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May 29, 2020 - Real Coffe - Scott Adams
42:36
Episode 1003 Scott Adams: Catch Up on News, How to Persuade Your Boss to Give You a Raise
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Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum Hey everybody!
Come on in.
This will be one of the most valuable No Coffees with Scott Adams that you've ever had.
Top three, perhaps?
Best, yeah, probably one of the top three.
And I don't mean to oversell it.
But today you're going to learn how to get a raise out of your stingy boss.
Skills that could be useful in a variety of places.
Dr. Hypno. Well, you came to the right place.
I have the strangest bunch of viewers.
I love you all.
Alright, let's talk about the news first.
Let me catch up with what's happened since the last time I saw you.
The president has indeed signed an executive order telling his various organs of the government to look into social media and their alleged bias.
Find out what's going on there, because they're choking off democracy, is the argument.
Now, isn't that going to be interesting?
Because one wonders what kind of investigative powers the organs of the government will have.
What does that look like exactly?
What does it look like when the government needs to look into your business to find out if you've done anything that would create bias?
How much can they ask about?
Can they look at all your code?
Can they look at your records?
Talk to all your employees? What's that look like?
I have many questions.
But I guarantee this is going to be a pretty big story for a while.
And I don't know exactly how it's all going to shake out.
It seems to me if the big social media companies get designated as publishers because they just can't help themselves and they have to put a little editorial something on there.
If it turns out that's the way it goes, then they end up getting sued.
Maybe they can afford it.
Maybe that's fine.
Maybe every time they do something that's a little over the line.
Maybe there's a lawsuit but it's not a big deal given the size of the corporations.
So maybe that helps some people who would be the beneficiaries.
But I don't know.
It doesn't seem like the best world, does it?
The best world would be somehow everybody had freedom, but at the same time nobody was being bamboozled by bad information.
And if anybody can figure out how to do that, well, you should do that.
So we'll be watching that story.
Alright, so more news from the fake race war that's raging in Minnesota.
I call it a fake race war because It's the weirdest thing.
Typically to have a war, you would need two sides.
But I don't know anybody who's on the other side of this latest police killing.
It's not like there's any white people who are saying, yeah, that looked good to me.
Have you heard even one person say that?
Not even one person.
So to imagine that this is a war...
Sort of also imagine there are two sides.
And we're so far past that.
In fact, we're so far past that, that are you having the same feeling that Black Lives Matter and Antifa feel antiquated?
I was feeling that for the first time today.
Meaning, they don't really feel like a 2020 sort of thing, do they?
It feels like something from a prior time.
Because the thing that's different is 100% of white people looked at the video of this latest, you know, insanely, you know, I don't even know what to call it.
It was just so bad video.
And everybody had the same opinion.
Now, here's the interesting part.
The very interesting part.
So President Trump got the Justice Department and Attorney General Barr To send the Feds in to look into this, just to make really, really sure that justice is done here.
Because the whole country is watching, and so from a political perspective, that was pretty smart.
I assume most presidents would have done the same.
I don't know. It feels like they would have.
But just the fact that President Trump is the one who happens to be president...
And he did what I think a lot of people would assume is the right thing.
I don't even know if there's any counterargument to it, really.
And so I think this ends up working in the president's favor in a weird way.
Because the president unambiguously took the side of the protesters.
And guess what? We were all the protesters this time.
I mean, I sat here at home Comfortably in my social isolation.
But there's nobody who looked at this and said, that looks okay to me.
Let's just go business as usual.
So I think this is going to turn into, weirdly, maybe a minor win for the president just because he acted decisively in the way that everybody wanted.
Now the looters, of course, I think have nothing to do with race.
It has everything to do with televisions and summer and Being cooped up for the social isolation, opportunity, people following the herd, you know, a few bad apples.
I guess there were more than a few bad apples.
So I wouldn't say any of that had to do with race.
That had more to do with merchandise, I think.
But I had a great idea for the Target stores.
I think Target should go in maybe today.
And see what's still left in the store.
Because whatever's still left in Target is stuff that nobody even wanted to steal.
I think Target needs to know that to maybe adjust their offerings.
So there could be something good that comes out of it.
Whatever's still laying there on the floor, you don't need to reorder that.
I'm also wondering...
Because I like to put the best spin on everything.
So here's the best possible spin.
When you saw the Target store stuff, didn't you say to yourself, civilization is breaking down.
There's always that temptation.
It's going to be more like this.
It's going to be one of these after another.
But I've got a contrarian opinion.
There were so many cameras there.
This might be the last one of these.
