Speaker 1: 0:20

Hey, it's Mark and welcome back to the Employee Survival Guide where we say all things your employer does not want you to know about, and a lot more. Today's topic is the art of negotiation how to get what you're worth. Very worthwhile topic, no pun intended. But before I start, the topic is really an example of my moving in a direction to expand upon the content you're getting in this podcast. We currently talk about topics of whatever is happening at work, performance reviews or whatever you know. The list is endless and usually it's generally reactive to what's happening and try to give you skill sets that we also have podcasts about actual case examples where you get to listen to a storyline narrative about what the case is about or what happened. And now I want to start to add content to the website, to the podcast episodes, like, for example, today we're going to do the art of negotiating. And other topics will be more like proactive in terms of your careers and because I've seen a lot of things about employees and executives throughout my time doing this, whereby know lent me, allowed me into their work lives and I've gotten to see a variety of styles of working. You know again, it's you know from the vantage point of the attorney-client relationship with the employee or executive, but nonetheless, you pick up a lot of detail about the relationships with their managers, with their peers, and so I wanted to give you a lot more in terms of the content to allow you to develop more skills than just beyond the legal, reactive aspect of what's a sexually hostile work environment. So we're expanding the scope of what the Employee Survival Guide is about. So, with that said, negotiating I negotiate all the time. I negotiate whether I'm in court or out of court. I negotiate with judges. I negotiate nonstop as an attorney, as a litigator, and you learn a lot about the ways that your opponents negotiate as well, and you learn what's effective, what's not effective.

Speaker 1: 2:48

And this podcast episode is about negotiating, and I wanted to just start off with the basic premises about negotiating so you understand from my vantage point. I think they apply for just work issues, but you know real life circumstances. But negotiating is about a process over a period of time, not an all at once effort. Don't expect things to happen just because you ask, don't lay down demands and threats, et cetera. But in a podcast episode we're going to talk about specifically the new job offer, or negotiating a raise and negotiating other terms of your job. But I want to make sure you understand the basic premise behind negotiating.

Speaker 1: 3:32

You may feel you're a good negotiator or not, but I've tested myself in every single negotiation, typically to mediation or settlement discussion. It's high stakes, a lot of money, a lot of emotion involved. I'm dealing with clients who are aggravated by their employers, what they've done to them. So that's in that context. Typically it can be in court negotiations with a magistrate, judge, or it can be privately between lawyers or using a mediator to do so with the parties. And so I've done a lot of mediation, a lot of successful mediation, and what I've discovered is that the process of negotiation you should allow yourself time. So take out the anxiety of negotiating. That's the first, I guess hurdle most people have is I don't know how to negotiate, I couldn't negotiate on behalf of myself, et cetera. So avoid that anxiety aspect, but look at more of it as it's a process.

Speaker 1: 4:35

You want to get into the research of what the issues are and what motivates the other side. A starting point is a famous book years and years ago. It's called Getting to. Yes, it's a famous book now dated in years, but it touts the ideology of two sides can win during a negotiation. Well, I get some contradictory type of messaging in my line of work because, for example, judges will tell my clients you're not going to like the result of the mediation settlement, but you'll learn to live with it. I don't necessarily agree with that and still, you know, just label that as a success, a win. Even though you're resolving a case in the legal context and you're getting paid a settlement fee, money and you're not going to a verdict in front of a court or a jury, it is still a win because you're preventing the outlay of money and time and duration to an emotion for a protracted circumstance, a legal battle. So defining success is really important in the process of negotiating. So a longer timeframe days, weeks, potentially scaffold out your approach to negotiating.

Speaker 1: 6:03

Think about the intro, the middle part, the conclusion part. Look at your opponent. Who are you negotiating with? What's their style? Are they just simply a lot of people like to say no because it's easy to say no as a response to negotiating. I don't generally listen to no because people tell me no all the time, but that's not how cases are resolved. And look for the process of scaffolding your offers and counteroffers as you move through the process, as you learn more information about the other side. So, in the context of work negotiating, you want to learn about what's good for the employer, and I'll get into that in a second. But just look at the process. It's going to take time. Don't expect dramatic responses. Yes, we'll give you what you want. That never happens and then understand your opponent and understand the style being used.

