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#BestofFSCBlog : Is Now a Good Time To Ask for a Raise? Answer? BEst Opportunity in Decades! Over 4K REAds!

January 7, 2022/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

With the new year here, many people may start searching for a new job. But money expert Clark Howard says this is also an opportune time to ask for a pay raise.

“2022 is the year of the pay raise from your employer,” Clark says. “And pay raises are likely to be the highest they’ve been in a long, long time.”

Why This Is a Good Time To Ask for a Pay Raise

Companies are setting aside nearly 4% of their payroll budgets for raises in 2022, according to a recent survey of 240 companies from The Conference Board, a New York-based business research nonprofit.

Here’s more positive data for workers: 97% of large U.S. companies are planning to boost salaries with the average raise being about 3%. The data come from a survey by human resources consulting company Willis Towers Watson.

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How To Ask for a Pay Raise

Asking for a pay raise is one of those things that you should put a lot of thought into before you proceed.

Here are some things to consider:

Make Sure Your Timing Is Appropriate

There are good — and not so good — times to ask for a pay raise. If your company or department has operational meetings, see if you can glean how the financial picture is looking for the business. Does the company expect record profits this year? Did the business lose money last quarter? Answers to those questions should dictate whether to ask now or wait a bit.

Another good time to ask? When you’ve aced a performance review, says jobs site Monster.com.

Monster.com career expert Vicki Salemi says you should also find out if there’s a formal period at the company when raises are given. A Human Resources representative should be able to tell you that window. If you’ve missed it, Salemi tells CNBC, “You still need to have that conversation, because it plants a seed with your boss and they may say, ‘You know, they are worth more. Let me see if I can do a mid-year raise.’”

Do Your Homework

Prepare yourself by looking up salary information for your position on job sites like PayScale.com and GlassDoor.

“You need to know what your value is in the marketplace. And you need to state the reasons to your employer — if they offer you a raise that you feel is too tiny — why you deserve more money for the work you’re doing,” Clark says.

Measure Your Words

How you ask for a raise can be as important as what you ask. “You can’t just go to your boss and be all demanding,” Clark says.

If the conversation doesn’t go the way you want it to go, keeping calm can be beneficial.

“Don’t ever get in a huff about it; you want to be polite,” Clark says. “Just be very clear why you feel you deserve more money than what you’re receiving from your current employer.”

To help you find the right words to say, jobs site Indeed.com has some scripts you can follow.

Final Thoughts

“If they just don’t want to listen,” Clark says, referring to your employer, “there’s a lot of opportunity out there.”

He’s right. Driven by a high demand for goods and services, the job market this year is poised to be very hospitable for job seekers.

If job flexibility is a key concern of yours, no worries. Many employers are offering jobs with flexible work schedules, including fully or partially remote positions.

Autraig Johnson

Clark.com | January 5, 2022

Your #Career : #SalaryNegotiations – If You Can’t Get The Salary You Want, Here Is What Else To Negotiate For..If you Can’t Get the Money you Desire, Here are Some Things That you Could Negotiate for Which would Compensate for the Lower Salary.

June 8, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

You have been interviewing for months, endured the inquisition of 10 interviewers and risked losing your job by sneaking out of the office numerous times, but you have finally received the offer. While you are excited to have been offered the job you had your heart set on, the salary—unfortunately—was less than you had hoped for.

This happens all the time. It is easy to get discouraged or insulted and walk away from the offer in a fit of righteous indignation. Before you do that, take a deep breath and keep on reading.

When people think of negotiating compensation, they primarily focus on the salary component. In a perfect world, if you are deemed an appropriate fit, the company should pay you what you are worth. The reality is that we are far from a perfect world. The prevailing argument is, “What difference does an extra $5,000 mean to the company?” While I am not an apologist for big corporations, the question ignores the concept that large, global corporations employ hundreds of thousands of people. That $5,000 (also, consider while you may be asking for $5,000, others see $20,000 or more as a reasonable ask) multiplied by the total number of employees starts to add up to some hefty expenses.

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Additionally, the less the company pays you, the more money the CEO and executives have to put into their own pockets. After all, have some sympathy; these fat-cat executives have bills to pay too! Do you think it’s easy to maintain five homes in beautiful places, yachts, private jets, private schools for their kids and fancy vacations to exotic locations?

