Work related - asking for a raise

[lilyukyuk]

Hey all...so I'd like some opinions on raises at work. In your experience are they automatic or do you have to always ask for them?

Ive been with my company for 2 years - 2 annual reviews with above average ratings and there has been no mention of a raise or a bonus.

Also, if you have to ask for a raise, what's the best approach?

[Mr.Coffee]

nvm

[Regulator75]

Strap dynamite to your chest and walk into your boss's office.

[RedMileDJ]

Join Date: Jan 2012

No raise for you.

Ok, ok...I know that's getting old. Honestly, just bring up what you said in your post. You've been with the company for 2 years, with 2 great reviews. You feel as though some extra compensation is in order.

[Pizza]

The price of gas has gone up, the price of bread and milk has gone up, Inflation is forcing everything to become more expensive every year.
If you're saying Mr. Manager that im worth just as much to your company every year, then the least you can do is keep me at par with the 2% inflation

then you ask for another 20% and play employment chicken with him

[killer_carlson]

like any negotiation, you need to prepare.
If you're serious, spend a few bucks at Chapters or go to the library and read a book or two on negotiating. Mary Latz is a good author on the subject.

Going into any negotiation without a strategy is a mistake.

[lilyukyuk]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

like any negotiation, you need to prepare.
If you're serious, spend a few bucks at Chapters or go to the library and read a book or two on negotiating. Mary Latz is a good author on the subject.

Going into any negotiation without a strategy is a mistake.

Fair enough; negotiation part I'm okay with. I'm just wondering if I actually have to ask....in all my other jobs the raises just came upon successful reviews. This having to grovel and beg to be appreciated is new to me.

[killer_carlson]

don't grovel. Negotiate.

In all honesty, you're answer tells me that you have no strategy and probably aren't sure how to strategize.

What is your leverage? Are you able to walk to a competitor? Do you want to? Do you want to negotiate about money? Or benefits? Parking? Support? What does your boss need to go to bat for you with his superiors/shareholders/directors? What objective indicators can you point to about your performance? What reasearch have you done to determine what other top performing individuals in the marketplace earn compared to you? When would be the best time to speak to your boss to maximize your leverage? When would be a bad time to speak to your boss? Is there an HR person you have to go through? what is the policy at your business on getting raises?

This isn't about walking into someone's office and saying, "I'd like a raise", it's about identifying specific outcomes and figuring out the best way to achieve them.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by lilyukyuk

Fair enough; negotiation part I'm okay with. I'm just wondering if I actually have to ask....in all my other jobs the raises just came upon successful reviews. This having to grovel and beg to be appreciated is new to me.

What field are you in? and what do they do with your fellow employees? what did they tell you when you where hired? did you ask?

There are jobs where you just get what your pay grade is no matter how wonderful you are personally.

[V]

Yeah, killer's right, you need to prepare if you want anything substantial. Managers take advantage of their people as long as they can, and HR departments are far more interested in aquiring talent than retaining talent, at least in my experience. Even while far exceeding expectations, and doing a ton of research backing up my raise, I've never gotten anything more than 6% without having to resort to getting an offer from another company.

It's unfortunate, but the biggest raises I ever received came from my ability to change companies. Twice I decided to move for the big raise, and once I was able to get a big raise at my company, but only when I showed them a nice offer from our competition. It's amazing how much my company thinks I'm worth when a competing firm tells them what they think I'm worth.

[T@T]

Here's a sneaky approach that has worked for two friends.

Think of a good company that your company competes with, tell a couple of big mouth co-workers that you get along with(every company has them) that your thinking on quiting because company "x" just offered you 15% more money and you have 2 weeks to make the decision, make sure you tell them you don't want to leave but it's tough because you could really use the money.

Wait a week or so and then ask the boss...whats the chance of a raise?(do not mention any other job offer)

Managers do not want to loose a valued employee and especially to the competition.