Speaker 1: 6:59

Understand the psychology I mean, this whole podcast is really about psychology, because that's what negotiating is. I'm teaching you to change your psychology to one where you're more open-minded and mindful of your approach and removing your anxiety about it and putting the time and energy into your negotiation to understand what is the goal, how am I going to get there, what am I willing to give up, what's reasonable? And so go through the mechanics of goal assessment and setting out and just take it more slowly. And it's the same process I use with legal cases and by example. I'll give you this that I'll be in mediation and I'll prep a client about what the process of mediation is like with a mediator and what the process of negotiation is like, and I'll tell the client it says it may not resolve today and of course clients are like it's got to resolve today, by God it's got to resolve, because they're panicked and freaked out, they're spending money they don't have typically. So it's a high-stress environment. But I tell them that because oftentimes negotiating the first day of negotiation it's not your last day, it's just your first day.

Speaker 1: 8:21

And so plan on multiple days of negotiating and it happens and I say this and it's happened in quite a few high-profile cases. These are cases that never hit the newsday desk, they never hit public knowledge, they're just high-profile cases. But they resolved. But they took several days of working with a judge to help the parties resolve matter. And because it was, you know, maybe sensitive people were adjusting their positions, maybe they were just initially fishing to figure out you know, let's just give them a no answer and how they react to it. And so a lot of things play into how people negotiate from the employer's employee standpoint. So multiple days is very, very common in complex situations and you may have complex situations at work.

Speaker 1: 9:14

So let's get into the work negotiating. I promised you the new job offer, the negotiating arrays and the negotiating other terms of your employment Again all part of giving you more content and skill sets to understand real-life circumstances beyond just the you know. Here's the podcast about so-and-so case, or here's a topic of a legal nature, getting into the nuances of. You know your work life because it does matter to you and you spend a lot of time there. So, in short, when you think about negotiating, you think you know you basically have some. Your palms start sweating and you know you get really tense.

Speaker 1: 9:58

Whether you're a new hire, a seasoned pro looking for a raise or about to walk into a new job, the ability to negotiate is one of your most powerful tools and it's a tool most employers hope you don't know how to use. You know me, I'm like I'm going to give you everything your employer does not want you to know about, and a lot more. You can't really learn about negotiating at work Well, because they don't teach it there. I mean duh. So you're going to learn it here and I'm going to spend a lot of time not just one episode, but several episodes over a period of time at different aspects of negotiating. So you know you pick up skill sets about different aspects of negotiating. So you know you pick up skill sets and you should know these things because it's how you, you know, rise up the ladder of income, rise up the ladder in the office space, it's through negotiating. I mean, I can honestly say that I built my career negotiating. All right, I do my job. Of course I have my skill set of my job, but I negotiate in various forms. So let's be clear Negotiation is not a fight.

Speaker 1: 11:02

It's not about being aggressive or making demands. That's a rookie mistake. Information-gathering process. It's about finding out what the other side wants, what their limitations are and how you can position yourself to get what you want, all while leaving them feeling like they got a good deal. That's the getting the yes format. It's hard, but if you look and work at it, you can get your opponent or your employer, your boss, to the yes point, to say yes to whatever your demand is. So again, three scenarios you're going to look at job offer, negotiating your raise, negotiating other terms of your job. So you've just gotten the call and they say we'd like to offer you the position and congratulations.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Now this is and this is not the time to say yes right away. Of course you want to pause. You want to say and I tell clients to do this, I'll take it under advisement, I'll get back to you because you want to think about it. Maybe you're an executive and you're having a term sheet announcement discussion with your employer over the phone and you want to go talk to me, your employment attorney, to talk about what the contract is going to be, because it's several million dollars and there's a lot at stake and so you need to kind of go through it very slowly. You say, basically thank you very much, take it under advisement, I'm excited about the opportunity. You want to get back to them.