It is a challenging situation when you want the job, but the company won’t budge on the salary. Your ego tells you to decline the offer because the money isn’t where you thought it should be, but your heart wants to say “yes”. If you can’t get the money you desire, here are some things that you could negotiate for which would compensate for the lower salary.

While most companies have set standards for the amount of time allocated to vacation, personal and sick days, there is room to negotiate a little extra time off. Those extra days are worth money, as you receive the same salary for fewer days at the office. Also, it is good for your mental and emotional health to have some more days off to recharge.
Ask the human resource department if there is some flexibility in the working hours. It may be worth a lower salary if you are able to drop your children off at school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. In fact, that type of flexibility is priceless. This holds true for other circumstances that would make your life easier—to not have to schlep into the office for the usual, mandatory nine-to-five workday.
In addition to the extra time off, you could request an option to work from home one or two days out of the week. The chance to avoid the annoying commute and its accompanying wear and tear on your body and soul is worth a fair amount of money.
Some firms offer the benefit of contributing toward higher education in your field or student-loan repayment assistance. Check to see if the company has any of these programs.
If you are moving to accept this position, find out about the company’s relocation program. Large corporations usually have set plans whereby they help cover the costs of selling your home and purchasing a new house, movers and ancillary expenses. Additionally, they usually offer similar assistance for renters.
Certain industries—particularly tech and small growing companies—offer stock or option plans. Find out if you could participate. Getting stock or options in a fast-growing company could be incredibly lucrative. Imagine the incredible wealth that was generated for early employees of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft or Netflix by sacrificing some salary for stock.
Usually companies have an annual review. Part of this performance review would include a yearly increase in salary. Request a mid-year review, in addition to the annual review. If you exceed expectations, they may be inclined to enhance your salary without having to wait an entire year.
Review the company’s benefit plan, which may include a 401K plan, pension, health, dental, gym membership, life insurance, vision, commuting vouchers, severance package if you are discharged and other coverage. Check to see what your co-pay will be. If the benefits are strong, it could be worth thousands of dollars to you.
A higher-level title is worth a lot of money in the future. Some firms are rigid with their titles and others are fairly loose. If you are able to obtain a Vice President (VP) title—as opposed to an Assistant Vice President (AVP) designation, it is worth money for when you are looking for the next job. It also makes you look better to your co-workers and gives you some extra bragging points to your family and friends.
If you are leaving any money behind, ask for an upfront bonus to cover any bonuses, unvested stock or retirement plans that you are walking away from.
Having the privacy and sanctity of your own office, instead of residing in a cubicle farm, is worth a few thousand dollars a year.

So, before you walk away from the offer, make sure that you have fully investigated and negotiated for all these and any other available remunerations, benefits and perks in lieu of the salary increase.

Forbes.com | June 8, 2018 | Jack Kelly , CONTRIBUTOR

Your #Career : 4 Appropriate Times To Ask For A #Raise …When you Want a Raise, it’s Important to be Strategic about When you Make the Ask to your #Boss .

May 4, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

We all want to earn as much money at our jobs as possible. After all, the higher our income, the more opportunities we have to save for retirement, put our kids through college, and afford life’s many luxuries. And if you’re underpaid, it absolutely makes sense to fight for a raise and get the salary you deserve.

But what if you do your research and discover that your salary actually is in line with what professionals with your job title are making in your area of the country? Does that mean that you should settle for your current wage, or make the case for more money?

It’s a less clear-cut scenario than the former, but if your performance is solid, you might manage to snag an increase, even if your earnings are already pretty fair. Here are a few scenarios, in particular, where it pays to have that conversation.

1. YOU HAVEN’T GOTTEN A RAISE IN QUITE SOME TIME

Some companies give out pay increases annually. Others award raises based on merit. And then there are those employers who rank their staff members and reward only those with the highest ratings with more money. No matter your company’s policy, if it’s been more than a year since you’ve gotten a pay boost, you’re a strong performer, and you’ve taken on a greater amount of responsibility in the interim, then you have every right to approach your boss and request an increase. But if your last raise happened not so long ago, it pays to hold off on that conversation to avoid backlash.

