Advice on leaving/pay increase

Deans Wife

Hi,

I work on a small IT team of 5 people, 4 of us and 1 supervisor.
Our supervisor finished 2 weeks ago and was replaced by one of the others in our team and last week, another member of the team handed in his notice.
So when all the dust settles we’ll be down 2 on the team until the new hires are made which usually takes 4/5 months since its a very specialist field.
I had been considering leaving since being passed over for promotion and have actively been job hunting, I have my meeting scheduled friday with the director who met the remaining members today and yesterday and told them they’ll need to step up until the teams back at full capacity.

Since im considering leaving, im not sure if I should mention i was looking for work elsewhere and to use my position to get a pay increase and stay since they’re so short staffed.
Or just to find a new job and accept it, missing out on a possible pay increase offered for me to stay.
Any advice would be appreciated on how to handle the meeting.

OMM 0000

Do you want to stay?

Would you be happy to stay if your salary was increased?

Deans Wife

OMM 0000 wrote: »

Do you want to stay?

Would you be happy to stay if your salary was increased?

From looking at similar jobs, i would be looking at a 15-17.5% increase in order to keep me.
I would be happy enough to stay of the price is right.

OMM 0000

OK. It sounds like you should bring this up with the director. He might get pissed off. But now is probably the best chance you have of getting a 17.5% increase.

There are always advantages to staying put (grass isn't always greener, etc.)

If he says no to the pay rise, I guess that means you will have to leave. But you were planning on doing that anyway.

Deans Wife

OMM 0000 wrote: »

OK. It sounds like you should bring this up with the director. He might get pissed off. But now is probably the best chance you have of getting a 17.5% increase.

There are always advantages to staying put (grass isn't always greener, etc.)

If he says no to the pay rise, I guess that means you will have to leave. But you were planning on doing that anyway.

Yeah, im just not sure how to approach it in the meetig on Friday, saying im planning to keave could make work life hell until I do land a new role but if I dont say, itll be tough to get the lay rise.

fiload

If I were you I would say that I am happy with the role but the pay is below market rates by x percent.
By threatening to leave you are pretty much putting the ball back in your court

kirving

Don't threaten to leave as such, but let them know that you're underpaid relative to similar roles by 17.5%.

In addition, remind them that you have taken on more responsibility, and that you expect to be compensated for that.

Jim2007

Deans Wife wrote: »

Since im considering leaving, im not sure if I should mention i was looking for work elsewhere and to use my position to get a pay increase and stay since they’re so short staffed.

How do you feel when you are in a bind and someone tries to screw you over??? You'll probably get the increase because he is screwed, but he will remember it and the first chance he has to cast you aside he will. That is human nature.

FishOnABike

Rather than threaten to leave yourself if you don't get a pay raise to bring your salary up to the market rate it would be more political to point out the current uncompetitive salary as contributing to the recent attrition and if the company doesn't bring salaries in line with the industry it will have problems attracting and retaining suitable qualified and experienced staff.

If salaries did not increase I'd quietly look for a better job but the first my current employer would know about it would be when I tender my resignation, after contracts with my new employer were signed by both sides.

stateofflux

OP i would definitely use this as an opportunity to ask for a raise. but beware of a couple of things.

I would not say you are looking for work elsewhere directly-- just hint you are being head hunted instead -- the whole vibe is you are in demand, you want to stay but need to be valued properly given your increased responsibility

i would also list how your duties and responsibility & experience have increased since you started and ask the boss something like 'would you agree this should be acknowledged ? - the director needs to justify to himself that he should give you a raise. the whole vibe here is win / win -- reasonable people talking reasonably.

In terms of money talk you should give examples of how little the raise is in reality making him see its not actually that much

for example say you want €5000 ....BREAK this down to nothing and make a comparison.

I would say 'whats 5k to me?, not much sure by the time the tax eats into it i might come out with 35 euro a week...just enough for a cheap meal with the cost of living gone through the roof

for 5k you couldnt even hire a typist for ten hours a week

for 5k etc etc etc


If he says NO. just say thats fine and ask him to think about it for a week.. he may need time to mull things over rather than being put on the spot.

dennyk

stateofflux wrote: »

In terms of money talk you should give examples of how little the raise is in reality making him see its not actually that much

I'd advise against this approach; your own tales of woe and financial difficulties will have no impact on what your employer is willing to pay you, and telling your director how little your raise will impact the business when you know nothing about their financials will just make you look foolish (or worse, annoy your director because you're standing there telling him how to do his job).

Instead you should emphasize how your value to the company has increased since you've been working there. Try to back this up with specific examples, ideally with hard numbers if you can come up with them (e.g. "Last year I implemented initiatives A, B, and C which saved the company €X in costs and reduced downtime by Y%, preventing us from losing €Z in business"). You want to demonstrate that investing in you by increasing your salary is a good investment for the company, not just that it "won't cost them that much"; it doesn't matter how little it costs if the company doesn't feel they'll get any return on it.

Don't threaten to leave, but mention that the going market rate for your position for someone with your experience is €X (maybe inflate this a wee bit if you want to use it as a negotiating starting point, so there's more room to meet in the middle). They will likely be able to connect the dots easily enough, especially with all the other recent departures; when employees start bringing up market salaries, it's obvious what path their thoughts have been going down.

If they aren't willing to budge, then it's clear they don't value you or your skills and you should start looking elsewhere for someone who's willing to pay what you're worth. Don't get angry or bitter about it, that accomplishes nothing; just be professional, find yourself a new job, put in your notice, and move on.