negotiating higherI will try to keep this as short as possible. I was recently laid off, but know a person who was also laid off from the same company. She is currently leaving her present job and I would like to apply for it. However, she has far less experience than I do and earns about 20 thousand dollars less than I had been making in the same position. I would probably like to have her job, but am not sure how to go about asking for my current rate from this prospective employer. I will certainly bring much more to the table than she did, including a GREAT attitude!
Also: My former employer has asked me to put together a proposal for a severance package. I had been earning salary plus bonus and based upon sales I' ve calculated what I would have currently "earned." I know they will not like what I will propose, and will try to pay as little as they can. I have records and information that could really land them in hot water if I were to spill my guts. But I really don' t want to go that route. We are talking bonus in the range of 20,0000.00. And that is without any further regular pay. Please! No disrespect taken, I try not to take things personally. I have been laid off from company A. I have a friend / former co - worker who was laid off from company A last year. My friend has a job working for company B, and she has given her 2 week notice. I will interview for that position. My friend currently earns about 30 K less at company B, than company A paid me. I am pretty confident that I might be hired. I can' t live on 30K less than what I was previously earning, but I do need a job. I have considerably more experience than my friend, and industry specific education. Without sounding harsh, since she is my friend, she pretty much bluffed her way through her 6 months at company A where I met her. I am looking for suggestions as to how I can ask for, and actually receive a higher rate of pay than my friend earns at company B without offending the hiring manager. Or loosing the entire opportunity because I will be asking for a lot more money. This is a tight market, and I am typically paid at least the median salary for my occupation.
Next: Company A has requested that I give them a proposal listing what I want in terms of $ for my severance package. Since my earnings were paid partially with bonus, my calculation is that they owe me over 20K. I have a voice mail from the president saying that he is willing to give me 12K. I have seen a lot of unlawful "things" at company A. I want to get what is owed to me without having to play the "lets go to the Industrial Commission" card. I don' t want to burn a bridge for a future reference. OK, now I' m with you. First, I think you have to wait and see what sort of offer you receive from company B. If it' s as low as you expect, start by asking if the offer is negotiable and see what they say. If it' s not, you may have to walk away and continue your job search. If it is negotiable, you need to know what level of income you require and below which you cannot go and still be able to pay the bills, make ends meet, and at least maintain your present standard of living. Whatever that amount is, you should make a counter-offer with that annualized amount as the bottom of your range and about $10K more for the high end of your range. But I sincerely doubt that you' re going to come anywhere near being offered a salary comparable to what you were earning before you were laid off. So, you need to take a hard look at what level of income you really need to make it. Regarding your severance package, I' d take the $12K and run. If you even hint at what you think you know about unlawful practices, you could be asking for more grief than you ever imagined and no severance at all. If something unlawful is going on, let somebody else blow the whistle - not you. You could end up losing your severance altogether. Take the new job even if it is 20k less than you are used to. You say you can not love on 20k less, well do you think you can live on unemployment? I don' t know what you do for a living, but would probably estimate that a position of that Caliber is not found often in the want ads and that your job search to get back at that level may take a while. If you are as good as you say you are, then prove it on the new job and pave your way to the money, or continue your job search. You are under a lot of emotional strain right now, but you have to think logically and with your logical mind and not your emotional mind. You are getting screwed. Losing a job, getting jipped out of severance...but do not let this setback compound into a bigger setback because you are thinking and living from your ego space. I was laid off from a high paying job once. I scoffed at offers that were 10k less...and kept looking. I got something equivalent, but it took far longer than I thought, resulting in about 15k loss out of my savings to live on and an employment gap to boot. I did do some Independent Consulting during the gap, but still, if I had it to do over, I would have taken one of the lower paying jobs. Several years later I found myself in the same spot, but I learned my lesson and took a lower paying job, stayed long enough to look stable in job history and left for 15k increase... Having been where you are TWICE before... take the job. NOw is not the time to play double or nothing. As for the "shady" dealings of the past employer....uh....been there too. Was involved with a shady outfit once....resist the temptation to "harm" them. I was called back in after layoffs at the shady startup to come back to work after just being out for a few weeks... But by then I knew what was really going on and had already had a few other job offers on the way...so I said no thanks. Thank them for the 12k, because you never know what can happen in the future. | |
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