Speaker 1: 13:13

So you need this time to gather information about your opponent here it's a new job and learn as much as you can about the employer. You've already done that at the point where you interviewed, et cetera, and now you understand the full picture, not just the base salary, but you're looking at base salary, total compensation, benefits, the hidden stuff. So base salary is the market rate for the position you know, realistic, you know what they're offering. What about the location? Is the base pay in Texas the same as the base pay in, like, new York City? And you should have already researched this information.

Speaker 1: 13:50

And here's the problem with you know there are two forms of information. There's well, maybe three. I'll start with the third. The third one being the you know, anecdotal, like you know your colleagues and friends talking about what salary is. Second is salarycom, which it's a website out there I think they're still out there. I think they're still out there. And then there's professional databases. You can pay to acquire information. This is typically for the management, executive level. I think the company is called Equilarcom and in there they basically give you kind of an apples-to-apples approach to similar positions in the same industry, et cetera, to where you can look it up. It doesn't go below the C-suite level. I do not believe. But then there's maybe a fourth category information gathering. You can have a headhunter and they have information provided because they maintain databases.

Speaker 1: 14:47

Total compensation that's the next topic. You know it's bonuses, equity stock options. Do they have a profit-sharing program? You want to get into what they have If it's a public company. Now you can go into the SECgov and research the company you're looking at to find out all things there and typically go to the annual report 10-K and look at the exhibit list. And you'll report 10K and look at the exhibit list and then in that list you'll see the various equity incentive compensation plans the company is willing to offer if you're an executive, if it's 401K, it's just they're going to give you a participation in 401K. There's no more defined benefit pensions any longer. So that's over. Typically, most people are offered 401K if they're lucky.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Next item on the agenda for your. What you're trying to review here is, you know, the benefits, health insurance, 401k, match paid time off and other perks. These have real dollar values. So, for example, you know, is the company providing four weeks paid vacation? How many of those national holidays are you going to get off? Like 10 or 15 days in addition to your vacation? Pay Benefits are really important. Health insurance, of course, important. I can't understate that one. But the aspect of benefits is really where the company is setting the cultural tone of the organization. You need to find out what that is. If it's two weeks vacation, that's very limited. They're going to work you to the bone. So the more benefits they're providing to the employees, the better, and that defines the culture. You have to look past the website and kind of the marketing shtick that they put on the website about their culture.

Speaker 1: 16:32

Maybe ask around, Do some research about benefits and then the hidden stuff. The hidden stuff of the job offer is is there a sign-on bonus. Maybe you're leaving behind money due to whatever circumstance. Equity or a bonus hasn't come due yet. You can forward that to your employer the new employer and saying you want to sign a bonus so you can recoup that and not take a loss there. And so maybe there's another topic of relocation assistance or a non-compete clause that could restrict you later. You want to know about that in advance.

Speaker 1: 17:11

Non-competes are still around and still a sticky matter for people to understand. The FTC rule came out, but it's in limbo right now through court of appeals process. It's not a rule. So that issues and given the current political climate and the pro-business mindset of the federal government right now, I don't think that the non-compete issue is going to come up soon. If the federal courts I think the Fifth Circuit down in Texas is handling this at the appellate level Maybe that rises to the level of the Supreme Court, who knows? But we don't know the outcome of that just yet. So non-competes can be an issue of the hidden stuff.

