Debt-Free Forever Gail Vaz-Oxlade (best ereader for epub TXT) 📖

night job looking after an elderly woman who needed attendant care. Daphne learned to drive, bought herself a car, bought herself a house, paid for her legalization in the United States, brought her children to live with her, put her daughter through college. My lord, the woman had fortitude!

Our circumstances do not define us. We can achieve anything we put our minds to. We have the power to make life whatever we want. Some of us want more.

Daphne wanted more. And she busted her ass to make it so. She achieved a lot, moving from poor to not so poor to secure. She made a life. And you can too if you have the drive and the tenacity. So, what stuff are you made of?

SPEAK UP FOR YOURSELF

A quiet, hard-working employee who waits for salary increases is easy to overlook. If you haven’t had a raise in two years, this may be your problem. If you want to earn more money, you have to ask for a raise. If you assume your boss is eager to reward competence, you are going to be sorely disappointed. If you want something, you make a case to get what you want. And if it’s more money you want, you’ll not only have to ask, you’ll have to put on quite the performance to get it.

Do you deserve a raise? While hard work and long hours are the fuel that drives raises, at least from most employees’ perspectives, if you’re the boss, these factors aren’t the be-all and end-all. Think about how willing you’ve been to accept new tasks and learn new things. Are you known as an employee who gets things done? Are you a self-starter and highly motivated? Have you increased your worth to the company by increasing your skills or knowledge? Show your boss the value you’ve added to the company’s bottom line. Track your achievements. Measure the before and after on projects you’ve completed.

Review your job description. It’s not unusual for people to take on new assignments without considering that their increased responsibilities might justify more money. If you’ve assumed new tasks, you may be performing at a more advanced level than your job description dictates, and you might have a ready-made case for an increase.

Track your accomplishments. Keep a folder with examples that demonstrate your worth to the company. Since you’re going to be talking about money, you’ll do well to put an actual dollar value on each of your achievements. If you found your company a lower cost supplier, landed new business with the proposal you prepared, or created a flexible work schedule that resulted in lower absenteeism, calculate your contribution in dollars and include it in your documentation. Highlight how you’ve made your boss shine.

Find out how much others make in comparable jobs. If your company follows a set pay scale, this can help you to see how much of a raise you can reasonably expect. Check with professional associations for surveys of members’ salaries. Look at recruitment ads to monitor pay ranges. Find out the salary ranges of co-workers, colleagues, and friends in similar positions, and create a chart to show where you currently sit in the pay range. If your manager has a salary band outside of which he or she cannot negotiate, you may have to change the department you’re working in or change employers to get what you’re worth.

Decide on a realistic amount. Don’t go marching in asking for the moon because you’re sick of being unappreciated. Remember, you’re trying to make a business case for your raise, so your request must have some boundaries. The upper limit should be aggressive, while the lower limit should be your breaking point, below which you would consider finding a new job. If you’re working in a hot job market where demand outstrips supply, you may be in a position to ask for a bigger raise, secure in the knowledge that other companies out there are ready to snap you up. If times are tough, you may have to wait until things improve economically.

Timing is important. Choose a time when your boss is relaxed, and try to strike when profits are up or just after you’ve finished a major project that made the department look good. It won’t be of much benefit to demand a raise if the company’s revenues are in the tank and your boss is in cost-cutting mode. And just because your employer reviews salaries annually at a specific time doesn’t mean you can’t toot your own horn when you’ve just completed a stellar job. Ask, don’t pester.

Have a good fallback position. If you asked and your boss said, “No,” you’ll have to figure out whether it is truly a case of no money available. If it is, suggest other forms of compensation such as extra vacation or free parking that will keep you happy until more money becomes available. Or suggest a tiered implementation of your increase—2% now, 4% in six months. You could also counter with, “Can we meet in three months to talk about this again?” Get an agreement and follow up with, “What can I do to maximize my chances then?” If your boss says, “I can’t think of anything,” suggest something. If that doesn’t work, dust off your resumé.

Throughout your discussion, focus on your creativity and commitment, and describe how those qualities have added value to the company. Be confident and convincing in your request. And don’t forget to listen for the objections your boss may have to increasing your salary so you can work on them right then and there. Ultimately, if you’re not happy with the reasons given for why your request for an increase was denied, it may be that you’ll have to move companies to get the financial recognition you’re seeking.

HAVE A CAREER PATH

If you don’t know what you want from your career, it’ll be pretty tough to make things happen. Sit down and think about what it is you want. Talk