Salary Negotiation

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AladainAF

Best Rabbit
<Gold Donor>
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That"s pretty amazing that you find that even remotely unfair. 21% profit sharing and $10k stock options and you"re just a part time scrub that works 20 hours a week? Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Anyway, it looks like it just comes down to whether you want to work full time or not. I think your negotiation skills could use some work too. It should be quite easy with 8 years with that company to negotiate a better salary, unless of course, you"re rather useless to the company, but the benefits they are offering you seem to show they value you pretty well, just not through your salary.
 

Solariss_foh

shitlord
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0
AladainAF said:
That"s pretty amazing that you find that even remotely unfair. 21% profit sharing and $10k stock options and you"re just a part time scrub that works 20 hours a week? Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Anyway, it looks like it just comes down to whether you want to work full time or not. I think your negotiation skills could use some work too. It should be quite easy with 8 years with that company to negotiate a better salary, unless of course, you"re rather useless to the company, but the benefits they are offering you seem to show they value you pretty well, just not through your salary.
The benefits are great... what goes into my pocket really isn"t compared to what I should be getting after so much time. That"s just how I feel I guess. When I see the hire-in rate compared to what I"m making now, I"m not that far above it. Though it seems managers (at least mine) don"t pay attention to the pay-scale provided by the company. Everybody at the company gets the exact same treatment as far as those benefits are concerned. Obviously I want to be a full time employee, I"ve been trying for a long time now. I work 40 hours, not 20, and they obviously need me for them or they wouldn"t give it to me.

My other main question was, should I drop everything at this company and go to the other company I just interviewed at for a 10,000$ raise? It"s a tough call dropping the profit sharing and the stock option next year, but I"ll be making more in the long run provided my company doesn"t decide to give me something to stay.

If I write a lengthy e-mail to someone in upper-management, is that generally a bad idea? And yes, my negotiating skills are very poor, but I don"t plan to say anything that could potentially hurt me in the e-mail. Just trying to convey my worth, as I have a lot of experience and know a lot about the company.
 

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Get an offer in writing from the other company, and tell them you need some time to think about it. Take that offer to your current company and say you enjoy working there but feel your original salary has led to you being way underpaid. If they balk, you walk.

You honestly have to do what"s best for you. Otherwise you wake up in 20 years and realize you"ll have to work for another 30-40 in order to retire, if you ever do.
 

AladainAF

Best Rabbit
<Gold Donor>
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Also, if the new people being hired are not getting the same level of profit sharing/stock options/bennies you are, then it"s not fair to compare squarely on salary.

But yeah, what Elurin said works great too.
 

Candiarie_foh

shitlord
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0
To go along with what Elurin said, if the job and compensation at the new job are something you want but you"d be willing to stay at your current place if the compensation was better, get the offer from the new company. Tell your current company you want to stay there but can"t do it without a bump up. Only do this if you"re actually willing to walk though.
 

Solariss_foh

shitlord
0
0
Candiarie said:
To go along with what Elurin said, if the job and compensation at the new job are something you want but you"d be willing to stay at your current place if the compensation was better, get the offer from the new company. Tell your current company you want to stay there but can"t do it without a bump up. Only do this if you"re actually willing to walk though.
Well, I pretty much am at this point. There is no chance to move forward. There has been a hiring freeze at my company for the past 4 years.. So I"m basically stuck at my position. I just feel that maybe if I write up an e-mail I"ll be able to get something out of it. I"m not even looking for a lot at my current company. It doesn"t have to be even near what the other company offers me in terms of pay. Just a tad bit more than I"m at now, plus just make me full-time since I"m working 40 fucking hours anyways... then I"ll be happy.

Also, I think he"ll know what I"m doing if I ask for an offer in writing... I dunno
 

Kaita_foh

shitlord
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0
From your description I do not see you ever being happy with your current employer. Your are stuck in your current position and you do not see annual raises. Even if they give you a tad bit more now what are you going to want next year. If the new job offers you a way to move up and receive more compensation each year i say jump on it.
 

CnCGOD_foh

shitlord
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0
Solariss said:
I"m in a REALLY tough position right now.

I currently work for a company that has great benefits. I have health insurance, profit sharing (just contributed 6k to my Vanguard account this year, with nothing from me), and next year I can exercise my 100 share stock option that at this point, would throw 10k in my bank account.

The problem is, I am a PART TIME employee who works 40 hours (though 3 years ago this dropped down to 20, then to 35.. now to 40 again), and have been for 8 years. When I was hired into this company I was 19, and I was extremely low balled on the pay scale. As I grew older I learned about this so called pay-scale, and realized I was way below what the hire-in rate was. I argued this with management for so long. I was continually told the pay scale means nothing. I finally received a tiny bump in pay, that still didn"t put me anywhere near where I was supposed to be.

Anyways, after 8 years, I"m finally making like 1.00$/hr more than what I should have been hired in at, and I don"t see this as fair.. Also with the amount of effort and time I"ve put into this company I think I deserve something more than being a part-time employee after 8 years. With the state of the economy they can afford to give me shit pay since I won"t be going anywhere though.

