Today’s Careerealism T.A.P. question #382 prompted this post. You can go read the entire question here, but the gist of it is, “I’m underpaid. Should I threaten to leave to see if I can get more money?” Since I can only answer in 140 characters on Twitter, I decided to expand all the things wrong with this tactic here.
This question netted a visceral response from me because of my recruiting background and I don’t like the threat game. Either do it or don’t, but don’t threaten actions to get your way. The list of 10 reasons not to accept counter offers (below) harkens back to my recruiting days. Nothing is worse for a recruiter than a candidate using the recruiter and the hiring company as pawns in a game to get more money from his current employer. Whether a recruiter is in the equation or not, threatening to leave to is NOT a good strategy to extort a higher salary. (Yes. I said extort.)
You took the job at the salary you’re receiving. If it isn’t enough, if the scope has changed, if your contributions to the bottom line aren’t reflected in your compensation, then put together a sound presentation as to why a higher salary is in order. Have an adult conversation with your manager, offering point-by-point solid reasons why more money is warranted. Demonstrate the company’s ROI on their investment in you. If you don’t like the answer, thank him/her for the time and start your search – while still performing top-drawer work at your current employer. For now, they pay your salary. Respect that.
Don’t take a sissy approach, whining into your manager’s office saying, “Everyone else is making more money than me. It’s not fair. If you don’t give me more money, I’m going to start looking for another job.” (Looks pretty smary in black and white, doesn’t it?) Rather than figuring out ways to cajole a higher salary with groundless threats, put that effort into exhibiting your skills. Or use that energy to launch a job search. Either way, threatening your way into anything is never a good idea.
COUNTER OFFERS
10 REASONS NOT TO CONSIDER THEM…
1. You made your employer aware you are unhappy. From this day on, your loyalty will always be in question.
2. When promotion time comes around, your employer will remember who is loyal and who is not.
3. When times get tough, your employer will begin the cutbacks with you.
4. Accepting a counteroffer (or a threat-based raise) is an insult to your intelligence and a blow to your personal pride: you were bought.
5. Where is the money coming from? All companies have wage and salary guidelines that must be followed. Is it your next raise early?
6. Your company will immediately start looking for a new person at a cheaper price.
7. The same circumstance now causing your dissatisfaction will repeat in the future, even if you accept a counteroffer or get the raise you “forced”.
8. Statistics show if you accept a counteroffer, the probability of voluntarily leaving in six months or being let go in one year is extremely high.
9. Once word gets out you bullied your way into a raise (and it will), the relationship that you now enjoy with your co-workers will never be the same. You will lose the personal satisfaction of peer group acceptance.
10. What type of company do you work for if you have to threaten to resign before they give you what you’re worth????
Link to this page
I love this post, Dawn. You beat me to it. I thought about the fact that this topic needed more elaboration. However, I see now that I would not have done it justice. Excellent! Ha, ha! Great minds do think alike. (wink).
Dawn, in these tough times, any employee who uses that strategy is likely to be shown the door. I can’t believe that anyone would not have the ability to figure the consequences out. This also brings back another consequence. Everything you do and say on the web can be found. Be careful of what you say on Facebook, Twitter, and any place out. A savvy employer can easily follow you. Whining in public is not good corporate policy.
Great post, with your usual brilliant way of saying things to bring us all on board!
Thanks Rosa and Julie.
Like I said, threatening is never a good strategy — in an individual’s career or their personal dealings. Glad to see two respected career colleagues agree. Rosa’s right! “Great minds … “
[…] Bugni from Dawn’s Blog visits to suggest if you “Think threatening to leave to get a raise is a good idea? Think again.” Her charity selection is Monty’s […]
thank you for you article.
I unfortunately have to disagree in a practical sense – no, I don’t feel that it’s “right” to threaten to leave; but you should instead ask why they’re doing so. Quite often, especially in today’s economy, even companies who do very well are expecting their employees to take on more responsibility without compensating them. I can list at least a dozen people who in the last few months, their company have fired/retrenched their supervisor, given them the role, then expected them to accept little or no compensation.
It’s not unusual at all for a company to try get the most out of an employee while paying the least they can get away with. In these companies – and I do not mean it’s all companies, there are some honorable employers out there – paying as little as you will accept is the practice. Speaking with a friend recently, he explained how his role is constantly shifting to add more responsibilities, more travel, etc; but he’s still earning a basic starting salary lower than three of the people that report to him. When he approached management about his package, he was told that’s all they could assign to him due to his title, which had not changed along with the new responsibilities (and before you ask, it was clearly stated it wouldn’t change). Ironically, when he picked up a job at another firm, the company suddenly asked what they can do to keep him.
But I agree in principle that it’s not always a good thing, and by that I mean this. When you have to use leverage to get fair compensation, the company clearly doesn’t think you’re worth the effort to compensate fairly. Once you have to go to another employer to get what’s fair for the responsibility you shoulder; it is a good sign that your employer doesn’t value you. And that should be your first thought when the “negotiation” begins and the current company try to retain you.
Dan –
You and I are really not that far apart on this issue. If threatening to leave is the only way for an employer to ‘get’ the value an employee brings to their organization, they probably won’t ever ‘get’ the value their employees bring to their organization. And their HR department might as well install a revolving front door. They’ll need it.
That said, walking into someone’s office “demanding an increase or “I’ll leave” is not the way to approach the issue or convey value. If, as an employee, you feel you’re not compensated properly for the value you bring, and adult, professional, value-driven conversations don’t net proper result, then they should as your friend did: seek employment elsewhere. You said it eloquently, ” When you have to use leverage to get fair compensation, the company clearly doesn’t think you’re worth the effort to compensate fairly.”
