Woohoo!
Your boss has asked you to take on new responsibilities. You feel flattered. Feels like a promotion. Yes, you’d have to manage those on top of your current workload. But hey, you’re not someone to hide from challenges! Plus, some form of salary hike should follow to match the effort, right? So, you accept with enthusiasm, roll up your sleeves and get to work.
As you start working even longer hours and put in some weekends, you wait for your boss to thank you and mention that salary hike.
A week goes by. Two. Three. No news of more bucks. Your boss thanks you in passing for stepping in.
You say nothing. You can’t. You’re too embarrassed to ask.
As you are working your butt off, struggling with the double load, the feeling of disappointment gradually turns into resentment and anger. You are overworked and not enjoying it a bit.
But wait…
What if it had been your responsibility to ask for a raise ? What if your boss expected you to bring it up and even to negotiate?
Here’s the mother of all problems:
Most women don’t negotiate salaries.
Most of us don’t negotiate when we first land a job : we either accept the offer or reject it. Note : 95 percent of men would negotiate their initial salary.
Women don’t routinely ask for a salary increase, either.
Why not? We’re conditioned from the childhood on to believe that if we work hard, an award will come on its own. When we worked hard in school, we got good grades, right ? So we assume that it works same way at work.
A big mistake!
Bosses will get away paying you as little as they can, their responsibility being to their bottom line.
It is your responsibility to ask for an initial salary that you believe you are worth of.
We also feel embarrassed and sometimes even ashamed to ask for more bucks. Heard your mom or grandmom ever say “Money does not matter»?
If we’re married, we believe we don’t have to earn as much as our man, whom we still subconsciously (or consciously) see as the main breadwinner.
I hope I don’t have to convince you that
Money matters.
and that you can be an equal breadwinner, if you are not already.
Ditch that old dusty belief back into your grandma’s chest.
Earning a salary that you are worth of will make you feel more self-confident, creative and productive. Not to mention that it will help you secure a better retirement. It’s time to start closing that huge gender gap in pensions!
Feeling ready to discard some of your ancient beliefs and learn how to negotiate effectively ?
I’ll be back next week with some practical tips.