Best Advice I’ve Heard About Asking Your Boss for More Money.
I have interviewed many career and money experts to seek advice on promotion. They usually give the same (good!) Advice: be prepared, investigate the situation, be calm, cool and collected, etc.
But none of this actually reveals the unspoken truth about the demand for a raise. No matter how informed you are, no matter how offended you are with an employee, this is still an uncomfortable situation. You put yourself and your job on the line, and you hope that the other person will recognize and validate your worth. Plus, you have a million data points in your head, and – especially if you’re a woman – you remind yourself to smile, be polite but firm, and so on.
According to a 2017 survey by PayScale , a pay and compensation tracking website, it’s this part of asking for extra money that stops many people from doing it. In a word, it’s inconvenient. And people naturally avoid things that make them uncomfortable.
Some of the other tips that are usually given about raising salaries can help deal with this awkwardness. For example, the more prepared you are, the more confident you will become.
This brings me back to one of the best conversations on this topic. I interviewed Bridget Casey, a Canadian financial blogger , about tips for negotiating wages, and she said this (I paraphrase): if there was some other situation that made you feel uncomfortable for 5-10 minutes but you have $ 5,000 at the end, you would do it in no time, right? It’s like asking for more money in a salary negotiation.
This wisdom stuck in my mind. Asking for more money, whether during an interview or at your current job, usually only takes a few minutes, and then you are more likely to get more money, according to surveys on the topic : while almost two-thirds of workers never asked for a raise 70 percent of people who asked got more money, according to a recent PayScale poll .
I would spend half an hour in any other awkward situation if it meant an extra few pieces in my pocket, right? Keep this in mind if you are hesitant to report compensation to a new or existing employer or client. So embrace your discomfort – it will pay off.