Thanks for commenting.
It’s called a free market. When companies are in need of new, competent employees and they are under staffed, you should have every right to use that as leverage to get a raise if they want to retain you and your value to the company. Just as companies have a right to cut your hours or let you go when unemployment is high.
As far as your counter offers go:
1) Just because you want a raise given the climate of the economy is in your favor doesn’t mean you are unhappy. It siply means you want a raise.
2) Promotions aren’t based on loyalty, they are based on performance. Any manager who bases them off loyalty either shouldn’t be a manager or shouldn’t be someone who you want to be managed by. Unless you are the owner of said company, the only person you should be loyal to is yourself.
3) Again, any personal vendetta you manger has with you because you asked for a raise given your value in a current economic climate should not have an impact on your promotion. The only thing that affects your promotion is your performance and value to the company.
4) Accepting a counter offer is not an insult to my intelligence nor is it blow to my pride. When negotiating your worth, like anything else in life, you aim high and meet somewhere in the middle. Would successfully negotiating for a lower price on a car be a blow to the car salesmen’s pride? No, they just made a sale with a net profit when they could have not made a sale at all.
5) Guidelines are exactly that; only guidelines. If a company is doing well then they can afford to pay their most valuable employees well.
6) My company is already doing that, but he problem is, their turnover is so high because they aren’t staffed enough to schedule extra people in order to have a manger train the new employees. So if you want me to work more hours so you can have time to train new employees, then I want a raise. Like I said, It’s a free market.
7) Like most people, I won’t be at the company long enough to care as I’m constantly getting better at what I do and therefore increasing in value. Eventually a better opportunity will present itself.
8) Statistic are only are only averages and don’t apply to every situation. Also, in this economy, most people are no longer staying at companies 10+ years like they used to decades ago.
9) I don’t go to work to make friends, I go to work to do a job to the best of my ability and to get payed for it. That’s it.
10) This is probably the only point I agree with you on, and here’s my answer. It’s the kind of company I extort a pay raise from in order to make enough money to move and join a company that values me.
My employee she is excellent but kept asking for raises. And I’d give it to her and not happy with that she ‘d be asking for raises for the ENTIRE COMPANY. To no avail explaining to her that profit margins were thinner we could not afford to give everyone the raises she was asking expecially bc other employee – the one she was asking for raises – she was laid back and always taking time off- in my mind she wasn’t working to deserve a raise. One day I texted her – and she fippantly said -aw and wont’ you give HER a raise- to which I became INCENSED and replied- in fact the raise you asked I already gave it to her she did not even bother to tell you hm? But that crossed a line big time and I proceeded to take away her little perks and to demolish her position as the team leader- so I took out these “runs” which are paid for- she did not say anything. Then I said to her listen were going to put some one else as the team leader bc you were a bit immature with defending the companys interest as a team leader so you will be asked to leave the position as a team manager. Before that I had a fit and wrote out this company policy that there was to be a FREEZE and no one should be asking about anyones raises if someone wanted a raise they had to ask for it THEMSELVES. Asking her to show another team leader her duties so she would step down proved to be too much for her and she quit. She did get all the raises she was asking for. She was valuable but after a while – just asking asking asking asking- you will be getting on your bosses nerves… Don’t. do. it…..
Wow, you deleted my comment… Grow up asshole
In reality, Patrick, I did not delete your comment. I had other pressing issues that precluded me approving your response until now. I’m happy to share your opinion here; especially this most recent demonstration of you. If this is indicative of your capabilities regarding civil discourse, I choose not to interact with you further. You’re entitled to your opinion, but I’d suggest taking your own advice.
Where I currently work, the company makes an immense amount of profit on the work I do. My estimate is easily more than a hundred dollars in profit for every hour I put in. I am paid a meager twelve dollars an hour. The job I do is not something incredibly challenging that deserves say twenty dollars or more but I definitely feel I deserve more than my current pay rate, especially because I feel the quality of the work I put out is far higher than that of the people who do the same work I do at the other locations of the company I work for. I am most certainly going to issue an ultimatum where I will either receive a raise or I will leave immediately and leave them with no worker to do the job. I am the only person at the location I work for that does the job I do and it’s not a job you could easily find a replacement for, especially considering their pay rate and expected quality! If they refuse to pay me more, the people at the other locations will have to continue to work at a ridiculous pace which might anger them (I was temporarily moved to another department due to material shortages so they had to pick up the slack); such a point will most assuredly be mentioned in the coming conversation I am to have. I only got this job because the man who used to do it trained me and then of course he quit so I was his replacement. I plan on returning to college next year so I need as much money as I can get to assist me in my future financial woes. I never intended on staying with this company long-term so really the history of intimidating my superiors will never go against me because this is most certainly not a job I will list when I submit a resume that includes a college degree to my future employer(s). Logic tells me they will acquiesce to my demand because they really don’t want any more trouble with their already infuriated customers so a few extra dollars to avoid any more delays is a must but of course this company also has a history of not really caring at all so logic also tells me they will welcome my departure and simply put the other locations’ workers on overdrive until they can find a replacement at my location. Such are the ways of the psychopaths we refer to as “management”. If I ultimately cannot convince them of my own determined worth and must leave, I will simply seek another job which probably won’t pay as much but will definitely keep my bank account growing until I reach the end of the year. If I can hit at least $10k before I start college, I should be able to finish the first two years debt free by working full time in the summer and of course studying full time when not in summer so I can complete my 15 hour weeks with high grades.