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Throughout my career and my life I've followed this strategy disparagingly called being a doormat below. I have a friend who has followed the opposite strategy
by scotch_drinker 13y ago
Throughout my career and my life I've followed this strategy disparagingly called being a doormat below. I have a friend who has followed the opposite strategy, always asking for and fighting for the most he can squeeze out of an employer and life. Strangely, I have often been paid more, been given more benefits and been generally happier. I think this works because unlike what many people seem to think, the other side aren't typically sociopaths trying to squeeze the last drop of blood out of the employees. But they will respond that way when pushed.
People generally have a solid understanding of what is fair and what isn't. When we start a negotiation from a point of unfairness and unreasonableness, both sides are then on the defensive which anyone who has read Dale Carnegie knows is a recipe for failure. I'm not sure I buy into the OP's idea of asking for $0 since that's just as unreasonable but it's unreasonable in a way that brings the other side closer instead of pushing them away. If you sincerely say you want to work for what you make, the majority of people will want to give you what you deserve. Are there people out there who will immediately try to screw you? Yes but that happens, you get as far away from them as possible. And if you can't recognize those people, you have far bigger problems than learning how to maximize your negotiations.
Negotiations seems to work best when they are discussions, not attempts to get the most of of the other side. Of course, if you're working for a boss who used to be a used car salesman or a sociopath, by all means, be prepared to have to fight for everything you want. And be prepared to be miserable to boot.
- DEinspanjer 13y agoI believe the $0 base salary might be more reasonable in the field in which the writer works. Based on the part about hefty profit sharing, I suspect it might be one where that portion of the income is paid out immediately and could potentially provide adequate income.
- pakitan 13y agoAre you and your friend working in the same field and having the same capabilities? I'm pretty sure a brilliant "doormat" programmer will make more than, say, an average "maximizer" salesman.
- svachalek 13y agoI was with you until the example. At any company I've ever worked at that had both sales and engineering, the salesfolks were making 50%-100% more. And those are the typical negotiating strategies of each group.
- czbond 13y agoExactly. At a software company, the sales people are paid dramatically more. At one company I was at, the new salesman made more than the CTO.
- matwood 13y agoWell the adage is, the closer you are to where money comes into the company the more you can make. Most sales jobs are also commission based which means if a sales person is making a lot of money the company also made a lot of money.
- pakitan 13y agoGlassdoor data suggests otherwise: http://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/us-sales-representative-salary-SRCH_IL.0,2_IN1_KO3,23.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/us-sales-representative-sa... http://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/us-software-engineer-salary-SRCH_IL.0,2_IN1_KO3,20.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/us-software-engineer-salar...
- pekk 13y ago
- matwood 13y agoThere is a wide gulf between fighting for every last drop and being a doormat. But yes, negotiations work best when they are discussions with each side explaining what they want, need, and why. The other side of that coin though is that people in general get weird when money is involved. When it's a large amount of money it gets worse. So even though people are generally not out to screw someone else, money can cause those same people to screw everyone else.