Offer and Relocation Advise
I recently received a job offer from a company I really like, the situation in my current company is getting worse everyday. I received the offer for the salary I requested (15% more than what I am making now) but the offer did not include any relocation allowance and I am loosing two weeks of vacations too. When they call me to tell me they were ready to make me an offer, they went over the conditions and I asked about the relocation and vacations, and they told me with the salary they are offering me it is more of what the have budgeted for the position and for vacations, as a company policy they were not able to offer more time, I am not sure about this because in most companies this is a standard procedure . My question is, what is the best approach to negotiate a relocationallowance and vacation time, Am I risking the offer if I tryto do that? Is it worth it? TIA Of course you are risking the offer, but walking across the street is a risk. Try to ask for what they can offer. If vacation is off the table, then maybe relo isn't. If they won't pay the whole cost, maybe they'll kick in a sign on bonus. How about insurance, sick leave, do the do flextime, 80/14 schedule, work from home, OT, comp time in lieu of OT? Free lunch? They bought me curtain rods and blinds for my new house and I didn't even ask, who knew? Don't forget, just about everything other than actually moving your stuff is not tax deductible and taxable income if they pay it. Check all that out. If you had a stable job now, it would probably be easier to decline this offer. You are getting what most consider the amount you would need to change job (which is supposed to account, in part, for loss of vacation benefits) but you will be out-of-pocket on relo expenses. However, your comment about your current job, and the fact that you brought up relo and vacation already and it didn't fly, makes me think that you have their best offer now and you need to decide whether your current job is bad enough that you are willing to pay the relo expenses yourself. Only you can decide that. They already told you vacation time is not negotiable; why would you think of going back to them and pushing that issue? And it is NOT standard in most companies to negotiate vacation time; some companies do, and some don't. If their corporate-wide policy is not to do it, why do you think they can do it for you? If you're making that much more money, once you're in the job, why not try to get another week or two of vacation as unpaid time off? They're already paying you more than they had budgeted, and you want more paid time off? Yikes--if you go back to them again about this, when they've said no already, I'd say you definitely risk the offer. As to relocation, it seems fewer & fewer companies are offering that these days. If they did not specifically respond to that issue when you asked, then I think you can go back to them and ask for clarification. "Do you have a relocation-#### policy?" See what they say. If there is no set policy, then I see nothing wrong with asking, for example, help with moving expenses. But if they have no policy in place, you are not likely going to get any other ####--help selling your home, reimbursement of travel expenses, etc. If their policy is "no relocation #### to anybody," then you will have to decide for yourself if this move is worth it to you. You can't "make" them give you something they don't give. Good luck! Well, to begin with, they've told you the vacation issue is, in effect, non-negotiable, so I think it would be a serious mistake to bring it up again. Your posting isn't clear what they said or didn't say about their relocation policy. If you didn't get a clear answer, I think you can politely ask what's contained in their relocation policy. If, on the other hand, it's pretty clear to you that relocation isn't something they offer, don't bring it up again, either. Fewer and fewer companies are offering relocation #### anymore, so I wouldn't push either issue if I wanted this job for 15% more than I was earning before. There is no such thing as "standard procedure" that applies to most companies regarding vacation. Each company is free to decide their own policy about vacations. If this is really a big deal to you, you could politely ask about taking some additional time as an unpaid leave of absence, but pushing for more paid vacation would be a mistake - think about what you'd be asking the employer to do. You'd be asking them to pay you NOT to work before you've even demonstrated what you can accomplish on the job! Paul W. Barada The Negotiation Expert | |
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