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In the grand scheme of things a big raise won’t make much difference in your life, but we’ll all keep chasing it anyway. Maybe it’s the big number, maybe it’s the increased value that society places on us when we make a lot of money, or maybe we all just want more stuff. Whatever it is, everyone’s gunning for that big raise. Unfortunately, most of us won’t be getting anything more than the standard 3 to 6% cost of living adjustment anytime soon. Here are a few reasons you won’t be getting a raise this year, and some ideas for how you can fight back.
1. You Don’t deserve it
Of course you want a big raise, but maybe you just don’t deserve one. Did you go above and beyond? Did you schmooze with all the big shots at your office? Did you find a unique way to make a good name for yourself in your company?
Take a good look at what you did this year and honestly ask yourself if you deserve a raise. I didn’t deserve one my first year out of school and I didn’t get one. But I was fine with it because I worked my ass off in other areas. Work wasn’t priority number one for me, so giving me a raise probably wasn’t priority number one for my old company.
2. You Deserve it, but you’re too young
Maybe you do deserve a raise. You tackled new projects, you started a company social committee, you made as many great contacts as you possibly could and you even asked for a raise, but you still didn’t get one.
Don’t worry, the corporate world is a little behind the times. A couple of years with a company might seem like a lifetime to you, but to the old folks in the corner office, it’s just a blip on the radar. Sometimes, you have no chance of getting a raise when you’re 24–you’re basically chasing your own tail trying to do everything right for little payoff. If you determine that this really is the case, you may want to reevaluate your career and your current company.
3. You didn’t ask for one
This one is pretty obvious. Or so you would think. If you don’t ask for a raise, you’re not going to get one. As nice as it would be, there is no one sitting around watching out for you or your career. No one will tell the boss to give you an extra ten grand, you have to ask. Create a list of everything you accomplished this year, talk about the numbers you hit, the deliverables you produced and milestones you surpassed. When review time comes around, bring the list to your boss and tell him you want a raise.
If that doesn’t work, put your resume online, get a couple job offers, and bring the offers back to your boss. He won’t be so quick to brush off your request if he knows you have somewhere else to go.
4. You worked too hard
Working hard is not equal to working smart. Working hard is burying your head in a stack of papers and spending day after day pounding away on your keyboard. Working hard is coming to work an hour early and leaving an hour late, every day.
You can do these things. You can work really hard and still not get a raise because you got so lost in making sure your “work” was done that you forgot to do the right kind of work.
5. You didn’t do the right kind of work
The right kind of work may not always feel like work and it definitely won’t feel like the most “productive” thing you can do, but it pays off in the end. The right kind of work is putting aside your daily to-do list for an hour and strategizing with the boss after lunch instead. It’s blowing off a night with your friends or significant other to go to the quarterly get-together and network with company big shots. And it’s syncing your schedule with your boss’s, so you come in when he’s in and leave after he’s gone.
Doing the right kind of work makes you a visible and valued asset, and it puts you in the position where you can ask your boss for a raise because you have invested time and energy into forming a solid relationship with her.
6. You got comfortable
It’s easy to get comfortable at your job. When you do a certain job long enough, you learn the ins and outs. And more importantly you learn the shortcuts. What once took you half a day, now takes an hour.
When you get to that point, it’s very easy to get comfortable. But the people who make the real money and get the big raises, don’t settle for comfortable. Overachievers don’t feel comfortable feeling comfortable. You can only learn and grow when you challenge yourself, and you can only get a big raise after you learn and grow into the new position and higher salary you’re chasing. If you’re comfortable being comfortable, don’t bank on that big raise.
7. Your boss sucks (and you didn’t do anything about it)
To get a big raise you have to make people like and respect you, but you also have to produce great work. But it’s nearly impossible to produce great work if your supervisor doesn’t provide you with great direction.
Let’s face it, a lot of bosses just aren’t good. It’s not necessarily their fault that they were promoted to manager without the skills to manage well. We’re all stuck in a system that often promotes based on “experience” rather than competence or managerial skills.
So, if your boss sucks, do something about it. Find the person in the office who is best at playing office politics. Take a look around at who can usually be found sitting at their desk, and who can be found hanging out just talking with others. The person who’s chatting the day away probably has the most influence outside of his direct reports, so he’s the guy to talk to.
What you’re after here is a mentor, someone who actually wants to help you grow. After you find the right one and develop a solid relationship, tell him why you deserve a raise and why you’d rather not go to your boss with the request. He can help you find all the reasons why you should, and shouldn’t, get that raise–and help you make real progress in your career.
If all else fails, there is always one, final way to get a raise. Find a new job! If you’re young and you have the skills that employers are looking for, there’s a good chance you can get a significant raise by going to another company.
The trick is to start laying the groundwork for a potential exit before it’s too late. Put your resume on the right sites, start blogging about the field you love to work in, and connect with the right people. When you find yourself in a bad position, you’ll have the network in place to jump ship at the right time and start working for the right company, at the right price.
photo by drnman1.
