To close out my year-end thoughts on salary and raises, let’s cover some anti-patterns in asking for a raise. These are frequently occurring ill-advised behaviors that tend to drive managers crazy even if they don’t tell you they do.
Benchmarking yourself against someone else. This is usually some form of “Bob gets paid x and I’m at least as good as Bob, so I deserve x (or x+)”. I’ll admit, the logic is solid – the problem is that the information is flawed. It all comes down to “you’re not Bob” or, more specifically, “You have so little actual information about how you and Bob both fit into the organization that your comparison betrays your naïveté”. This is one to never, ever do. At best, you look naive. At worst, you look like you can’t stand on your own merits. Focus attention on your value – that’s what you’re selling.
Benchmarking yourself against “the market”. This one is an all-time favorite of mine. It’s less awkward than targeting an individual within the organization, like Bob, and so it’s very tempting. What you’re saying (intentionally or not) is that you view the organization as a commodity which can be easily replaced based purely on the dollar figure. My knee-jerk reaction to this line of reasoning is usually, “Right back at ya, brother” (since I’ve only ever had guys be this ham-handed about it). So, you’d like to play the game of maximizing economic efficiency without regard to any other factor? Keep in mind that that was my life/job as a crappy manager at the beginning of my career since most managers make that mistake early, lose someone valuable, and reflect upon it every time they argue for “overpaying” a force-multiplier employee. I get it, you see ads on Dice, or Monster, or Stack Overflow, and think “Wow, that could be me”. Perhaps it could be and, if that’s what you want, I’ll help you get there. I would rather have someone work somewhere else and be happy than feel like they’re trapped on my team. Keep in mind that someone else’s willingness and ability to pay more money isn’t an obligation for your organization to pay you more. In other words, the two are independent variables as far as your request for a raise is concerned. Yes, your manager should be aware of what “the market” is offering and should factor that into your pay or risk losing you – but suggesting that you deserve a raise because you feel you could make more somewhere else once again reveals a lack of understanding of what you have to offer.
Suggesting you deserve a raise because of what you’ve done this year. This is where we start to get into a tricky area and one that trips up a lot of employees. Let’s say you busted your ass all year long and, at the end, you feel unappreciated with a smaller than expected raise. What happened? Well, it could be any number of things. Maybe you busted your ass in Q4 and that erased your memory of coasting through Qs 1, 2, and 3. Maybe you busted your ass on the wrong things. Maybe you felt like you busted your ass, but really you were just keeping up. There are so many possibilities, most of which boil down to “you didn’t work with your manager to ensure that your actions were aligned with the organization”. Lastly, a raise should be for future work – a bonus should be for past work. Just like a Franklin Mint plate, past performance is no guarantee of future returns (although some plates have gone up in value). This is especially true if you were at all vocal about your extra work. Now, the pseudo-exception to this is if you took on extra work which shows that you can provide additional value on an on-going basis. For example, if you took over part of someone else’s work because their workload has increased and you’re able to continue to do so rather than triggering another hire, then that’s legitimate value. Even in this case, however, the previous work should only be used as evidence of success going forward – always focus on the future.
These certainly aren’t the only mistakes made during “the ask”, but they are the ones I’ve seen enough to rattle off from the top of my head. If you’ve seen another mistake or, even better, if you’ve seen something you think might be a mistake then please leave it in the comments as a service to those who face this in the future.
Last time we talked about how to get a raise by aligning yourself to the organization’s goals with the help of your manager. Specifically, I mentioned 1-on-1s and quarterly reviews – but maybe you don’t have those.
This is a mixed sign – if your manager knows all about 1-on-1s and has simply chosen not to have them then it may signal lack of focus on the team members. On the other hand, if your manager simply hasn’t been exposed to the concept then this is a great opportunity to provide coaching from below.
Regardless of the reason (and it will probably become clear as soon as you request time on the schedule) you need your 1-on-1 time. This is the first step in managing your manager – but before you take the first step, you need to remember the first rule:
Managing your manager is all about making his/her job easier – while ultimately it’s about you, it’s not about you first.
Violate this rule and things are likely to go poorly. Every manager actually wants pretty much the same thing: The most productive, most satisfied team with the least amount of effort. This isn’t due to laziness as much as management time is consumed from all directions: up, down, and sideways. When managers get efficient, they have buffer and slack to deal with the unexpected (both positive and negative) and get into the productive zone. When demands from below start to consume an inordinate amount of time or energy, it leaves the manager in a compromised state to deal with the demands from above and the side. What this means to you is that if you make it easy to manage you, your cost/benefit ratio takes an immediate uptick.
Back to the first step: You need 15 minutes. While a good 1-on-1 should really be 30 minutes (sometimes more) that time should be split between each side. In the beginning, if you’re asking for time then only ask for what you need and that should be 15 minutes. This way your manager doesn’t need to prep (which would represent additional time/energy) and only needs to listen. You need to prep, your message and questions need to be clear, and anything which requires thought or planning is a posed one week to be discussed the following week. This time should be spent making course corrections on your progress to your quarterly and annual goals. It is not “how am I doing?”, but rather “This is what I did and here’s what I’m planning next” to ensure you’re on the right path.