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2. YOU CAN SHOW HOW YOU’VE SAVED THE COMPANY MONEY OR ACTIVELY INCREASED REVENUE

If you’re earning a decent wage for your position and industry, you’ll need to make a strong case for eking out more money from your employer. But if you can prove, with data, that you’ve saved the company money, your manager might agree that you deserve extra compensation. The same holds true if your direct actions have resulted in an uptick in revenue — in that case, your boss might push to give you a tiny piece of those profits.

Effective as this approach might be, however, you’ll really need to go in with hard facts. Remember, it’s everyone’s job to contribute to cost savings and revenue one way or another, so you’ll need to prove that your unique contributions produced results that not only exceeded expectations, but far surpassed those of your peers.

3. YOU CONSISTENTLY GO ABOVE AND BEYOND

Maybe you’re being paid fairly and you’re not in a position to directly boost sales or shave costs. For example, if you’re an operations-support person, you might be that essential cog keeping the machine running–but quantifying your contributions with data may not be possible.

If that’s the case, then you still can argue for a raise if you’re known as that employee who constantly goes well above the call of duty. This could mean working the most hours of anyone on your team, or being that person who will jump in over the weekend in an emergency. Prove that the time you put in merits the higher compensation you’re after, and you just might get it.

There’s nothing wrong with asking for more money at your job, even if your salary is reasonable to begin with. Just go in knowing that your company may not comply, even if your performance is pretty outstanding.

Remember, employers expect their workers to do the best possible job and don’t always show their gratitude for it with money. On the other hand, if you’re a top performer with a solid reputation, it never hurts to request a salary boost. After all, the worst your company can say is no.

FastCompany.com | May 4, 2018 | BY MAURIE BACKMAN—THE MOTLEY FOOL 3 MINUTE READ

Your #Career : Bigger Companies Once Meant Much Bigger #Pay , No More…For Decades, even Lower-Paid Workers could Boost their #Pay by Moving to a Bigger Employer. No Longer.

January 13, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

The significant pay premium that Americans used to receive for working at large companies has shrunk rapidly in recent decades, especially for lower-wage workers, a new study finds.

For the last century, economists have noted that similar workers tend to earn significantly more at large firms than at small ones—a premium that worked out to nearly 50% higher pay in the early 1980s for an employee who went from a company employing fewer than 100 people to one employing 10,000 or more.

But more recently, that premium has shrunk to just 20%, Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom and his co-authors found in an analysis of federal income data from the late 1970s through 2013. The study was presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in Philadelphia.

“This large-firm pay premium that’s been around for over 100 years, in the last 30 or 40 years, it seems to have collapsed in the U.S.,” Prof. Bloom said.

It has essentially disappeared for lower-paid workers and those without college degrees, he said. The bottom 50% of workers by pay received almost no premium for working at large companies in 2013, while the premium remained steady for college graduates.

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Prof. Bloom has specialized in analyzing income data for individuals, anonymously, across time and as they change jobs, using a variety of federal population and employment data.

“Almost all of the drop is that large firms are paying the same types of people less,” Prof. Bloom said. “It’s not that they’re hiring worse employees, they just seem to be paying less of a bonus.”

The trend meshes with others, including the rising dominance of large firms and a rapid increase in pay among the top earners at large companies. At smaller firms, by contrast, pay for employees has tended to rise and fall together, Prof. Bloom’s research has found.

The premium is likely declining for a combination of reasons, Prof. Bloom said. Lower-paid jobs are increasingly outsourced at large companies, which makes it easier to push wages down for those still directly employed. In addition, low union membership—already pronounced in the private sector in the 1980s—likely has contributed modestly, he said.

Finally, activist shareholders and other factors have put pressure on managers to reduce operational costs, Prof. Bloom noted. “You could almost see it as an unpleasant side effect of capitalism, that it’s led to a shift of compensation from low-paid to high-paid,” Prof. Bloom said. “It’s what tends to maximize stock prices.”

Other research has chronicled how large companies in a variety of industries have shifted whole functions through outsourcing, contracting, franchising and other means, said David Weil, dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and a former Obama administration labor official.

“What Nick’s paper does is ramp that up into more economywide effects,” Prof. Weil said. “It’s been underrecognized.”

