be required to be on call at all times in case someone called out. And also that we are required to chair meetings like the other supervisors. And also that we will have the responsibility of monitoring the other employees and writing their evaluations. And also that anytime we are on a shift that DOES have a supervisor, and the supervisor needs to delegate work, it will fall on us. And so forth and so on and so forth. (Basically a whole lot of "and also"s, I'm sure you noticed.)

Basically, we will have exactly the same responsibilities as a supervisor, but without the job title or the raise that comes along with it. I do really like the company I work for, but it is by FAR the worst paying job I have ever had -- I work there only because I like it so much, not for the money. Now, I am being asked to take on a whole lot of new responsibilities and be available at all times, and not being given anything in return.

This brings me back to my first paragraph; my work place is very informal and very gossipy. There is a lot of joking, sometimes to the point where it is hard to be taken seriously, and some of the higher ups joke around in ways that are hard to read and can sometimes even be hurtful (I have not had that problem personally but I've seen it many times in the office). I'm really not sure how to say to my ops manager that I would like a raise commensurate with my new responsibilities, and have her take me seriously. I hesitate to call her intimidating, as she isn't malicious in any way, but like I said above, she is a jokester, with a very sarcastic and dry sense of humor to an extreme -- it often overpowers the other parts of her personality. I am generally an extremely straightforward person, but saying to her, "I'd really like you to take me seriously about this," before I spoke to her about it would lead to the brush off and then her laughing about it with the other managers/supervisors, and things always get around.

Sorry for being so long-winded, I'm just trying as hard as I can not to leave out any pertinent info. I don't work Monday, but I will be seeing her Tuesday, and I would like to talk to her then rather than let this sit. I look forward to any advice you guys can give me about how to best approach this, and if I left out anything or you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

Why can't my friend move to a new job?

symphonik — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:17:44 -0800

A friend of mine (really) recently found an opportunity to move to a different team within our company—certainly a promotion for him. Word got down to his existing management, and they said they would "block" him from moving, because they need him for an event later this year. Is that legal, and what can he do? IANAL, and I'm certainly not an HR manager, so I don't know the legality or appropriateness of this statement. First off, my friend has not even begun the actual interview/job req process for this new position. It came up in a casual discussion, and apparently word came from the new position's HR contact to the current position's HR contact... who then passed it on to my friend's manager. Shortly thereafter his current manager convened a meeting and said that they would block any effort he makes to leave his current position, and that after this event they need him for has passed, he could try again.

Needless to say, that job won't be around in 5 months after this event's over.

Has anyone ever experienced this, and where in the HR policies and contracts would this kind of restriction be worded? It seems ridiculous that a talented person couldn't move to a better position in the same company where he could be much more useful.