Dear Liz,
Since I've been reading you and following your advice I thought you'd like to hear my success story. Maybe it will inspire someone else!
I'm a Marketing Manager. I took my last job four years ago and had a great run there. I started the company's first social media marketing program and its first newsletter and developed fantastic relationships with the Sales and Marketing team, and our customers.
My boss was Bernie. He's a great guy but close to retirement and fairly well checked out. I didn't see him as the kind of guy who would go to bat for me or my ideas.
Bernie's boss is Malcolm. He was my role model. Malcolm is super-smart and opinionated and he's the guy in this company who makes things happen.
One year ago Bernie asked me to put together a content marketing plan and a plan for community marketing. I was excited about both prospects. We had done a few projects with community-based marketing and we launched a small online community that took off like wildfire.
I put the two plans together. I created a pilot content marketing program and the results were crazy successful. Our sales team was ecstatic. We gained so many sales leads we couldn't respond to all of them.
My annual review was in March. Bernie gave me a five percent raise and I was already a little under the market. I was ready for the review and salary conversation.
"I really appreciate the raise, Bernie," I said, "but if you want me to dive into community and content marketing, we are essentially changing my role. I am happy to do the work but we need to look at my compensation." I showed Bernie a ton of research I had done.
Even with my five percent increase I was $25,000 low and that's just the average pay level.
Bernie told me that a raise that big would be out of the question. Don't ask me why but I decided to keep fighting for it.
I figured that if I couldn't get the additional money I would leave, but I did not want to give Bernie and Malcolm an ultimatum. I think that's coarse and unnecessary.
I don't believe in making threats. If I want to leave, I should leave.
I told Bernie that I respected his opinion but that I'd like to keep the conversation open. He said fine.
We kept talking throughout March and April. I kept showing Bernie the results we were getting. Finally I got him to agree to talk to Malcolm about my pay situation.
Two weeks later after much prodding Bernie told me that Malcolm had agreed to bump my salary by $25,000 in two increments.
The first pay raise took effect on April 30th. It was a $12,500 increase. I sat down and calculated the time and energy I had spent working on my pay-increase pitch, both on my own (and my own time, of course, at home) and in the office.
It was a huge number of hours and frankly, of free consulting for the company on the new roles of Community Marketing Manager and Content Marketing Manager, all combined into my role.
I thought "Why am I working so hard on this when we seem to have an energetic mismatch?" My pay raise amounted to $1000 per month before taxes. After taxes and divided by four weeks that's about a hundred and seventy-five dollars a week.
I'm not ungrateful but I see the enormous sums that the company spends on all kinds of things. A hundred and seventy-five dollars a week is peanuts. It's ridiculous that I would get so much pushback on such a small financial investment.
I started a stealth job search. At the same time I kept gently pushing Bernie to commit to a timeframe for the second half of my approved increase.
I went to see Megan, our HR Manager. She said that Bernie had filed the paperwork for my $25,000 increase with the initial $12,500 raise to be effective April 30th and "TBD" for the effective date for the second $12,500.
She said she had a note to herself to check in with Bernie on August 31st - four months after my first pay bump!
Talking to Megan I really saw Godzilla, Liz, the way you describe -- scaly and ridiculous. There is so much fear and bureaucracy in companies like mine. I'm only 37. I have a lot of energy and a lot of ideas. I need to keep moving!
From April 30th until last week I kept the topic of my second pay bump alive, but by the first week of May I was also job-hunting. It was quite interesting.
I felt like a secret agent. I had never conducted a stealth job search before. My first Pain Letter went nowhere - no reply.
My second Pain Letter got me an interview but the only opportunities at that company were too junior for me.
The third and fourth Pain Letters got no reply but then numbers Five, Six and Seven all hit pay dirt. It was fun telling recruiters "I can only interview after office hours." It's true what they say -- employers really do prefer employed job-seekers.
I took the job offer that resulted from Pain Letter Six. I can't believe that I started my job search eight weeks ago and I've accepted a new job already.
I must be lucky, but I also know that my strong intention and my understanding of the Business Pain I solve had everything to do with my fast job search turnaround.
Here's how I gave notice to Bernie: we have a one-on-one check-in meeting every Monday. I went into his office as usual and sat down. He asked me about my weekend. Bernie has never once brought up the topic of the second $12,500 pay bump I was waiting for.
When I bring it up with him, he says "Oh, yes," and his voice trails off. It stopped being a financial thing many weeks ago and morphed into the question"What kind of people do I want to spend my time around?"
I asked Bernie about his weekend and then I said "Listen, Bernie, you're a great guy and I've learned a lot from you. I look up to you and I really appreciate your guidance these past several years."
By then he knew I was about to give notice. I think I'll always give notice that way -- it's easier on the boss (like Bernie) who has to hear the news.
Bernie sighed and said "You're a great guy, too, Alec." That was it. He's like a toy boat on the ocean. He is a person who does not feel that he has any power at all. I kind of felt sorry for him.
At my exit interview with Megan I asked her what the reaction to my departure was like in the executive suite. Megan and I are buds so she gave me the inside story.
"When Malcolm heard you were leaving, he said 'He'll do well,' and that was that," said Megan.
I had thought Malcolm was my role model. It turned out that he didn't give a damn whether I stayed or left. At first I was bruised by that but now I'm happy. Better to leave if the people you work for don't get you, right?
I'm excited about my new job. The pay is exactly the same as the pay level I would have if I had gotten that second $12,500 bump but of course I'm glad now that I never got it.
I owe you so much Liz for your great advice. I'll repay you one day -- maybe I'll get you to come and speak at my new company!
Your guidance made a huge difference, not only the Pain Letter and Human-Voiced Resume stuff but your constant reminders that we have to value ourselves before anyone else will.
Yours,
Alec
Dear Alec,
So exciting! Huge congratulations to you.
I'm thrilled to hear about your new job, but even more than that I'm delighted that you grew big new muscles this spring. You didn't wait for Bernie to evolve into a leader. You trusted your spidey sense enough to put other irons in the fire. There are seven billion people in the world and not all of them want to learn anything new.
Not all of them want to grow new muscles. Some of them want to keep their heads low and avoid controversy and squeak through to retirement.
You are on a mission, Alec -- you don't have time for those folks! God bless Bernie and Malcolm, though -- they nudged you back on your path!
All the best,
Liz