Speaker 1: 17:56

So now you've done your homework, you researched the company in the market, you now know what you're worth and you prepare a concise, well-reasoned counteroffer to the initial job offer they made you and don't throw out a number without a reason. Think about it in advance, tie your request to your value Something like based on my research in the market for this role and my unique skill set and mention the specific skills that you have. I was looking for a base salary of so-and-so closer to X dollars, and that's an offer or a counteroffer you're making. You're not demanding, you're just simply stating your value based on the data and you make an encounter offer. The employer may say no, they may meet you in the middle or they may surprise you with a better offer, but you'll never know if you don't ask. It's a really, and everybody kind of knows the circumstance. If you don't ask, you don't receive. So you got to ask and you know. Take the time to go through this process. If you need to stall out the process to potentially aggravate your employer, the potential employer a little bit, because you know your worth and maybe you have multiple offers and you know people are probably thinking about well, what if I have two offers? You need to play that out because if you tell an employer that you have another offer pending and they're lowballing that offer, you need to make them feel insecure. Again, it's psychology, psychology that both parties play in.

Speaker 1: 19:28

Now the employer thinks this mistaken belief that just because they're the employer, they get to dictate terms. That's not true. Great example today is the issue of this trajectory of companies trying to capture the best AI professionals they can. They're just beating themselves up competitors trying to throw as much money as possible to get the best AI developers they can, and so that's an example where the companies are not in control. They're having to bargain with their competitors to get this new prized employee to come over to do AI research. So it's an example.

Speaker 1: 20:13

So most employers do this dumb mistake and I'm going to say it's a dumb mistake. They always try to start with this. Employers are always right and they're going to get what they want approach. That's not true. If you let them have that and you've given any indication during your discussions with them that there's a weakness in you in your discussions about giving an employer too much power, they're going to manipulate that. They're going to see it, they're going to feel it.

Speaker 1: 20:41

So go into the negotiation strong, confident, not cocky, but just. You know what your value is. It doesn't matter what the job is, you just know what your value is. You could be the best human, compassionate person possible to the greatest AI developer, it doesn't matter. Just know what your value is and make it clear to the other side what your value is, and don't do it in a cheesy way, please. Just take a good stock about who you are. You should know who you are. If you don't know who you are, then work on that. It's a separate episode. So just know who you are. If you don't know who you are, then work on that. It's a separate episode. So just know who you are and what your value is, and take it slow and take it methodically Maybe it's several conversations to get to the point where you need Throwing out offers that start at some point as a counteroffer in response to the employer's offer and then work your way down slowly and then figure out what your bottom line is.

Speaker 1: 21:36

Maybe your bottom line is the other counteroffer. Maybe your bottom line is economic because of your own financial wherewith position, where you need X dollars of income to satisfy your current economic status. So figure out a bottom line, figure out why you want that bottom line and negotiate slowly down towards that. If the employer gets a little like you know, I don't know just upset with your process, you know, start to make them understand that you know you are, you know you have value. You can improve the company's current position position, if I can say this to you, if you can think like the owner of that company or the management of that company that you're trying to go into, think like them in terms of what they're selling, what they're doing, what service, et cetera, that will enable you to connect with them and figure out what their current problems are. You're not just filling a seat.

Speaker 1: 22:31

I always try to ask people to think about, you know, as an entrepreneurial type of thinking, really just a matter of you know, thinking out of the box approach when approaching a new job offer, about the new employer, what they're facing because they're hiring you because the last person that you're replacing probably didn't do the job very well, so they're looking for somebody to come in and do some change and to do it in a more creative way. That's why there's a new hire and figure out are you replacing somebody or is this a new, developed position? Is it a new position with parts driven from different positions that they had maybe downsized or reorganized? You need to figure out all the mechanics of what came about the new position you're being offered. Think out what happened, ask a lot of hard questions, listen to the responses about what they're saying to you. You'll learn a lot in terms of what has taken place at that point in time to see is that the right fit job for you? It may not be, if you hear the word. I was just, by example, reading a story in the Wall Street Journal this morning. Some folks went to a company it was a new stock market that was trying to get approval by the SEC, the Securities Exchange Commission but the article smack on the front page of the Wall Street Journal is the employees started getting indoctrinated into Scientology and they didn't know that and they started taking trainings and the like. It was a very long, you know. So ask questions and figure out if they're right fit for you in the particular job you're looking at by asking hard questions and listening to their reaction.

