How to get the raise you deserve

Knowing that you have an alternative should your boss call your bluff will give you the confidence you need to negotiate. Confidence, just like fear, shows and strengthens your position. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • By leverage, I mean preparing yourself both financially and emotionally to ask for a raise.
  • The way I see it, a salary negotiation is a power play. Whoever has the power gets his or her way. Now, having a good track record at work and being an exceptional employee is a good start but it isn’t enough.
  • As for you, the power will be in your ability to actually walk away to find greener pastures should the negotiation not work.

It’s a terrifying time to be employed in Kenya. Investors are asking for more in a shrinking economy, and many employers are downsizing in huge numbers. Still, I think it’s as good a time as any other to ask for a raise. It’s never about the timing; it’s about how well prepared you are to ask for it.

Do not make the mistake my friend made a few months ago. My friend – let’s call her Noreen – is a graphic designer.

She shone at her last job and her efforts weren’t lost on those around her. The compliments kept coming, and it all started going to her head. But there was one person who didn’t seem swayed by any of it: her boss. No matter her good her work, her job title and salary remained the same.

Feeling owed, she walked into her boss’s office one afternoon and gave him an ultimatum: He could either give her a raise or watch her leave. He called her bluff, and so she walked out of a good job in protest. What followed was a tough couple of months before she gave up on the job hunt and set up a small business.

POWER PLAY

I think that it’s okay that she became restless. The older generation might see her as an ungrateful millennial but I think its enviable that she didn’t let the comfort of her job let her forget her worth in the job market. It’s also okay that she gave her boss an ultimatum; sometimes you need to push back. The mistake she made was doing so without first getting leverage over her boss.

By leverage, I am not talking about digging dirt on who his mistress is or how much money he has embezzled from the company, and then attempting to use this information to arm-twist your boss into giving you a promotion. By leverage, I mean preparing yourself both financially and emotionally to ask for a raise.

The way I see it, a salary negotiation is a power play. Whoever has the power gets his or her way. Now, having a good track record at work and being an exceptional employee is a good start but it isn’t enough.

Before issuing that threat or ultimatum, try creating a safety net for yourself. First, put aside enough money to live on for a while should you find yourself out of a job. Second, prepare yourself emotionally not to panic should you find yourself out there.

Armed with these two things, go on and give that ultimatum. Your boss can say no and there will be nothing that you can do about it. As for you, the power will be in your ability to actually walk away to find greener pastures should the negotiation not work.

Knowing that you have an alternative should your boss call your bluff will give you the confidence you need to negotiate. Confidence, just like fear, shows and strengthens your position.

Let’s go get that money.