Using a sock here...


I am feeling stuck in salary progression. It seems that all evidence in the marketplace dictates a giant raise and I am being told to [deal with it]

Background
- 15 years experience in project management and true outside sales (in 99% relationship based industry.)
- BBA Finance MBA Finance (A&M for both - two years hazardous project assignment between.)
- Working for a publicly traded company in a holding company with 5 business units. Total revenue around $95mm
- General Manager on single business unit - $10mm revenue ... was $4mm when i took over (assume 15% OM)
- I am fully responsible for sales/bd plan for all 5 business units. I am the ONLY sales person for 3 of them (total of $65mm with these three...$10mm in the other two)
- The majority of my day is spent managing my 8 direct reports and the small majority is calling executives on jobs that they trust me to deliver a solution.

I am sitting here getting paid the same as people with less experience and no education. Recently an MBA was given to us by corporate that makes about 40k more than me (same school as me and less experience.)

I know I am paid plenty to live well, but I was told that my salary of 155k and 50k bonus is what i am worth regardless of details above. I told my boss to lay me off during a recent [trimming] - the trimming was not to do with company performance (it was standard procedure.) He refused to do so stating that i was too important.

Elsewhere in the industry i am being verbally asked to come in for salary levels between 180-240k before bonus. I do not want to leave b/c i like it here, but being happy only goes so far when my business is running as highly as possible and compensation excuses are piling up.



Sorry for the long detail, but what would you do.

1 - Go find another offer and drop it on the desk of the highest man (my direct boss)
2 - Quit and tell them I am not going to be effed with and here is my price to come back.
3 - Lay out what they'd pay to replace my roles in the company by separate people (General Manager role of $150, Manager of Sales - $100, Sales for three companies 3 x $100) = $550,000 without burden and perks. Then try to negotiate.


I have enough to live for a few years without this gig.

Please help with your comments!

I would line up an offer that you're willing to take. Tell your boss you have an offer on the table for x, y, z but you would prefer to stay with them but you have to do what's best for your family.

If this is a tight knit industry it may backfire if word gets around that you're shopping.

Good luck

Sounds like you're not fully happy there if you're not satisfied with the compensation.

Sounds like you've had the salary discussion so it should come as no surprise when you turn in your two weeks after accepting higher paying gig.

So long as it won't tarnish your reputation or burn some serious bridges, go get what you want elsewhere.

IrishTxAggie said:

---

Take a job that offered you higher comp. If what you say is true and you're too important to be let go, the company you quit from will come crawling back and you'll have the leverage.

---

^That.

Respectfully, it doesn't matter what the guy who came in is being paid or what you are being told verbally (I don't even want to know what colleagues make because it is such a false flag to market value). Those are indicators, but the only markets that matter are formal offers. Before doing anything, that's really what you need to do to get real evidence of your market value. If you think you are so egregiously underpaid, then go out and prove it... I've been with one company for a decade now and done it a few times... both to keep my skills fresh and to understand my market worth. The offers I got were never so egregiously off base to my comp so I turned them all down.

2 and 3 probably aren't honest negotiating points if we are being real here... maybe you do 1 with an offer... but if you do it... do it with an offer you'd actually take and remember that things like credibility and relationships are worth something before pulling that move.

Ah the ole "we don't pay more for internal knowledge" nonsense.

Thanks guys. I love the feedback.

And the reason I know pay rates of others is because I am P&L responsible. Outside of CEO/CFO and a President, I am on top of the food chain.

It's hard to leave a place you like and is comfortable, but it would be hard to not pursue a new opportunity if the increase in pay would be what you say. You should go for it, at least to see if you really would be okay leaving.

You have to decide whats more important, more money or being happy with your job. Sure you could make more money elsewhere, but there is a 50/50 chance you will hate the new job/boss/commute/coworkers/company etc. Every time I have switched jobs to chase more money, it never worked out the way I wanted.

It sounds like you are happy where you're at, and you're making relatively good money. I would stay put unless you are able to get a HUGE bump elsewhere.

ea1060 said:

---

You have to decide whats more important, more money or being happy with your job. Sure you could make more money elsewhere, but there is a 50/50 chance you will hate the new job/boss/commute/coworkers/company etc. Every time I have switched jobs to chase more money, it never worked out the way I wanted.

It sounds like you are happy where you're at, and you're making relatively good money. I would stay put unless you are able to get a HUGE bump elsewhere.

---

I disagree that he sounds like he is happy. He sounds like he is ready to go. He even told them to lay him off in the last layoff cycle.

The numbers he is describing is a huge bump. ~50% is pretty big.

IrishTxAggie said:

---

ea1060 said:

---

You have to decide whats more important, more money or being happy with your job. Sure you could make more money elsewhere, but there is a 50/50 chance you will hate the new job/boss/commute/coworkers/company etc. Every time I have switched jobs to chase more money, it never worked out the way I wanted.

It sounds like you are happy where you're at, and you're making relatively good money. I would stay put unless you are able to get a HUGE bump elsewhere.

---

I disagree that he sounds like he is happy. He sounds like he is ready to go. He even told them to lay him off in the last layoff cycle.

The numbers he is describing is a huge bump. ~50% is pretty big.

---

I wouldn't say "happy" either... They're comfortable. Everything there is a known quantity and the comp is sufficient for their current lifestyle.

