Meeting with boss.. "contract renegotiations"..need advice...

[John Prophet]

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[osprey4]

John:

I've followed your saga. It's unfortunate that some bosses seem intent on driving away the very people that made them successful, but your situation is all too common.

Be that as it may, you've done the right thing by being up front. However, you must understand that your bargaining position is only as strong as your marketability. You've been there long enough to know what you can do and what the market will pay. If you haven't already, I suggest looking around for alternatives. Anyone who stays a year in your position has a track record and someone else should be willing to talk to you.

Frankly, I would not have turned down the "promotion". Any change in position that you can show on you resume is positive and makes you more marketable. But it's not a real big deal.

I wish you the best. You're persistant and patient. Things will work out.

I don't know where you are but in New Jersey, my wife works at a small retail women's clothing store (part of a huge chain but the store is not that big) and she never worked earlier in her life. In fact moved to this country in 2000 December.

Well, even she got $7/hr starting as a Part Time. Increased to $8.50 + Medical/401K, and so on in 6 months. At Macys they pay $10 for what is basically unskilled labor.

I know NJ is very expensive and wages tend to be higher here but with your qualifications and intelligence, you deserve much more. I wouldn't settle for less than $10/hr + medical insurance.

Else, its time to move on.

But then many people have told you that in the past 8 months for different reasons, whether its for fixing your stuff in the shop on your time, buying components from the Chief, video cameras, deliveries in your car ...........

Very frankly, if there are so many problems that you face, why aren't you thinking of moving on?

[John Prophet]

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[John Prophet]

JP

See John, I have negotiated many times with many employers all of whom are very large multi billion $ companies. But they all operate in the way your Chief would when it comes to negotiating.

There are only two tips I can offer, and these hold for salary negotiations or contracts or whatever.

1) Never Bluff. Never.

2) Know your lower limit very clearly. The deal breaker.

Good Luck.

Shahani

[daveleau]

Good luck JP.

Excellent advice shahani.

Dave

[caddmannq]

To shahani's advice, I would add:

Have a backup plan, even if it's only working at Pizza Hut.

Don't sell yourself short. Ask for considerably more than you make now. Tell him that this is what you're worth. Don't specifically tell him you'll quit. But tell him that to continue on with the company you need to have $x/hour.

Chances seem slim that he'll fire you outright. You're there. You're trained. He's got an investment in that situation, and he'll put out a bit to protect it. He's selling your labor, and he's making money off of the deal. He doesn't want that inturrupted. He'll put out a bit more to protect that income.

Finally, I'm going to suggest something slightly underhanded.

Set him up.

Have someone you know bring in a PC you've "doctored". Make sure it comes in when an unexperienced tech will be given the job. Make sure the problem with it is esoteric enough that he'll fumble about with it, but you can fix it in ten minutes or less.

After he fumbles the job, tell the manager that you've seen this problem before & you can fix it quickly. Do so.

When negotiations come about, use this as ammunition. "Look, I fix stuff in five minutes that other techs fumble with for hours. I deserve considerably more money than you're paying them."

OK...It's underhanded, and it'll cost you a bit of dough to stage. But I've done this before in a repair business, and it works.

John, the con can work real well and be very effective as ammo, but you need to orchestrate it real smooth or it can also backfire.

If you can swing it, though, it'll increase your bargaining clout considerably.

[Knothead]

Heeheehee, Cadd!

Yeah, that can backfire. While in high school, and for a couple years after that, I worked in a Garage, doing engine rebuilds, tune-ups, oil changes, etc. There was this guy who wanted my job, enough to try a scam to get it...

What he did was, he had a friend drive up in this sputtering old car, one that I had just tuned a few days earlier. For the life of me, I could not understand what the *** was wrong with it!

The guy was making an issue of my incompetance, (in front of my boss,) and I got angry, and told him that he was welcome to have a go at it. So he pops off the distributor cap, while his friend is making a big (and very distracting) deal about it.

I almost missed the switch, with all the caterwauling, but there were TWO distributor caps...the one I had put on earlier, and one that had enamel paint applied inside, to interfere with the flow of electricity between the rotor and the (painted) contact points. I jumped on it before he could slip it into his coat, and wrestled it away from him, and handed it to my boss, who understood perfectly.