Speaker 1: 24:19

So listening is really one of the important parts of negotiating. Listen to the tone, how somebody says something, when you pop a statement out that's pretty demonstrative or powerful, influential, whatever that's going to be. Listen to the reaction and it can tell a lot. And I do that all the time Because sometimes with good people or people who are really good at negotiating judges and lawyers you really have to just discern how it's being said, the pause, the hesitation and reaction. You can pick up patterns of how people are processing what's happening in real time. So negotiating requires listening skills to discern what's taking place at a moment by moment so you can, you know, swift and dodge and maneuver to get what you need. But it doesn't. It's not a reactionary thing, you just want to listen for it, take notes and reflect upon it and then come up with your next move. So to speak. It's kind of like a chess game to figure out what's not being said, that's happening still in the room even though it's not being said, or there's a how it's being reacted to, or the comment you're making, by how their body movements or their voice and tone. So that's a little bit further expanded version of the negotiating the job offer.

Speaker 1: 25:50

So next one is negotiating a raise. Okay, so you already have the job and you've been a rock star, of course, because everybody thinks they're a rock star, they don't have any. You know negative sides or red flags to them and you feel you deserve more money now. This is a very different negotiation than a new job offer, because you have a history with this employer and history is your leverage, okay, so first thing is it's not a one-time conversation when you're asking for a raise, and you should be documenting your accomplishments throughout the year, of course in real time. An email to your manager, not necessarily, hey, I'm going to get the raise in a few months, you know, but I'm going to send you this email. Just think strategically through this process Take your win, Applaud others who are also responsible for that win, at the same time gloating about the win. But essentially, later on you'll be able to use those emails and, you know, argue with your employer for a raise. So you know you want to keep these emails in a folder somewhere and every time you exceed the expectations, you know save the email and the accomplishment. And or if you get the positive feedback from a client, or you've learned a new skill, or maybe you graduated and got your MBA, you write it all down and this is your brag sheet.

Speaker 1: 27:24

So you schedule a meeting with your boss and you frame it as a conversation about your career and your future with the company and don't just show up and say I want more money. That's a guaranteed way not to get it and you'll receive a no. Instead, the conversation should be recapping your value to the company, quote unquote in the past year I've been responsible for a list of accomplishments and you know. You recognized me at certain dates and you said the following to me about these accomplishments. So they make your case for why your value has increased. Based on these contributions to my expanded role and responsibilities to the company, I believe my salary should increase by X dollars and be a fair reflection of the current market value for my current talents. You get the gist.

Speaker 1: 28:12

So your argument is not based on your personal needs, it's based upon the business logic. So here I'll take, for example, when people negotiate severance without any claim, I say give me 10 things that you did recently that the employer knows and they can agree that you did those things well, and that's the reason why you want to be compensated in negotiation beyond what they offered you, because without a claim you really can't negotiate a severance increase than other than what the employer offered you. So that's a goodwill negotiation, the job raise negotiations similar to that. Obviously, the difference is you're still working and so in this circumstance you want to come up with your list of accomplishments. They just need it. Or maybe they're economically pinched and they need it.

Speaker 1: 29:24

It's really about, I believe, looking holistically at the employer from the employee standpoint about about how they've benefited the company in large measure. That's real, that the company has, you know, receives a large, you know, benefit of their work. But I'm trying to get at is you know, you're a long-timer in the employer, you plan to spend a long time with this employee that you, you know, eat, drink and crap. You know the employer's culture and you're not faking it. There are people there I think that's probably currently less than 30% who are so quote unquote called fully engaged and maybe you know those people I'm thinking about that they live and breathe the company, but 70% of you, by the way, are disengaged, and you know who you are. It's basically people who are just taking a paycheck or hugging the job, so to speak, these days. They're not quitting and running to another job. But so that's a unique environment to be in today to ask for a raise.