Different can be good or bad, but the OP doesn't sound happy to me either. Happy people don't look around or ask to be laid off.

TMoney2007 said:

---

IrishTxAggie said:

---

ea1060 said:

---

You have to decide whats more important, more money or being happy with your job. Sure you could make more money elsewhere, but there is a 50/50 chance you will hate the new job/boss/commute/coworkers/company etc. Every time I have switched jobs to chase more money, it never worked out the way I wanted.

It sounds like you are happy where you're at, and you're making relatively good money. I would stay put unless you are able to get a HUGE bump elsewhere.

---

I disagree that he sounds like he is happy. He sounds like he is ready to go. He even told them to lay him off in the last layoff cycle.

The numbers he is describing is a huge bump. ~50% is pretty big.

---

I wouldn't say "happy" either... They're comfortable. Everything there is a known quantity and the comp is sufficient for their current lifestyle.

Different can be good or bad, but the OP doesn't sound happy to me either. Happy people don't look around or ask to be laid off.

---

Truly unhappy people don't pass on almost 100k raise either...

Astroag said:

---

why didn't you take the offer that was almost 100k over your current salary?

---

Verbally being told isn't an offer. That's why.

ATM9000 said:

---

Astroag said:

---

why didn't you take the offer that was almost 100k over your current salary?

---

Verbally being told isn't an offer. That's why.

---

if it isn't a real offer then is it really worth putting in the facts to consider if one wants/should leave or relevant to happiness?

Astroag said:

---

ATM9000 said:

---

Astroag said:

---

why didn't you take the offer that was almost 100k over your current salary?

---

Verbally being told isn't an offer. That's why.

---

if it isn't a real offer then is it really worth putting in the facts to consider if one wants/should leave or relevant to happiness?

---

Because everything from how he or she wrote option 1 to saying 'verbally being told' implies he or she hasnt gone to get an actual offer.

Regardless, when it comes to salary it's important that you are both fact based and forthright. Options 2 and 3 are neither and I'm saying if you really think you are vastly overpaid, go get an offer because that's actionable and that's a real market.

Sometimes bosses can't say it but their best friend is an actual live offer to advocate for you. Case in point, if one of my people comes to me and says 'people are telling me I can make this' and I tell HR that they'll say cool and nothing happens. If I tell HR 'look this guy has an offer' then I've got something actionable.

My advice is if it is that important to you and bugs you... cool but your first action isn't to dump all over the boss... it's to actually find and test your own market value by finding a real market.... both nodes of data provided are evidence of a higher market but neither is a marketable offer.

He says it in his post that he doesn't want to leave because he likes it There. I'm just going by his words.

Thanks everyone - I am very happy and love what I do...which is why I feel stuck.

And all verbals carry weight. I work for the only public company in my industry so my 'offers' are directly from owners willing to pay my cost.

Great advice guys. I feel like I'm in a marriage that is 99% perfect, but has me wishing I had the nerve to say "but can we have sex 7 nights per week instead of 5 bc someone else is willing to do it 7 you know"

I'm going to collect bonus in two months and then take a serious look at saying "yes" to some of the offers. Thanks!

If you're very happy then why did you ask to be let go only to be unemployed and have less leverage for offers elsewhere?

Sounds like you're well compensated and enjoy your job. You're only upset because your coworkers are paid similarly? Comparison is the thief of joy.

I volunteered to be laid if bc it tells me if I'm as important as a I feel ... and it would come with a lump sum check for ~ 100k

That's a pretty awful way to manage your career and could have had terrible consequences. The kind of comp you're looking for doesn't necessarily come easy, and if you're out of a job it could have set you back pretty significantly.

Be thankful for what you have, the grass isn't always greener even if the compensation is. The unemotional and rational thing to do would be to just get a higher offer elsewhere if the dick measuring contest means that much to you.

That's why I am here asking for opinions. I want more money but need a reality check.

Dude, if you volunteered to be laid off they already think that you're on your way out - and they're right. Reverse psychology never works with jobs. Go find another job and move on.

careerproblems said:

---

I volunteered to be laid if bc it tells me if I'm as important as a I feel ... and it would come with a lump sum check for ~ 100k

---

So your forced exit would cost the company 100k, both you and the company (secretly) agree that you're underpaid, and you're waiting on your company to make the first move.

I don't think your current company is going to be firing you anytime soon.

So, in your industry, guys with only a high school diploma and 15 years experience (33 years old) make more than $200,000/year?

And MBA's with less than 15 years experience make $240,000?

I've made some horrible life choices.

Seriously, can you be more specific about the industry you're in?

Win At Life said:

---

So, in your industry, guys with only a high school diploma and 15 years experience (33 years old) make more than $200,000/year?

And MBA's with less than 15 years experience make $240,000?

I've made some horrible life choices.

Seriously, can you be more specific about the industry you're in?

---

username checks out...

Supply and demand of experience! Obvious the supply is low so...I'm not disclosing the industry

careerproblems said:

---

Supply and demand of experience! Obvious the supply is low so...I'm not disclosing the industry

---

Okay, let's try another way. Please email it to me at keithm66 at Yahoo. Certainly one guy knowing isn't going to wreck you're whole industry. Thanks for helping out another Ag.