Ep. 50: How to Ask for More Money in Your Current Job in 2022

Career Design Podcast

Lindsay 00:00
I'm Lindsay Mustain and this is the career design podcast made for driven ambitious square pegs and round holes type professionals who see things differently and challenge the status quo. We obliterate obstacles and unlock hidden pathways to overcome and succeed where others have not stagnation feels like death. And we are unwilling to compromise our integrity and settle for being average in any way. We are the backbone of any successful business and those who overlook our potential are doomed to a slow demise. We do work that truly matters aligns with our purpose, and in turn, we make our lasting mark on the world. We are the dreamers, doers, legends, and visionaries who are called to make our most meaningful contribution and love what we do.

Lindsay 00:42
Welcome to the podcast, I am just so thrilled to talk to you a little bit today about how to get more money, more juice from the squeeze, as they would say, from your existing role. But I'm going to give you some caveats here that are going to be important for you to understand as you navigate this landscape, now we are operating in one of the highest inflation rates that we've ever seen the last time I checked, it was 6.8% increase. Now the average job seeker was going to take a job and probably get around a 3% pay raise. That's what the studies are showing right now. But what if I told you you didn't even need to change jobs in order to make that happen? Yes, you can do that right now. And here is the big reason, inflation and second supply and demand. The great resignation has been a major pivot point. And so this week, I actually talked to CNBC, and in partnership with acorns, they did an article where I actually give you some verbiage about how to make a pay increase happen for you in your existing role. But I need to give you a few caveats. Okay. The first thing here is that the most important thing that you need to know is that the success rate here is about 50%. Now, I come from a little small town in Missouri, and my family has a saying that's just gonna sound ridiculous, but so true. They said, they can only say No, they can't eat, which basically means is all they can do is shut you down, and you're no worse off than you were before. So that's the first understanding. And the second understanding is that if you go in and ask for a raise, two things are going to happen. They're going to say either yes or no. Now the likelihood of yes is 50% of the time, I'm gonna teach you how to make that happen a little more often for you. But either way, if it's yes or no, there's underlying challenges that are going to happen here because I liked to say the big theme underneath this is going to be resentment. And the reason why is that you're going to be resentful of either money that you could not get now. Or if you do get it the fact that you've been underpaid this entire time when they could have given it to you. So the point of needing to ask for a raise is one of the biggest challenges, I see that people are feeling that three part series of underpaid, undervalued and underappreciated. When we can't even get them to the part where they feel being paid equitably. It's actually the least important of those three things. If that doesn't happen in advance, or you have to actually ask for it. There's a sense of resentment that comes into the fact that you have not been paid fairly this whole time. And that how much have you been leaving on the table? Just because you didn't ask? This is a current theme. So just know walking into this, that the end result, regardless of if you get a yes or no might be the bubble pops, and your disillusionment will really break through, and you're going to just be tired of that employer. And you'll probably want to job search.
Lindsay 03:52
So when I say that, it's important to know that you do that and you have something called Walking power. Okay, now, what is walking power, the ability to walk away without being concerned about the outcome. So if you walk into the pay raise, and they say, No, you know, I'm going to be able to go find another opportunity. So that's the biggest thing now. And now the market is very hot, very, very hot. But most people are too scared, actually, to go do anything about a very hot market. So if you come into this, make sure that you're actually starting your interview process and not used as leverage in the conversation, but for your own personal power. And I like to call this your own swagger. And when you have swagger, you definitely have walking power, the ability to say, You know what, you guys won't pay me right, I'm going to go find something better because it usually will burst their bubble and you'll start to see kind of the lie that you have bought into which is that I should be grateful for a job when lots of people are willing to pay you top dollar now because there is low supply of talent, and we pay top dollar for talent and if you've been a performer in your job, you certainly deserve that. Okay, so now I want to get into, how do you actually ask for a raise? Okay, so here is your line, the rate of inflation is increasing dramatically. And I'd like to talk to you about my existing salary and how we're making sure it stays equitable to compete with the current inflation rate. Okay, so that is your there's your verbiage. There you go, you can just go ahead and use that verbiage correctly. Now, how do you build your case for this? Well, the biggest thing here is you have to be a top performer. Okay, so if you are not doing well in your job, and you've been under any kind of performance measures whether or not it was warranted or not, I have a whole other spiel on that. But we're not going to get into that today. You need to be a top performer. Because if you ask for a pay raise, and they see that you haven't been a performer, they would never give it to you first off, and they're going to likely put you on the front of the list to be the first reason that they would need to consolidate positions or make a reduction in force. So that's the first level. Okay, so top talent. Now, here's the thing, most people won't actually prepare for their performance review until you actually have it. So I'm going to give you a hack here. And you're going to hopefully, you're raise your hand and say, I solemnly swear, that I'm going to do this from here on out, Lindsay, because I understand I want to be a top performer, you're going to set a reoccurring calendar appointment every Monday and every Monday, you're going to list down everything you accomplished on the last week, okay, now, why is it every week? Well, that's about as long as we can remember. And this allows you to make the case. Okay, so going forward, you want to have this for performance reviews for negotiating raises. And bonus, it also helps you with your resume and your LinkedIn. Okay, so now that you have that, you need to make sure you keep it updated. But now for the big part, go think of you're doing a performance review, and what are the major drivers for you in the work that you've done. And what it should be is extraordinary things that you have done in your role, or whether it's extra time or extra projects, we're looking for two things really results and impact. So if you give me the scope of the impact that you've made that either saves or makes money, you have a case, okay, because then we've increased your candidacy. And I think a lot of times people are like, Well, my boss really knows the answer is no, they don't. That's why they have you write a performance review, I promise you, most of them, they're completely disconnected from the work that you do on a day to day basis. So it is on you to go do this. When you have that, then you're going to want to have that conversation. Now here's some do nots. One is that you have to walk in with zero expectations, okay, you also need to really walk in without walking power. And you want to come with a kind attitude. There's no like, even if you are deserving, if you walk in with like you owe me this, they'll never give it to you. So walk in with a gracious and kind attitude, but also come with proof that you are indeed top talent. If you do these things, you should be able to successfully negotiate a raise 50% of the time now, most companies that are really really doing the right like cutting edge of keeping their employees engaged and retain, are already taking the steps to do pay increases, but you may need Him most of the time you will give them a nudge to make that happen. And this is the way that you demand more money. But be aware that sometimes that resentment factor will come to the in the game because I've never successfully seen somebody negotiate salary and not be unhappy actually at the end and end up leaving. I've never seen that happen. So just know to proceed with caution. But if you're already thinking about leaving, why not get a little more money in the bank so you can leverage it into your next job. I hope that helps you and I'm looking forward to hearing about your pay raises this year if that helps you or if you are going to go for the pay raise or you've done it I'd love for you to email Lindsay@talent paradigm.co no M and tell me your story. I would love to share it here on the podcast. Good luck and happy hunting.