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11 RESPONSES TO "7 REASONS WHY YOU WON'T BE GETTING A RAISE THIS YEAR"
And then, of course, there's the economy. If Utah state government is closing on Fridays, and California state government is toying with the idea of paying all state workers minimum wage until the budget is passed--well, things are tight in a lot of sectors.
Thanks for all the comments! By no means should people pin their shortcomings only on their bosses. If you have a bad boss, which many of us do, its up to you to do something about it and get a raise another way.
That being said, I agree with Tiffany when she says that of course we need direction. That's what bosses are for, right? To tell us what to do. Entry level employees, even the best of the best, should not be expected to know what to do all the time without any direction.
I hope everyone gets a big raise this year!
-Ryan
7 Reasons Why You Wont Be Getting a Raise This Year | Deliggit.com...
\r\nThis article highlights the typical Gen. Y problems when it comes to getting...
1. Pinning the issue over managers and direction on semantics is a waste of time. The issue is, most managers simply don't take the time to truly manage their people. Because it takes time and effort. Because they were never trained on how to do it. Because they don't know what that actually means. Because they get caught up in other tasks, demands, etc.
But the people part of managing is the most important part, and it's the part most managers spend the least amount of time doing. I think it's important that Ryan points this out. Research backs him up. The top reason most employees leave companies is a crappy relationship with their supervisor. You can't pin all the responsibility for that onto the employee: they're not the ones with relational and managing people elements written into their job title - getting paid to do just that.
2. It is nearly impossible to create good work without direction. At some leve. At some point. What are employees supposed to do - read employers' minds? Unfortunately, this attitude is dangerous and harmful, though prevalent. But Sean, I definitely understand what you're getting at - that employees who require hand-holding don't deserve a raise. That I can agree with.
The issue is that all employees start out (on each different task) needing different levels of both support and direction. And it's the job of the manager to figure that out and provide the relevant amount of each. As employees grow more capable and skilled at each task, the amount of direction goes down, and the amount of support goes up. But you always have to have the communication element - because it's the basis of a relationship. And if you don't have a relationship with your boss, you need to get one with someone. I think that's really what Ryan was getting at.
Your boss sucks (and you didn’t do anything about it)
Ryan sure loves to pin Millennial failures on sucky bosses, doesn't he.
But it’s nearly impossible to produce great work if your supervisor doesn’t provide you with great direction.
You know, it's nearly impossible for me to agree less with this comment. In my opinion, great work--really great work--is work that defies and transcends "direction". I'd far prefer for an employee to understand the goal or end-point of the task--to communicate that, as a manager, is my job--and to decide the best, most effective, most efficient means to that end. That's deserving of a salary increase. Otherwise, you're just doing what you're told, which is why you were hired, and why you'll continue to make that agreed-upon salary at the time of hire.
KateNonymous also makes a good point. It doesn't render Ryan's points moot, but he should at least have tipped his hat to it. Even if you do everything he suggests--"fighting back" I guess he calls it--you might still not see your raise this year.
I agree with KateNonymous. It's really diffcult to get a raise when the company has had a 30% drop in revenue over the past year, unless you are exceptionally good at what you do and have prevented the loss from being worse.
"You know, it’s nearly impossible for me to agree less with this comment. In my opinion, great work–really great work–is work that defies and transcends “direction”. "
Agreed, Sean. I once worked for a company that had a truly toxic environment, and when I did receive direction, it was negative. Still, I consistently produced materials that quantifiably surpassed departmental standards, and ultimately managed the department's most profitable project. Because of the environment, I didn't get recognition for this--but I was driven by my own standards and pride, not by what my supervisors did or did not do. (And later I found a better job.)
On the topic of didn't ask for a raise, you need to back it up in detail. Seriously, very detailed. There has to be justification behind the number you are asking for too, to the tune of what other people in similar positions are pulling down in your market, at your competitors, etc. Show that you are well-researched, and hint that you are looking at the lay of the land with other companies and that might just have the same effect as a few job offers.
Above all, you need to show your commitment to the job so that the job has reason to show its commitment to you.
Love the part about getting comfortable. Its SO easy. I'm in that predicament myself right now, trying to look for different ways to get myself out of that mode of thinking.
Its also comfortable to just blame recession and the economy, but that depends on the sector as Kate pointed out. If you're in the right place at the right time, only you're responsible for not speaking up for what you deserve.
Companies will give you the smallest amount they can get away with.
I see a lot of my friends getting screwed by the "preemptive raise." You're prepping for your annual review in X days and suddenly your boss calls you into his office.
"We're really happy with your work and we're bumping up your salary $XXXX."
You're too stunned and flattered to argue, but then when your review rolls around, you can't really ask for a decent raise because you just got a (piddly) raise. Works every time!
GOT SOMETHING TO SAY?