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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

I'm a Woman and I Don't Make Enough Money.

But enough about my needs. (Well, there is never enough about my needs, it's all about me! Sorry, I'm digressing again.) I found this article fascinating.

Women do care about other humans. That's why so many of us get into Human Resources in the first place. (And then it turns us into people hating social recluses.) Because we care we take others into consideration before we charge for services or accept a job. At our annual reviews we worry about the co-worker whose raise wasn't as high as it should have been.

Caring is good. Great. Care. Give everyone a big hug. But care about yourself when it comes to your salary. Negotiate when you get that job offer. If they offer $75,000 and you counter with $80,000 the worst thing that is going to happen is they will say, "No, $75,000 is firm." Your potential manager isn't going to start crying and say, "Oh, I really wanted to hire you, but now that you've asked for $5,000 more I can't hire you. Boo hoo!" And, well, if he did, I wouldn't want to work there anyway.

And if they won't negotiate on salary, try negotiating on benefits or flexibility. I negotiated a job share situation. (This is what gives me time to be an Evil HR Lady. At work, I'm very good.) I know people who have negotiated flexible schedules, part time over the summer or extra vacation.

In every other area of your life I want you to care about others. But when negotiating salary or setting rates---it's all about your needs. For more information on how to negotiate see this Wall Street Journal article.

3 comments:

mean aunt said...

It's true--when it comes to negotiation a lot of women don't want to appear greedy (a bad character trait) when really an offer is just a starting point for negotiations (how business works).

Spudlet said...

Wow, that's great advice! Can you give me/us some insight on whether it's possible to negotiate raises?

Lilandra said...

Have you read "Women Don't Ask"? What do you think of it if you have?

I've started reading it...