Speaker 1: 30:36

When you ask for a raise, employers are going to probably say no. So you have to do your homework to convince them to say yes and what is the benefit they're going to gain from it and you're working with the stack cards is against you here, because companies are reorganizing and shoving more job duties on each employee already present. So you're getting, basically, more job duties, same pay. And, if you didn't know this, that's a way of saving money for the company, because they can make you do it, because you don't have any leverage or at least they think you don't and it's happening currently, in 2025. It may shift and move in less or so, but companies are currently doing this to save money. They're also laying people off too, so asking for a raise is like you're battling uphill. It doesn't mean you can't ask for it. You should.

Speaker 1: 31:30

The other aspect of asking for a raise is that you believe, and you're communicating to the employer, that you deserve it and it's beneficial to the company, and you're making it with a straight face. You're not bullshitting the issue. It's real and you operate with the facts, that the company knows the same set of facts and that you've got to convince the employer that, well, if you don't incentivize me with a raise like a bonus, but a raise is similar. It's long-lasting, it's larger over time than a bonus that you may, you know, want to jump ship. It's doable, you can make that. You know employer believe that they can become insecure, that you may want to jump, you may want to throw in, you know, in a raise or promotional change, whatever Raise and promotions are kind of a similar thing. But making the employer feel insecure about their position, that you may ditch them. You're right in the middle of a huge project, whatever it is, and it's okay to do that because you know it's negotiation.

Speaker 1: 32:39

Negotiation is not just one rule of thumb, it's an approach taken with a lot of information that you've gathered to understand the employer's strengths and weaknesses. You want to focus on the weakness part of it. Obviously you're touting the strengths. You have to benefit the employer. But you know targeting their insecurities and I do this as a living I target the insecurities of companies all the time when I throw claims at them, for example, of whatever discrimination or something. That's a whistleblowing. That's happened. You know they don't want that known by the public. So it's an insecurity. So that's the reason why they negotiate, because they don't want that publicly known. So it's an example. Lawsuits, or at least threatened lawsuits, threat or target and shame employers before they're filed as a means to target their insecurities. Employers have them. You just don't know that because you're not in my line of work, where I see it all the time. You can see that insecurity in the form of the cases we put up on the podcast. You know employers are getting whacked for millions and millions of dollars because you know they have insecurities. They did something wrong and you know if they want to play that hard game they can lose and you know they can get verdicts against them and that's what the purpose of those cases are about to showcase that. So employers are not, you know.

Speaker 1: 34:01

Long answer to all this about negotiating a raise. Employers do have weaknesses. You need to exploit them. Find out what they are they can be large and small and exploit them. But don't do it in a way to, you know, shame them or anything. Obviously a professional, you want to. You know you can sometimes intimate things. You know, shame them or anything. Obviously a professional you want to. You want to. You know you can sometimes intimate things. You know without saying things directly. You can say things you know under your you know by implicit nature of what you're saying.

Speaker 1: 34:27

But do your homework about an employer. Don't just go in there and say I want a raise. That's utterly crazy and you want to, I think the best. I would give a raise to somebody who really took the time to understand what I was doing as an employer and went into detail about it and even came up with ideas that I didn't even think of. That shows to me that the employee is, you know, believing in the core mission that we're setting out to do, above and beyond just, you know, collecting a paycheck, collecting paycheck.

Speaker 1: 35:01

People can be easily spotted by the way and you don't want to be one of them. You want to be the person who's making a paycheck, or at least making your employer feel that they, that you know you're a very valuable resource to the company. And employers know the two different types of people. There's people who take paychecks and sit on their jobs and they job hug because they're engaged, but they're not fully engaged. We have a really harsh current circumstance today in this workforce of 70 percent of the employee population are disengaged. 70% of the employee population are disengaged. If you don't understand what that means, it means that people are just going to work, waiting for Friday and collecting a paycheck. I mean, that's not a great position to be in on a nationwide basis. But you don't want to be in that crowd.

