How many of you have been thinking about that promotion at work or raise that you haven’t gotten? You’re sitting there patiently waiting for your employer to do the right thing. You’ve seen others around you rewarded, but you seem to be getting lost in the noise. I was there in a passive state not getting what I was told, not doing much about it.
In an age of social media, you see the highlight reels of everyone’s life and there’s a culture of only seeing people at their peaks. The reality is it isn’t authentic.
Being passionate about the field of personal finance, it only increases the imposter syndrome when I publicly admit when I got something wrong. Let me lead you through a situation I encountered, where I got it wrong, and what I’d do differently.
Too Timid to Ask For the Raise
A few years ago, I started a new job. I was with the company for 3 months when they realized that I had a knack for operations. With some movement around me, a new position opened up that would pair my customer-facing experience with my passion for operations. I was approached about applying for the position.
While having these conversations, they noted there would be a small “bump” with this position, meaning I would get a small raise. This sounded great! Let’s get on with the interview process. I spent the next two weeks prepping for the interview. Even though I was being approached about the position, a formal process would ensue – fair enough.
A few days after the process was completed, I was notified that I was selected as the candidate for the job. I was ecstatic! And then the next statement came. I couldn’t receive a raise since I hadn’t been with the company for 1 year.
Wait…what?! This wasn’t talked about during the previous conversations. I was a bit confused, but working in this role was important to me, so I took it as it was. I didn’t want to push on this for the sake of a small, nominal raise. In my mind, I would work my butt off, prove my worth, and get the raise I thought I deserved at the 1-year mark.
Here Comes a New Manager
Months later, I learned that there would be some shuffling in the organization and they would be hiring someone new to lead our department, this person would be my new manager.
That new manager would be starting one month prior to my 1-year anniversary. That one-year mark that qualified me for that raise. Asking your new boss, who’s just getting acquainted with the company, one month in for a raise didn’t seem like a great idea.
“Hey, so the company said they’d do this thing before you were here. Could you take some money out of your budget to give me what they said they would, even though you have little context?” That didn’t seem like fun.
I repeated to myself, “Work your butt off, prove yourself, and the rest will come.”
A few months went by while I went through this process. I was struggling to get alignment with my manager as she dealt with bigger issues.
When the start of the new year came around, I attempted to have a one on one with my manager to agree on goals for my position for the year. This would allow me to leverage my successes into a bigger conversation about my compensation. This is also when I brought up the verbal agreement that was given to me when I took the position.
Although there was empathy on the part of my manager, I never did get the raise I was looking for. There’s only so much money to go around and I wasn’t a priority at that moment in time and I did a poor job of being my own advocate.
Thankfully, that experience has taught me a lot and I’m here to share with you what to do differently.
Setting Yourself Up For Success
Know Your Worth
Struggling with self-confidence is a sure-fire way to lead yourself into the promotion-less abyss. Developing this isn’t going to happen overnight, but there are ways to support your progress.
Developing mentors within (or outside of) your organization can give you guidance and feedback about your performance and contributions. When entering an organization, be intentional about developing relationships with individuals you connect with that can also support you along the way.
Leveraging a coach is also a great tool along your career journey. It can seem expensive upfront, but that $1,500 for 2 months of coaching could also end with you getting a $5,000 raise. Not a terrible ROI, right? And that’s conservative.
Align Your Work
Being a self-starter who can notice issues and work to solve them before anyone notices can be immensely valuable to an organization. At the same time, if the issues you’re solving don’t immediately align to larger company goals, it might not be seen as valuable as you think it is.
Align your daily and weekly work with the larger goals of the business. Develop metrics to measure your work and how they are monetarily impacting the business. Being able to put your work into dollars is much harder to argue with.
Keeping Emotions in Check
I was so excited about the role I was willing to let the compensation piece slide. I was going to do something I was even more passionate about and that was extremely enticing.
In hindsight, keeping my emotions in check would have put me in a position to ask the tough follow-up questions instead of just taking things as they are.
It would look something like this:
“I haven’t heard of our company having that policy before, do you or HR have any more details about this?”
“Thanks for sharing that. I was under the impression that a compensation adjustment would come with this position. If this is getting pushed to my 1-year conversation, could we detail out what the expectations are for me to receive it at that point?”
Changing Management
Anytime you have a change in management, things can get a little bumpy. They’re trying to settle into their responsibilities and navigate a new company. What you’re doing might be the 12th thing they care about at that moment.
If this happens with you, being assertive and respectful will go a long way.
“I know you have a lot on your plate at the moment, but I want to share with you what I was told about my career progression…”
Things to Consider
Do your research before you have these conversations. What does your position typically pay? Have conversations with co-workers you can confide in. How did they get their raise at your company?
Getting Creative
If you’re not able to get a raise, can the company offer you other benefits that you value like flexible hours, more vacation, or more stock? This will be different for everyone, but if a company is tight on spending, there may be other areas they’re more willing to give on.
Ace in the Hole
Be willing to walk away. This is probably the most difficult one for most of us. We have friends at our jobs, we’re invested in our work, we have strong desires to succeed where we’re at. The best bargaining chip is to be willing to work elsewhere. If you’ve exhausted your other options, start applying to other jobs that will compensate you the way you expect.