My friend got a job at a competitor recently. He called and asked if I still pissed where I"m at. So I went an interviewed. This company just started using the software program SAP. I"ve been using it for 8 years at my current company. My resume is perfect for this place. I"ve already been called at they want me pretty badly. He offered me some low ball, entry level number, yet higher than what I currently make by maybe about 1k. I said that just won"t work, because I have that stock option next year I can cash in for 10,000$, AND the 401k they have really pales in comparison to the profit sharing I currently receive. He said he sees what I"m saying and he"ll try to get something together for me after he speaks to higher-ups.

401k for other company: match contribution up to 1,200$
Profit Sharing at current company: 21% of your annual salary every year contributed by company, no personal contribution required.

The other benefits are relatively the same, except that I won"t be able to cash in that 10,000$ stock option.

What I want to do, and have before this job came along is e-mail upper management at my current company. I don"t want to lose what I have here, but I feel I deserve more than what I"m getting, and I have a lot of reasons why. I am not necessarily going above my manager"s head because we"ve had this discussion before, and she told me they weren"t hiring 50 times. I don"t know if she is lying to me, or if anything I say matters, but I don"t see them wanting to lose another employee who has 8 years of experience, right after somebody just retired.

I don"t know if I can use the other company I interviewed for as leverage, or if that"s even a good idea. Plus I don"t know at what point it would be worth leaving my current company for the other one. I was thinking maybe 8-10k more than I"m currently making, and he seems to be willing to deal, since he said he"d get back to me.

edit: the other company is also a tiny bit smaller, but MUCH less established than my current. There also seems to be room to move forward, but where I"m at that seems nonexistant unless you really know somebody or are in the "in crowd"
What is your title, and what do you make? Having that data could help us give you good information.
 

Candiarie_foh

shitlord
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Solariss said:
Also, I think he"ll know what I"m doing if I ask for an offer in writing... I dunno
Every company I"ve received offers from has put it in writing. Anywhere from gigantic corporations to local startups. It"s at least a page saying what you"ll be making and maybe what your title will be. It would be strange if there wasn"t one.
 

Falstaff

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
8,311
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Solariss, have you considered creating a new position for yourself and presenting it to your superiors? My job had no clear "ladder" for promotion and we are on an administrative hiring freeze, so last year I created a new job description for myself. I included things that I now have responsibility for that weren"t on my original job description from 3 years ago, added things I would like to have increased/new responsibility for, created a new title, and asked for a $15,000 raise. I got it all except a slightly smaller raise (but more vacation time).

It"s worth a shot if you really want to stay at this place and not move on. Also helps if you have a good relationship with your direct supervisor, which I fortunately do.
 
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Eyashusa said:
Solariss, have you considered creating a new position for yourself and presenting it to your superiors? My job had no clear "ladder" for promotion and we are on an administrative hiring freeze, so last year I created a new job description for myself. I included things that I now have responsibility for that weren"t on my original job description from 3 years ago, added things I would like to have increased/new responsibility for, created a new title, and asked for a $15,000 raise. I got it all except a slightly smaller raise (but more vacation time).

It"s worth a shot if you really want to stay at this place and not move on. Also helps if you have a good relationship with your direct supervisor, which I fortunately do.
this is my plan in about 3 years. I just got first salary correction (cant really term it as a raise) a few months ago (the one that I was talking about earlier in the thread) and I"m going to sit back and continue to do the job I have now which has nothing to do with the title/what I technically only should be doing/am responsible for. I"m getting mad experience and making good connections and decent money for what I have on paper in terms of experience. Could be better but I have a ton of perks here that I"m ok with for now (the aforementioned 10% of salary gets dumped into my retirement without ANY matching from me definitely doesn"t suck).

About a year before my VP (who is again not my boss) retires I"m going to have him lobby for me to have the position I want created here to report direct to the COO.

Going to write my own job description, make my own path etc. Likely ask for another 45% salary correction at that time (from where I"m at now - in three years it"ll be around 30%).

And if that doesn"t work out I"m just going to go be either a Director of Operations or COO at one of a few small/midsize businesses whose CEO"s take me out for drinks regularly to keep tabs on when I"m ready to leave so they can come in with an offer. If the company wants to keep me for a transition period after the VP leaves they can treat it like M&A where they pay people to stay on for a transition period for X time at salary times 1.5 or whatever.

Or if I like being a mom and want that to be my primary focus I"ll stay in the lane I"m at and negotiate a mostly telecommuting schedule (75% of the time) - because if they don"t give me that I"ll just work 40 hours a week and no more (and they will never pick that option). Not ruling the mom thing out.
 

Solariss_foh

shitlord
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0
Not sure that"s entirely in the cards. I"m waiting to hear if this other company will offer me what I"m asking. He said he would get back to me in a couple of days. After that I"ll let you guys know where I stand and I"ll try to make a decision. I guarantee if I get this offer, my current company is going to want to counter with something. I could be entirely wrong, but I don"t think they want to lose another employee. I"d be ready to walk at that point anyways though.. I"ll give numbers soon once I hear something