Speaker 1: 35:51

If you want to fake it and make it look like you're in the other crowd of 30% who are engaged, those are the go-getters. Those are the people who are thinking out of the box. They're not backstabbing at work, they are playing the game critically. They are measured steps and negotiating a raise is a measured step. So you want to be in that category. So it's kind of a nod out to this issue.

Speaker 1: 36:15

If you think you're disengaged at work, change your mindset about this into the engaged part, even if you have to fake it. But be realistic about your faking it. Maybe you'll fake it to the point where you actually do enjoy your job again. But maybe you're disengaged for a lot of other reasons. But understand why you're disengaged. It's really an unhealthy position to be in, why you're disengaged. It's really an unhealthy position to be in and the current thinkers of the world don't really understand the why part. They just tell you the statistic, gallup in particular.

Speaker 1: 36:47

So negotiating your A's there's a lot goes into it, just like the job offer Negotiation as you can hear it. It's got a lot of nuance to it. It's a lot of style. What is your style. For example, ask yourself that Mine is kind of a blunt force, trauma approach to it, typically worst case scenario, and I kind of throw it all at the employer. Factually I don't engage in tiptoe approach. I just say here is everything you need to understand what is going on in this particular case. Or if you're negotiating a raise, everything that's going on here as I see it, mr Employer and it can be the good, the bad and the ugly and it shows a comprehensive approach to it. So approach negotiation like that Style is my other part of my style in negotiating I really didn't talk about this so far is a consistency approach.

Speaker 1: 37:43

I'm going to start with a telegraphed assortment of things that I'm going to do. Or, if you know me well enough, you can just ask colleagues on the opposing side and find out here's what Kerry does, and that's fine because it might be deliberate on my part to let people know that that's what I do, because I may have a game strategy that's different than that. Let's say I come to the table with all guns a-blazing at the negotiating table and then I do an about-face and I do something proactively positive that has a lot of compassion for the employer, kind of a mind screw for the employer. So think about the psychology and the style that you're using for negotiating. You're going to have to figure out what your own style is. Typically, it's characteristically driven by your own personality. But give it a thought, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter and a well-orchestrated negotiating strategy and style can look like.

Speaker 1: 38:44

Just think of a person who's slow in their response to the things that are arising during this discussion. They're thought through, they're digested. Not necessarily the person who's very reactive. I know a lot of attorneys that want to just scream and shout at me. They're not very effective, they just whine like little children. So you have to figure out your style and I'm always looking to assess that who's my opponent, what's their like? I look them up before I go meet them. I look up judges before I go talk to them. Anything I can get to figure out who my opponent is. It's going to adjust the style of the cap I'm going to wear for the day because I'm going to change character. I can be a lot of characters. So it's a little bit of acting in this approach when you're negotiating and so, as you can see, there's a lot to negotiating. There's a lot of nuance to it. So it's just simply not asking for a raise, it's so much more.

Speaker 1: 39:45

Now the next thing is negotiating things about your job that don't involve money. It's about anything and everything related to your job. So it can go like this the work-life balance, the professional development, a new title, how about a start date? And so work-life balance. Well, hell, we just went through that entire discussion in the last three, four years and now we're at the back end of that discussion of work-life balance because most of you are being ordered back to work. In my office we never did that. We were remote work from before the pandemic happened and people are fine. And, by the way, you can be successful as a business and have people work remotely. It does work. The only reason people are put back to work is because of rents. Employers have to pay rents. Put back to work is because of rents employers have to pay rents. So the work-life balance is an important aspect for a lot of people.

