What you should always do in a salary negotiation

The annoying thing about talking about your salary is that you run the conversation in your head about 100 times before you actually sit down at the table. Because what if this and what if that? You've already thought of a million reasons why you won't get that raise. Sometimes you even make it so bad in your mind that you don't start at all.

I once wiped an envelope with a raise off the table because I couldn't agree with the amount. Terrifying! Sometimes I still dream that I didn't get the position, which by the way was true. It's actually good to negotiate salary, it makes you more equal in the workplace.

Did you know that women miss out on about 300,000 euros (!) by the end of their working life because they don't ask what they're worth? If you have a higher salary and don't negotiate, this is often even more. To make it a bit more manageable, that's about a month's salary per year. A shame to give away, right?

You don't have to go into a conversation about a raise with clammy hands and an increased heart rate. Sophie Gool from Salaristijger proves that. She shares an interesting perspective on salary negotiation in a masterclass from This is Elfin. You should actually aim as high as possible, because otherwise there's nothing left to win for the other negotiator. As high as possible in this case means: as long as you can explain it to yourself. A theory I have never looked at this way, but secretly (thankfully) I was already doing a bit.

I always thought about what my upper and lower limits were for a negotiation. It was then a simple calculation to come to the middle. For example, I said 10, the other 5, and it became 7.5. If you add and subtract significantly beforehand, you usually end up with the 7.5 you had in mind. Even if your salary is calculated based on a scale.

Perhaps the most important advice from Sophie Gool: don't see a negotiation as a conflict, but as the beginning of your relationship. If you ask what you're worth, people will treat you that way. Nine out of ten managers even appreciate it when you bring it up, because an employee who knows their worth performs that way too.

Source: thisiselfin.com