RE: Where is the ceiling in TW?

[Rick Kirkham <rkirkham -at- seagullscientific -dot- com>]

 Barb Einarsen <barb -dot- einarsen -at- gnnettest -dot- com> wrote:

> Let me caution you on using another job offer to renegotiate your current
> position. Although this tactic often works in the short term, it will
change
> the way you are viewed in the company, and your prospects there in the
long
> term. You will be considered less reliable and loyal than your
counterparts;
> even the ones that legitimately resign and are lured back under duress.

I don't agree. I've had nothing but good effects from doing this. You will
always seem more valuable to your own managers when they know you are
valuable to others. That seems to be a part of human nature. Your loyalty
will not be in doubt, because no one interprets loyalty as meaning that you
can't entertain offers from other companies. (All your managers would
themselves take a better offer, so they won't think less of you for
entertaining one too.) Loyalty means you don't bad mouth your company (and
you stick up for it in bar fights!). It does not mean you keep working for
them for less than what you could get elsewhere. (As for reliability, I
don't know why Barb even brought that up. Entertaining a competing offer is
not relevant to your reliability and your managers will know that.)

> I believe in a more up front approach:
> * request what you want, and if that fails
> * indicate what you need (without threatening that you will look for other
> work), and if that fails
> * look for other work that will offer you either what you need, or what
you
> want

I fail to see how this approach is any more "up front" than "using another
job offer to renegotiate your current position." The slang "up front" refers
to not hiding anything. No one's proposing hiding anything.

Jo Byrd wrote:

> This exact situation happened to a woman . . . <snip> . . . she found
> another, better, job, and gave notice.  . . . <snip> . . . They
> . . . offered to raise her salary to three
> or four times its current level. Greed almost worked, but then she
suddenly
> reflected: why is it I'm worth all this money only now when I've given
notice?

That's obvious isn't it? Its a matter of supply and demand. Demand for her
services has gone up, but supply has stayed the same (there's still only one
of her). [By the way, what's "greedy" about accepting a good offer?] 

> Then she got mad, stuck to her guns, and accepted the other offer - even
though
> it was for considerably less money than her current employer's last offer.

Why did she do that? Why did she get mad? Her employer did exactly what it
is supposed to do: it maximized its profits by paying her as much, but no
more, than it needed to. When demand for her services went up, it upped its
offer. Companies are supposed to do that. Companies are not creatures with
minds, so they are incapable of being either loyal or treacherous,
exploitative or fair-minded, greedy or generous, grateful or ungrateful.
They are emotionless, unthinking, inanimate objects. They are money-making
machines that seek to maximize profits within the constraints of the law.
They should be treated like any other inanimate machine, such as your
lawn-mower. You wouldn't attribute human attributes to you lawn-mower would
you? Or demand that it meet human moral standards, would you? And if a
better lawn-mower became available you wouldn't stick with the old one out
of loyalty, would you?

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