Write to Theo Francis at theo.francis@wsj.com

WSJ.com | January 10, 2018

Your #Career : Former Wall Street executive Sallie Krawcheck Explains the Best Way to Ask for a Raise — and Get One…Just Because you Deserve a Raise Doesn’t Mean you’re About to Get One. More Often than Not, you Have to Ask — and Then Back up your Request.

November 1, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

At the S.H.E. Summit in New York City in October, Sallie Krawcheck — the former Wall Street executive and founder of Ellevest, an online investing adviser for women — spoke about ways women can proactively bridge the gender pay gap. But her advice can be applied universally: Don’t just ask for a raise, she said — provide definitive proof that you deserve it.

“Be as quantitative as you can be,” she said. “Put numbers on paper.”

Vague requests can easily be denied, but hard facts are far more difficult to argue with.

Krawcheck suggests keeping a running list quantifying everything you do, from the number of clients you bring in to the size of the budget you manage to the work you do on each project. When you go in for a performance review or salary negotiation, you’ll be prepared with indisputable evidence of exactly what you contribute to the company.

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Krawcheck also advises looking up your position on sites like Glassdoor and Fairy God Boss to know how your current salary compares to the marketplace and gain an idea of how much you should be making.

“We have more resources now than ever before,” Krawcheck noted. “We should be excited about technology.”

As Krawcheck suggests, it’s smart to make the salary negotiation about the facts and leave personal emotions out of it. Demonstrate why you deserve a raise and how you’re contributing to the company, don’t whine about wanting more money.

“You should always link individual performance to departmental goals, and then to overall company goals and how what you’ve done directly impacted each,” Adam Ochstein, founder and CEO of StratEx Partners, previously told Business Insider.

And if you get denied, don’t take it personally — find out why it isn’t possible right now and what you can do differently. Don’t be afraid to be direct: “Ask, ‘What can I do to make this amount?'” Krawcheck said.

And then do it.

Businessinsider.com | November 1, 2016 | Emmie Martin

Your #Career : How to Tell If you’re Underpaid…Employers Generally Hold Comparative Salary Information Close to the Vest, and Unless you can Tease Exact Dollar Figures out of a Colleague to See If your Pay is in the Same Ballpark, you May Be Left Wondering if you’re Earning a Fair Wage for your Title and Field.

October 12, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

It’s notoriously difficult to find out how much other people make for doing the same job as you. Employers generally hold comparative salary information close to the vest, and unless you can tease exact dollar figures out of a colleague to see if your pay is in the same ballpark, you may be left wondering if you’re earning a fair wage for your title and field.

A recent Glassdoor survey found that close to 40% of employees think they aren’t paid what they’re worth, with more women than men feeling this way. But believing you’re underpaid and knowing it are two different things. Here are some convincing signs that suggest you’re not making enough.

Your numbers are below industry norms

While it can be challenging to determine whether you make less than a co-worker in your company due to lack of pay transparency, you can find out average salaries of others who share your title in the industry at large. Several career websites offer salary benchmarking, includingSalary.com, PayScale.com, Glassdoor.com and Indeed.com. These online sites offer resources (many of them free) to help employees research how much they’re worth using tools such as national and regional compensation reports and salary profile databases that are searchable by title, experience level, geographic location and company. Check out the salary bands for your position on several of these different career sites, average the salaries from all of the sources and see if yours ranks near these numbers or falls below the threshold.

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Your salary progression has stalled

If you came on board in your entry-level job at a salary you knew was low (after all, you were a newbie) but haven’t moved up the pay scale much since then, it’s likely you haven’t caught up enough. Once you accept a position that’s below market rate, it can be difficult to prove to subsequent employers what you’re really worth and make up the difference, since hiring managers often base starting salaries on the amount you made previously. Minute raises year over year (in the range of 1 to 3 percent) mean that even those who started at the same level as you may be raking in more by now if they’ve received more substantive annual raises. Think about this point in relation to how much your level of responsibility has changed as well. If you were promoted by being given more tasks or a higher title but your boss has made no mention of a raise, chances are you’re being underpaid for what you’re doing now.