[Byrns]

During your performance review is usually the best time to ask about raises. Outside of that, just approach your boss, be polite and say "Ive been with the company for 2 years - 2 annual reviews with above average ratings, and I was wondering if I could have a raise?" What are you afraid of? That he'll fire you? Then I wouldn't want to work there anyway.

Playing games, and being passive aggressive about it is a poor idea.

[Icon]

We have separate "performance evaluations" and "salary evaluations". Both are supposed to be annually... my boss usually forgets about both, so I make sure to remind him about the salary one each spring.

Probably not the way you'd have to go about it for the first raise, but at this point I basically just say "hey, it's that time of the year for my salary review..." ... and then I get a raise.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by lilyukyuk

Hey all...so I'd like some opinions on raises at work. In your experience are they automatic or do you have to always ask for them?

Ive been with my company for 2 years - 2 annual reviews with above average ratings and there has been no mention of a raise or a bonus.

Also, if you have to ask for a raise, what's the best approach?

It really depends on the place. Larger offices with HR departments will have a set approach. Typically tying it to your yearly review or even doing company wide evaluations at the same time of the year. However smaller places you may have to be more proactive about it as the owners don't devote a lot of time to HR/payroll stuff. Not as a fault, they are just typically busy running the business and serving the customers.

If your company is fairly good about schedule reviews/evaluations than you may have to wait until yours comes up. As many are unwilling to discuss compensation outside of regular review schedules unless it's in reaction to a job offer and they don't want to lose you.

But if you've had two good reviews and compensation has never been brought up it's not rude to ask "Can we discuss my salary/compensation?" It's at least a little more proper than leading with "I'd like a raise boss".

[jtfrogger]

You don't mention much about your job: level of experience, skill required, industry, size of the company, etc. These are factors that impact the raise situation.

That said, I'll just assume that your job has a reasonable amount of skill required and that you are at least at an average level of experience and that you have other employment opportunities.

As a number of people mentioned, some companies will not give substantial raises unless the "have to". Getting an offer from another company would help you get a raise. But at that point, why wouldn't you just take the other offer? This is especially true if you are relatively junior, since diversifying experience is really good. Even if your company matches the offer, they likely won't be offering big raises until you find another offer down the road.

[CaptainCrunch]

You need to be prepared to sell for your raise.

A performance evaluation is one thing, and while it might be fairly positive, it might not be enough on its own to get you a raise.

If you're going to talk about money, be ready to sell your achievements for the year.

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by T@T

Here's a sneaky approach that has worked for two friends.

Think of a good company that your company competes with, tell a couple of big mouth co-workers that you get along with(every company has them) that your thinking on quiting because company "x" just offered you 15% more money and you have 2 weeks to make the decision, make sure you tell them you don't want to leave but it's tough because you could really use the money.

Wait a week or so and then ask the boss...whats the chance of a raise?(do not mention any other job offer)

Managers do not want to loose a valued employee and especially to the competition.

this certainly requires a good does of intestinal fortitude as if the boss said good luck then you'd almost have to be prepared to walk away and then you may lose some credibility with your ex-boss if you did not reappear for a while.

i would not have the gonads to pull this type of move, nor would I try the give me a raise of X% or I am quitting........

To the OP how do you feel about your current compensation? do you feel you are underpaid, correctly paid, overpaid? how is the compnay doing? are you busy at work?

everytime i have a comp discussion i feel like i am only armed with half the info as i know what i am making, but only the boss knows how much others in a similar position to me are making

[wookster]

Also, when you started at this company was there any mention of their annual review compensation process. Truthfully, that should have been discussed before their employment offer was accepted. A company doesn't have to give you a raise and like what was said above, some companies won't do much unless their hand is forced. Its up to you to "force their hand" so to speak so just go in prepared with your reasons for a raise and keep it professional.

[northcrunk]

Go out and get another offer from a competetor, either they can match the offer or raise it or you start a new job making more money. Win-win either way. The oil industry works like this, people jump from company to company to get raises because a competetor will usually offer at least 15-20% over what your making currently if they want you.

[northcrunk]

Having another offer on the table gives you much more leverage