Speaker 1: 40:43

If you have a medical issue, if you have childcare needs, et cetera, that's going to be an issue you need to. It's a non-monetary thing. You need to negotiate that and let's just target this a little bit. Are there other people in the organization who currently work there that have remote work. Why do they have it If the employer has a blanket approach to it? I'm sorry but there's the only way to get around that blanket approach of all go back to work, et cetera is if you have a disability of some form and you have to document that and make an argument why you need a remote work schedule to accommodate your disability, whatever that may be physical, mental, mental, nervous. So work-life balance also is if the employer doesn't have a blanket approach to basically all people work at the office and they don't allow for remote work, you have to then dig down into do I present a value to the organization that I can negotiate a one-off because I'm special, meaning you are special, we know you're special, but I'm being funny. But is there anything unique about you that the employer wants to bend over a little bit backwards for you, even though others will see it, to allow you to work remotely? So there is that circumstance and you want to play politics to get that.

Speaker 1: 42:08

The professional development aspect the company pay for certifications, conferences, advanced degrees. You know that type of professional development benefits the employer you know. For example, I asked, I just told employees, you know, read the newspapers, because I want them to read and learn or just hear about current topics, and I said I'll pay for your subscription. The other thing is, you know I pay for, you know, a gym membership because they need to get out of the computer work seat and go just exercise, because it's very important, because we spend our time in our seats At least I don't. I don't do that. I definitely get out there and exercise. But professional development is a feature, but it's not monetary related and it benefits both you and the employer, of course. So you can negotiate that.

Speaker 1: 42:53

A new title, you know it's similar to the raise and it's non-monetary. This one I don't really see so much as it's more of a reputational thing If you need it. I see employers do this and this is why I'm so negative on it. They always they award new titles as something of value to you, but real reality, you're still doing the same job. Or maybe they gave you more responsibility but they didn't give you more pay. So screw you the new title, I don't care. Uh, or they, they get fuzzy with you know changing, uh, you know, from director levels to some of their, or senior VP to some change, but in reality it's still the same job and who knows why they do it. It's kind of weird, but blame HR.

Speaker 1: 43:40

I guess you can negotiate the start date of when you want to start. So that's actually an issue that comes up a lot of times with when you're leaving a job and you're negotiating a severance. Negotiating a severance, I tell clients that you want to try to orchestrate the severance execution of the agreement and give a little time a week or two for maybe a vacation. You need a little break to start the new job. A lot of times the new employer is going to want to rush you right in because they don't give a shit. They just want to have you start and they want to just, you know, check that box and say that we're done with that project, we got a new hire, and begin the training process. So you can negotiate the start date.

Speaker 1: 44:21

So, as you can see, the negotiating process with employer is nuanced. It can take a longer period of time, more than just a one-off conversation. It's going to take a lot of diligence on your part to understand what the employer needs, how you can benefit them, and it takes some artistic creation on your part of your style, you may even learn that you become a more articulate negotiator doing other parts of your job. Because of that process and if you don't challenge yourself to learn new skills here, it's negotiation skills and really you know there are tons of books you can read about this. I gave one example Getting to yes, which is a famous book.

Speaker 1: 45:13

So take the time. If you are serious about you know, asking, trying to get a new job or asking for a raise or you know non-monetary perks for the job, take the time to put together your game plan and then orchestrate it well and have some flexibility with it, of course, but then also even create a secondary position to potentially, you may have another job offer elsewhere. Even if you've been at this job for 20 years, you may have another job lined up. I mean so you want to really think strategically about your negotiation. It's more than just a one-off. It's a process and you have to expect the unexpected through the process and be able to pivot with certain things. That happens. That happens a lot in my legal cases and we do that.

Speaker 1: 46:06

So I hope you enjoyed this part of negotiation as a skill set to learn. I'll come up with other topics in negotiating as well. I'll come up with other topics that allow you to learn skill sets as part of your job. The Employee Survival Guide is going to do that for you, in addition to you being the basic baseline of legal and knowledge-based. You're going to get that. We're going to jump even further in making you a really good candidate for all your employers and make you successful doing what you're doing. That's what the Employee Survival Guide is really about. All right, take care and have a good week.