You’ve never asked for more money

Salary negotiation is an important part of making what you’re worth. While many employees balk at the idea of broaching the topic of getting paid more, research has shown that asking for a salary bump often results in receiving one. A 2015 study by PayScale found that 75% of those who requested more money got it. Yet many people never work up the nerve to ask — particularly womenand millennials. This fear of salary negotiation can have very expensive consequences over the lifetime of your career, resulting in potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income.

Being underpaid can be discouraging, but it doesn’t have to be inevitable. If you find out you’re making too little money, be willing to step up to the table and start negotiating — or start seeking a new employer who will pay you as much as you deserve.

Businessinsider.com | October 12, 2016 | Robin Madell, U.S. News & World Report

Your #Career : 20 Negotiation Tips for Getting the Salary you Want…Negotiating your Salary Can be Awkward & Challenging — & Actually Getting the Pay you Want Often seems Impossible. But it Isn’t.

February 25, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

“A job interview can be stressful, especially when it comes time to talk about money,” says etiquette expert and “Poised for Success” author Jacqueline Whitmore. “However, you can get what you want and deserve — most job seekers just aren’t sure when and how to ask for it.”

To master the delicate dance that is a salary negotiation, you need to be able to push without offending the hiring manager or undercutting yourself.

Here’s how the pros do it:

Research the market.

To successfully negotiate your salary, negotiation expert Kim Keating writes in “Lean In For Graduates,” you’ll need to gather information to figure out what you’re really worth. “The time you invest can pay off in a big way. And I mean that literally,” she writes.

To protect yourself against accepting too little or asking for far too much, you can turn to sites like Glassdoor and Salary.com to determine the average compensation range for someone with your level of experience and skills and in your industry or company (or a comparable one, in terms of number of employees, revenue size, and location).

“At the end of the day, a candidate has a number in mind as to what they think they’re worth,” says Eddie R. Koller III, managing director and partner at Howard-Sloan-Koller Group, a technology and media recruiting firm. “But a company has limits to what they can spend.”

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Set your goals in advance.

Once you know what you’re worth, decide how much you would like to make and what’s the lowest offer you’d be willing to accept.

Ivanka Trump, CEO of Ivanka Trump Collection, says knowing what you want to achieve before heading into a negotiation is “the golden rule” for negotiating — but most people ignore it.

“Without a plan, you allow the opposing party to define your goals instead of the other way around,” she writes on Motto.

Don’t talk money until the interview process is over.

If you can delay discussing pay until there’s an offer on the table, you should.

“Once they’ve decided that they have to have you, only then are you in the position to negotiate,” says Dan Martineau, president of Martineau Recruiting Technology, a firm specializing in IT executive positions.

If your interviewer tries to talk about salary early on, Martineau tells Business Insider that the best thing to do is to tell the interviewer you would like to defer a conversation about compensation until after the company has had a chance to evaluate whether you’re the right fit for them.

Open with something personal.

As previously reported on Business Insider, in an experiment where Kellogg and Stanford students negotiated by email, those who shared unrelated personal details over the course of the negotiation — hobbies, hometowns, etc. — ended up getting significantly better results than those who kept things to name, email, and the dry monetary details.

Opening up a bit sends a signal that you’re trustworthy, according to Grant, and it makes it more likely that they’ll reciprocate.

Don’t ever disclose your current salary.

Revealing your salary history has the potential to negatively affect your income for your entire career.

“I would never, ever disclose my current salary or salary history to a prospective employer, even if it means ending the interview process,” writes recruiter and “Ask the Headhunter” author, Nick Corcodilos. “That is my advice to job hunters.”

If an interviewer asks what your current salary is, Corcodilos suggests politely but firmly declining to disclose your salary history by saying something along the lines of, “I’d be glad to help you assess what I’d be worth to your business by showing you what I can do for you, but my salary is personal and confidential, just as the salaries of your own employees are.”

Liz Ryan, founder and CEO of consulting firm The Human Workplace, recommends in a post on LinkedIn answering the question indirectly by giving your target salary range instead.

“How are you ever going to increase your earnings if every time you change jobs, you get a tiny raise over what they paid you at the last place?” she asks.

Be prepared to prove your value …

Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn a little.

