Re: promotion vs. pa...

["Doug, Data Librarian at Ext 4225" <engstromdd -at- PHIBRED -dot- COM>]

This is in reply to jim grey's message:

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It's hard to know what to ask for in that first career job.  Many of us
came from college (i.e. $0/yr income), so  *anything* sounds like a lot of
money.
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Very true.  The thing I wasn't prepared for was how much my living expenses
increased.  My total tax witholding in my first job was roughly equal to what I
had paid for room and board as a student.

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I suppose one way to avoid this is to join the STC *before* you go after
that first techwriting job, and get good advice from other chapter members
(he says, still not quite having gotten around to STC membership himself)....
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Allow me to put in a further plug for the STC.  The organization produces a
semi-regular report called "Profile" which includes (among other things)
average salary and benefit information of members, broken down by experience,
sex, age, and zip-code region.  I believe it's available both in paper form and
on the STC BBS.

While not exactly definitive, it can give a first-time job hunter an idea of
what is reasonable.  I also use it for the basis of my "expected salary"
calculation every year, to decide how I should feel about my annual adjustment.
So get around to joining already.

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(Fortunately, my next two performance reviews were tied to hefty, hefty
raises.  Funny what saying, "Pay me, or I'll go a company that will", can
sometimes do for your bank account.)
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Hmmm....  You're either in a much stronger position than most writers or you
have a the gift of true diplomacy. (Defined somewhere as: "The ability to tell
a man to go to hell in such a nice way he looks forward to the trip.")

Most managers hate to be threatened (just like most employees) and the response
to a straight "Pay me or walk" option is often "OK, walk."  At a minimum, this
strategy carries the risk of either looking stupid if you can't execute your
threat or permanently poisioning a relationship that *must* work in the future.

True story: A documentation manager discovered one of his writers was getting
paid significantly more than he was.  He felt this was unfair, since he had
responsibility for the department in addition to his writing (it was a small
department) while the writer had only his work.  The manager stormed into the
relevant VP's office and demanded that their salaries and responsibilities be
brought into line.  After mulling it over for a few days, the VP did -- by
promoting the writer to department manager and moving the manager to a writing
position.

Being familiar with the situation, I suspect the writer's promotion may have
been in the works for some time. The VP may have been deciding when and how to
carry it out without embarrasing anyone when the manager walked in and
essentially offered his head on a platter. Still, the story illustrates the
risks of the hard sell.

THe pay issue can be approached in a less-threatening way with a general
discussion about pay equity (the aforementioned "Profile" can be a useful tool
in this respect) without the threat of immediate departure.

I guess my main message is that while threats can be useful in some situations
(it certainly worked in yours) it is a high-risk strategy that should be used
only if you are sure you have the means and the aplomb to carry it off.

Doug

ENGSTROMDD -at- phibred -dot- com