Dear Evil HR Lady,
This summer, I changed jobs, from selling artwork on cruise ships to selling IT managed services. The new company gave me an offer, and (this was my mistake) I accepted it. At the time, it was more money than I made two jobs ago, and while living on the ship, it was hard to calculate what my cruise ship income would translate to on land, so I thought the offer seemed fair. Now that I have rent, groceries, student loans, gas (and personal expenditures like restaurants and entertainment that are more frivolous), I am finding that I am actually making less now than I did at my cruise ship job, and I am starting to panic.
To make matters more confusing, my current pay structure is a base salary with a patch on top to make up for the fact that what I’m selling typically takes a long time to sell. However, starting in three months, that “patch” amount gets reduced by $300, then three months later by another $300. Those numbers will be significant cuts to me.
My company likes to retain its people, and I have already been told by a coworker and boss that my company would rather keep me than have me leave for another job simply to make more money…so I’m a little confused on what to do. Is it too late to mention that I’m realizing just now that I make less now than I used to? Do I wait until they are about to reduce my income patch and say I can’t live with a $300 decrease?
To read the answer click here: Your boss does not care about your bills
The topic of finances with your boss or superior is never a fun conversation to have especially if you are new on the job. I would think long and hard about a discussion plan before you sit down at the table to discuss.
Unfortunately I don’t know that asking for more money is appropriate in this situation. It’s pretty typical for a salesperson to have a low base rate and a draw. The idea of the draw is to offer a temporary patch for new employees, seasonal sales slumps, etc. It is not meant as a long term solution. If this person is meeting her sales goals, the commission earned should more than cover the draw. Because the draw decreases over time, the company has sent a clear message that after a specific period of time they expect a person’s sales performance to reach a certain level.
My guess is that since she is still depending on the draw, her performance is not up to expectations. The likelihood of an under-performing salesperson convincing their boss to increase their base or extend the draw period is very slim. The company may want to retain their people, but they don’t want to retain dead weight.
You might want to ask CBS to fix their site so that your link, when accessed on an iPhone goes directly to your article on the mobile site, rather than the front page of the mobile site without even a link to your article.
OH GOSH. The very title of this blog is HILL. LAIR. RIOUS!!!! I have for years referred to many H.R. ladies in particular as evil. Let me capitalize that: Evil.
So even though you “demystify” the H.R. dept. your blog title is tickle-me-giggles.
Please consider this idea. About a year ago I had a subordinate come to me saying he had to improve his income. At the time, I was working in a place in which the employment market was very active and market salary rates were increasing rapidly. In addition, I really wanted to keep this long-serving, loyal, and competent manager.
The only way I could justify increasing his salary by a large percentage was to promote him to assistant plant manager, add significant duties to his regular list of tasks, and give him some new projects that upon completion would more than pay for his salary increase. This worked, and he met the challenge.
If you boss sees both value and potential in you, and the job you do is not any easily replaceable labor commodity, you could try to [1] explain to your boss that you underestimated the income you need [2] that you don’t expect your boss to fix the problem [3] that in your personal life you have already taken steps to reduce your personal spending [4] that you would like to accelerate your income growth and [5] you are asking for additional value-added responsibilities from your boss to justify paying you a higher salary. Ask your boss, for example, what his or her biggest headache is and how you can do more work to make it smaller. Be prepared for your boss to say no, and be ready to accept that answer. If you hear no from your boss, then be ready to assure your boss that you will stick with the job and not turn into a high maintenance or departing employee. This demonstrates personal responsibility and accountability. Also be prepared to hear your boss say that it would be better for you to put more effort, energy, and time into increasing your sales sooner so the decrease in your draw won’t affect you.
Hope this idea helps you.