“Be prepared to prove your value to the employer,” says Whitmore. “Have all of your facts and figures in order. Come prepared with a list of your qualifications, accomplishments (personal and professional), how you saved your last company money or increased your company’s bottom line, and why you are the one best suited for the job.”

… but only provide a couple reasons for your request.

“When preparing to make a first offer, people often overcorrect,” writes Wharton professor Adam Grant. “They’re so concerned about justifying their positions that they marshal as many reasons as possible.”

Grant points to research that found skilled negotiators averaged fewer than two reasons per argument, compared with three reasons per argument from the non-experts.

He explains that more reasons can dilute an argument, especially if some are weaker than others. And presenting too many reasons can convey a lack of confidence, “making clear that we’re uncertain of the legitimacy of our offer. An effective first offer is best supported by one or two compelling reasons,” Grant says.

Be excited, but not desperate.

You should reiterate your excitement and stay positive, but don’t be so excited that you seem desperate. You have no idea how many other candidates the hiring manager is interviewing so play it cool, says Martineau.

“Desperate is problematic. Eager is not. I want people who are eager and excited,” he says. “It’s only a good investment on my end if it’s a good investment on your end.”

However, Koller says that showing the employer that you’re excited about working for the company does make them more inclined to give you want you want.

Make the first offer.

As conventional wisdom goes, you should wait for the other party to make the initial offer in order to get more information to act on.

In reality, Grant says it’s much better to make the first offer because you get to set the “anchor,” the figure that affects the trajectory of the negotiation. As previously reported on Business Insider, people who make very high first offers end up with a much better result.

The first offer pulls the other person in its direction, and it’s difficult to adjust the other way.

Emphasize what the company gains by hiring you.

Recent research suggests that, when negotiating, emphasizing what you’re giving the other person as opposed to what they’re losing makes the other person more likely to concede.

Make sure you highlight what skills and experience you’re offering the company and your potential boss first, and use that to justify what you’re asking for.

Give a salary range rather than a target.

Offering a pay range instead of an exact number opens up room for discussion and shows the employer that you’re flexible. A range also “gives you a cushion,” says Martineau, in case your asking salary is too high.

“Most companies will meet you in your range, even if it’s the bottom third of that range,” he says. “Basically, if they want you, they don’t want to send the wrong message by not meeting you in that range.”

Presenting a range gives people information about what you’re actually asking for, and it makes you seem polite and reasonable — which means you’re less likely to get hit with a hard-line counteroffer.

Use odd, extremely precise numbers.

Using a weird, precise number makes sense during a negotiation. For example, instead of asking for $70,000, you’re better off asking for $68,500.

Malia Mason, lead researcher in a study published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, tells Business Insider that using a precise number instead of rounded numbers will give you a solid anchor. It also gives off the appearance that you’ve done your research.

Even when giving a range, you should use precise numbers.

Pay attention to your body language.

“The way in which you carry yourself, even when seated at a desk, matters,” Trump writes. She notes that most of our communication is nonverbal and that messages are often conveyed through our facial expressions, gestures, posture, and audible elements, like sighs.

Her suggestions: Don’t fidget. Don’t pick your nails or tap your foot. Don’t sit on the edge of your seat because it could make you look overeager. Don’t hunch over and drum your nails because it could communicate aggression or frustration. Don’t cross your arms protectively because it could make you appear meek and intimidated.

“Regardless of how fast your heart may be beating, sit upright, make eye contact, and focus on breathing evenly,” Trump writes.

Mirror the other person’s behavior.

When people are getting along, they mimic one another — mirroring each other’s accents, speech patterns, facial expressions, and body language.

A Stanford-Northwestern-INSEAD study found that people who were coached to mimic their negotiation partner’s behavior not only negotiated a better deal, but expanded the pie for both people.

“Negotiators who mimicked the mannerisms of their opponents both secured better individual outcomes, and their dyads as a whole also performed better when mimicking occurred compared to when it did not,” the authors wrote.

Listen more than you speak.

“When people are uncomfortable, and many people are when they have to negotiate, they start rambling as a way to fill the vacuum of silence,” Trump writes.

“Some of the strongest negotiators I know just sit back and listen. The less they engage, the more likely the other person is to slip up and offer information they otherwise would have kept guarded,” she says.

