I have heard way too many stories about people asking for raises, that come up with no game plan prior to their request these last few weeks. I feel like we need a refresher course everyone!
“People! People! People!” Yes, I am standing on my soap box right now shouting at the top of my lungs. Can’t hear me? Move up to the front & listen carefully.
How do you expect an employer to want to pay you what you probably deserve if:
A. They don’t know you, who you are or really know what you bring to the company. (So, spell it out for them) If that means documenting in full detail everything you have accomplished since the last raise well then, get to typing people! I personally would not entertain a raise with out a person letting me know what their worth is & neither does your employer.
B. The last thing companies want to do is pay more for existing employees. They already have you, yeah they can’t probably manage if you just up & quit but they can also replace you. Do they want to? Eh, probably not the most effective use of time management/resources but if they have to, they will. They don’t usually keep track of who had a raise & when, unless they are asked & then they go dust off that ol’ employee file of yours & review it. Its not in their forefront, its not what they are thinking about, its what ‘you’ are thinking about.
C. You come with out knowing the current state of the company you are working for. Whether large or small if you don’t know ask people that do. A company will not fork out the money to make an employee happy if they are not doing well as a whole. If anything it will just really irk them that you asked with out knowing this.
D. You have no idea how the economy is doing, the job market, your own role & where you are paid in the scale of your role. If you don’t know go research, there are a ton of great websites that devout their time to breaking down by zip code & position what you should be making & it even goes as far as to tell you if you are under paid, medium or over paid. Great knowledge that honestly you should already have known when you accepted the offer to begin with.
E. Instead of booking an appointment up front to ask if you can have a face to face meeting you write an email instead. And, not just any email, a poorly constructed one! People, once again…professionalism goes a long way. As an employer, I would not hear out Carlisle’s request for a raise if it goes like this,
“Dear ______ (insert bosses name), I want to see if I can get a raise. I heard Sally in Purchasing got one & I think I should too.”
You’re laughing, I can feel it even from my side of the screen but it’s not a laughable moment. Carlisle doesn’t realize that asking via email first is poor wage request ettiquete & secondly his reasoning is because Sally got one. As if that warrants right away a reason for his boss to give him one too. It happens every single day.
I saw a post on LinkedIn a while back & it was very intriguing to me. It was listing what important things our kids should be learning in Junior High as well as, High School that would benefit them more then others courses. I believe the list was something to the effect of accounting, money management, taxes, credit & picking the right career. Well in line with picking the right career should be communicating on important matters such as interviewing, negotiating & asking for a raise. Don’t you? If Carlisle had, had a course like this in HS he would have received that raise & then probably a promotion along with it.