15 minutes – make them count.
Quarterly reviews can replace one of the 1-on-1s each quarter.
NOTE: This is not an ideal situation by any means – the ideal is that your manager wants 1-on-1s, schedules them proactively, and comes prepared with 15 minutes of material to discuss. Hopefully you’ll get there by showing the value of the time, but be patient since it could take weeks or months. In the meantime, you’ll be making progress and really helping to make managing you easier.
What if you can’t get 15 minutes a week on the schedule? Honestly, that’s a bad sign but you can still do your part by sending whatever you would have discussed in person via email (or Slack or whatever is common in your environment). Truly, this is a last ditch effort but is worthwhile nonetheless. Even if it doesn’t get read, simply preparing the information will focus you more and help you perform better.
In summary, you can make yourself easier to manage by putting some of your manager’s work onto your own plate – just be proactive, focused, and clear. This will also help you prepare to run your team later in your career.
In my previous post I described how to make an additional $10,000 in 2017. For freelancers, the combination of “charge more” and “work more” is pretty easy. For employees and contractors, however, it might be a bit trickier since most people have a hard time asking for money – or at least asking for it in the right way.
So how about getting a raise without asking for one?
This was one of my favorite (and, regretfully, most secret) techniques from my days as an employee and contractor.
Instead of asking, “May I have more money, please?” or (even more cringeworthy) stating “I think I’m worth x”, the correct question is “What do I need to do to be worth x?”.
There are several important aspects of that question. The first is that it comes ahead of the increase. You’re asking your manager to help you align with the organization in such a way that you’ll be worth x. This should be a manager’s dream – you’re making it easy to manage you, and in a proactive way.
Next, notice that x can be whatever you like. I once got a 50% raise with this technique and my manager was happy to give it to me. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a handout – I had to develop solutions to a couple of very difficult problems to be worth it, but that’s where the beauty lies. By posing the question this way, and up front, you quickly enter a space of discovering and defining value that’s starts with mutual agreement and completely bypasses the need to negotiate.
Another important aspect to this question is that you may get the response, “We’ll never be able to pay you that”. The manager I had at my very first salaried job had to deliver that message. To her credit, she delivered it proactively (I was WAY too immature to ask for a raise well – she simply got in front of the issue before it ever came up) by telling me, “This organization will never need all that you can do. Get as good as you can before you leave, because we’ll never be able to pay you what you’re worth simply because we can’t consume what you do.” That response, while somewhat disappointing, is incredibly valuable information. An appropriate reply (and FAR more appropriate than my reply) is “Then what is the maximum I can be worth here and how do I get there?” It’s also a sign that it’s probably time to start looking elsewhere.
Lastly, there’s an even better technique than what I’ve described. It’s actually more of a super-charged version, which is why I presented the other one first. That technique is to bring suggestions for value along with your ask. That’s what I did for the 50% pop mentioned before. I took the “what can I do to be worth x” and turned it into “would it be worth x if I solve y and z?” You see, at that point you’re doing part of your manager’s job for them and that’s incredibly valuable.
The final point I’d like to make is that you have to deliver. It’s not enough to ask where the value is, you are committing to deliver on it. Don’t go asking how to get to x and then reply with, “Yeah, I don’t want to do that”. Only ask if you’re looking to grow and looking to stretch yourself.
So, look around and identify some of the opportunities which almost certainly surround you. Talk to your manager in your 1-on-1 to set a goal. Make a plan, check in during your 1-on-1s and quarterly reviews – the next thing you know you’ll be making what you want.
No 1-on-1s or quarterly review? Oy, well we’ll discuss managing your manager next time.
As you look to 2017, you can pretty easily add $10,000 to your income. Here’s the math:
Salaried Employess
$10,000 = $5/hr more than your current hourly rate. (divide your salary by 2,000 for a quick hourly rate)
Entry-Level Freelance
If you’re making $20 – $25 per hour, then you need between 400 and 500 extra hours next year. This is 8 to 10 extra hours per week. An extra hour per day, plus 3 – 5 hours on Saturday morning will do it. Not only that, but the extra time you put in should move you up to a mid-level freelancer.
Mid-Level Freelance
If you’re making $30 – $50 per hour, then you need between 200 and 350 extra hours next year. This is 4 to 7 extra hours per week. An extra hour per day Monday -Thursday and a few hours on Saturday will do it.
Senior Freelance
If you’re making $50 – $100 per hour, then you need between 100 and 170 extra hours next year. This is 2 to 4 extra hours per week.
Above $100/hour
If you’re making more than $100 per hour, chances are that you’ve built a system of work where adding more time isn’t going to move your income needle enough to offset the loss of free time and big thoughts.
The lesson here is twofold: first, the extra money is easily within grasp if you spread out the effort through the whole year. Secondly, working on your value (aka your rate) will give you more leverage than simply throwing additional hours into work. If you’re early in your career then put in the time, collect the extra money, invest in yourself, and learn as much as you can. By accelerating your experience with the extra time, you’ll hit mid and senior levels earlier and find compounded returns later in your career.