Always counteroffer, but don’t do it more than once.

Once you receive their offer, you are expected to make a counteroffer. No employer wants a pushover. However, Koller says that you should not go back to the negotiation table more than once because then “it becomes annoying to the hiring manager.”

“Once it gets really drawn out, it gets frustrating for both sides,” and you don’t want to start a new job off on the wrong foot, he says.

Consider your alternatives.

If the employer can’t meet your requested salary, be prepared to negotiate for benefits, like additional vacation days or the ability to telecommute one day per week, Whitmore suggests.

“Salary isn’t everything, and I think you should be open minded,” she says.

“If you don’t get the amount you want, reply with, ‘May I have a job performance review in six or nine months?’ This will give you a window of time to prove yourself and then re-negotiate for a salary increase,” Whitmore suggests.

Practice patience.

Give yourself time to think about their offer, Whitmore says. “Try not to give a definite answer right away. Ask the employer, ‘May I get back to you at the end of the week?'” Separation creates anticipation. This extra time will allow you to review your options with your family or other potential employers, she explains.

Keep a positive attitude.

“If you don’t get the salary you think you deserve, don’t share the news with everyone you know,” says Whitmore. “News travels fast and your comments might come back to haunt you.” And never bad-mouth an employer on social networks, she adds.

“Don’t take it personally. The timing may not be right or the economy may be partly to blame. Consider this: The hiring manager may even call you again in the future if a position in your price range opens up.”

Vivian Giang contributed to a previous version of this article.

Businessinsider.com | February 25, 2016 | Jacquelyn Smith and Rachel Gillett

Your #Career : When Is The Best Time Of Day To Ask For A Raise? Psychologists Weigh In…Of Course, It also Has to Do With your Boss’s – & your Own – Psychological Rhythms.

July 25, 2015/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

There May be Some Times of the Day, Week, & Month that are Better Than Others. Of course, it also has to do with your boss’s – and your own – psychological rhythms.

There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than trying to figure out how to ask for a raise, even if you’re certain you deserve it. If you Google it, there are some good articles on how to do it, but not much on when to do it. It’s aggravating to think that you might just catch your boss at a bad time, and that if you’d chosen a different time of day or week, you might have had better results.

There may be some times of the day, week, and month that are better than others. Of course, it also has to do with your boss’s – and your own – psychological rhythms. While there’s no cut-and-dry advice for every situation and every boss, there are some good rules of thumb for choosing a time. Below is some advice from people who are pros at deconstructing person-to-person interactions: Psychologists.

Do not ask on a Monday

This is a no-brainer, but Mondays tend not to be the most chipper days around the office. They can be downright grim. Shannon Kolakowski, PsyD, a psychologist in Seattle, says, “Steer clear of Mondays, which are notorious for producing negative, tense moods.” Your instinct may be to wait till mid- or late-week to broach the subject, and that’s probably smart.
People may be more moral in the mornings

There’s not a lot of research on schmoozing your boss, but we can apply findings from other areas of psychology to office dynamics. Kolakowski points out that your boss might be more moral in the morning, so early on in the day could be the best time to talk about a raise. “One study showed what is called the morning morality effect; people tend to have higher levels of moral awareness in the morning and make less ethical decisions as the day wears on. In order to get a well-deserved raise, it may make sense to take advantage of your boss’s morning morality (after the coffee, of course).”
Wait till she’s caffeinated (or libated)

This is a good point – though morning may be a good idea, don’t ask too early. Even if you and your boss are the only people in the office, wait till your boss is fully caffeinated and has gotten any routine early morning stuff out of the way, before you ask to talk.

Of course, if your boss is one for having a martini at lunch, take advantage of it. “The simplistic approach is this,” says Michael Grove, PhD, psychotherapist and executive coach in New York City. “Does your boss have a drink or two at lunch? Definitely don’t get in the way of him and his drink. Go attack him after that!”

Fridays may be the best bet

Assuming your superior doesn’t have one foot out the door for a weekend getaway, the middle of a Friday morning might be smart, since there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. “Obviously I have no research to back this up,” says Suzanne Roff-Wexler, PhD, psychologist and founder of CompassPoint Consulting. “But my intuitive preference when to ask for a raise would be on a Friday mid-morning. The person I would ask would probably be looking forward to a weekend (hopefully in a good mood)!” She adds not to wait till Friday afternoon, since it may make you seem less confident, and the boss may be mentally hightailing out of the office already. So do it mid-morning. “If turned down, I would be prepared to deal with the rest of the day and then take the weekend to accept the decision and think about my next strategy,” says Roff-Wexler. “If the raise is accepted, then I would have the weekend to celebrate or at least enjoy the recognition.”

In certain industries, afternoons may make a more relaxed boss
There’s a caveat to the mid-morning theory: For certain businesses, afternoons may be better, says Grove, since there may just be too much going on during certain hours (like when the stock market is open). If the day was a particularly productive one, you have a boss in a good – or potentially great – mood near the end of the day: “Some bosses, like Wall Street people…. They have one eye on ticker or screen all the time. When it’s over, and it’s a good day, that’s when to ask. When a unit of work is done. So here, I’m favoring the end of the day (except on summery day. Then they’re trying to get to Hamptons).”

Get in sync with your boss’ ups, downs, and personal style

“There are two kinds of bosses: those who are seduced into things, and those who are coerced into things,” says Grove. “For the ‘seduced’ group, catch them when they’re at their most relaxed, when they’re off guard… Say, ‘look what we just didn’t do as a team – and look what I can do to correct this in the future.’” Woo him with your vision of what you’ll bring in the future. But if he’s a numbers person, make your case that way, and let the numbers do the coercing.

And always be aware of your boss’ personal patterns and habits. ”Notice when your boss is most engaged and chatty with you,” says Kolakowski. “Is he a morning person, bouncing with ideas first thing? Or does she pick up steam as the day goes on? Think back to the most productive conversations you’ve had and figure out what time of day they occurred. Mimicking successful interactions is a good way to gauge what time of day to ask for a raise.” If your boss is notoriously crabby or stressed up until lunch then, the stay away from that. Let his or her daily patterns guide you.

Think of his/her workload

Regardless of whether your boss is a morning or evening person, his or her workload can trump that. Know when your boss is finishing up a project or has a light workday – or on the flipside, if she’s just starting a project or has meetings with her own higher-ups. “The best day of the week depends on your boss’ personal schedule,” says Kolakowski. “Is there a certain day of the week you typically meet, when you know you will have his full attention? Be aware of his busy periods; avoid asking for a raise in the midst of other high priority projects, when his mind may be elsewhere and stress levels are high.”

Grove agrees that waiting till the end of a big project is essential. “Again, do it when a unit of work is done. In law, it will be when a case is done. In journalism, it will be when a magazine issue closes.” Other industries will have other ebbs and flows, so be sure to plan your pitch accordingly.

Your own headspace may matter even more

“The most important thing that I can say is that if you think you should ask for a raise, then you have almost certainly earned it (and likely more) and must do it,” says New York City psychologist and author of Your Next Big Thing, Ben Michaelis, PhD. “Therefore, what matters is not so much external factors (i.e., time of day, day of week, etc.) but your internal state. The time that is easiest for you to get up the nerve to ask IS the right time.”

How do you get in the right mental place? Think first about the bigger picture: Conjure up and internalize all the reasons why you feel a raise is logical and deserved at this point in time (you’ll likely have done this in preparation for making your “case” to your boss anyway, but go over all the reasons again, to convince yourself completely, too). And in a more immediate way, center and energize yourself before you meet with your boss, with whatever method works for you – calling a loved one, listening to a favorite song for mojo, or meditating.

Asking for a raise is probably less of a big deal for the more outgoing and confident among us. But it can be especially hard for those who are highly sensitive, less confident or more introverted, since it brings up a lot of “issues” we may have about ourselves and our roles in the work world. “Asking for a raise is very hard for many of us,” says Michaelis, “especially highly sensitive people (HSPs), because it calls to mind questions of self-worth, potential conflict and fear of rejection.” Figuring out how and when to ask your boss is important, for sure – the consensus seems to be to do it after morning coffee but before lunchtime on a Friday. But convincing yourself that you deserve it might even be the bigger step.

What do you think is the best time of day? Please weigh in below.

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Forbes.com | July 18, 2015 | Alice G. Walton