I have a feeling there were so many cameras, not just the security cameras, but personal cameras, viral videos, YouTube, and you can see the people pretty clearly.
I've got a feeling that this will turn into maybe the last time anybody does it.
Because the next time, everybody's going to say, how'd that work out the last time?
And I don't know if it's going to work out too well for people.
We'll see. So, here's the interesting part.
So the federal guy, I forget what he is, prosecutor, investigator, whatever he is, was saying that there's exculpatory evidence that hasn't been introduced to the public yet.
So... I'll tell you, there is nothing more mind-bending than watching good lawyers work on a case that you think is open and shut.
To watch them craft a new reality that's as convincing as the one that you were absolutely positive was true.
And it's already beginning.
Now, the federal guy, of course, is not coming in with an agenda.
But he sort of told us the, you know, the cats on the roof.
You know, that little hint that there might be something down the road that you're not so happy about.
Because when he said there's some exculpatory evidence, didn't you say to yourself, uh, like?
For example?
What would that be?
But I would point out to you that unless you've seen something I haven't seen, We have video of before the incident, the actual cause of death.
We have video from before that, but not immediately before it.
Meaning that there's a gap in the video evidence that the public has seen.
But I would guess that by now, the law enforcement has seen video from every angle, from every minute, in all likelihood.
So it could be that there's something that would allow the Let the police make an argument.
This is not me talking, so don't jump on me, okay?
This is not me. I'm just saying that there's always going to be two sides in any of these court cases.
And if there's anything in the missing video that could be interpreted as resisting arrest, then it's a jump ball.
It's a jump ball.
Because there's no question that what the officer did was the wrong thing and it caused death and, you know, we could all agree that that shouldn't have happened and we can't even explain it.
But if the defense is incompetence, it's not that hard to get at least one jurist to believe that you're an idiot, is it?
How hard is it to convince somebody that you're not a racist, you're actually just dumb?
And you did something that anybody who was observing would have thought was a terrible idea, but you didn't.
You were just dumb.
Now you say to yourself, wait a minute, being dumb, that can't be an excuse, can it?
Why can't it be?
Why can't it be? I think it would still be some kind of a crime.
I'm not a lawyer. But you could certainly take out the intention part of it.
I mean, you don't think that they would be able to mount a defense that took out the intention?
I think they could.
So I think that at most it's going to look like an accident.
An accident that they should have known to avoid and therefore they would have some responsibility.
I don't know what that would look like.
But you could easily imagine them saying, you know, honestly, I had a bad day, I was stupid, wasn't thinking.
It's just stupid.
It didn't help me.
Yeah, I guess manslaughter would be the right term for it.
But imagine you had to be that officer and you were arguing the case.
How hard would it be to argue that, honestly, I'm just an idiot.
I mean, I really didn't realize what I was doing.
I guess I thought I had my knee somewhere else.
I thought he was complaining like everybody complains.
And the next thing you know, are you going to convince 12 jurists that that guy's not an idiot?
I don't know. So, if you have to look down into the future, I no longer would say it's a slam dunk.
But it looked the same to me as it did to most of you, I assume.
It looked like the worst possible thing that could ever look like anything.
But there is some good news.
I don't know if you saw it, but Madonna is trending.
She just tweeted in honor and to pay tribute to acts of racism and discrimination.
Does it sound like I misread that?
Let me read it again, and let me ask you if you think I misread it.
The Madonna tweeted to honor and, well, her son did a dance, and that was the purpose of the tweet.
So her son did a dance, apparently he's pretty good at dancing, and she said it was to honor and pay tribute to acts of racism and discrimination.
Now, she actually did say that, but I don't think she meant that.
She did say it, but I don't think she meant it.
Here's what I think she meant, because there's a part I cleverly left out.
So it's a sentence that has a little more complexity to it.
So she's saying that her son is dancing to honor and pay tribute to George, the gentleman who died, and his family, and all acts of racism and discrimination.
And I'm thinking, those are not really a list.
George, his family, acts of racism and discrimination are not really...
Those are not the same things.
Those don't belong in the list.
So the modifiers that they're honoring and paying tribute to all the things on that list, well, I'm just saying that Madonna, you should have thought it through a little bit.
On the plus side, her son dances really well.
So, are you ready?
for a micro lesson on how to get a raise.
I think you are.
So now we begin our lesson on how to get a raise.
First, let me tell you about one of many career strategies you might choose.
Now, everybody's different, every situation is unique, but here's just an example of a good career path that would be both rewarding, in terms of having meaning, and likely, statistically likely to work out for you.
Which is that when you're young, you work for a boss, and you work for a salary.
But you don't really work for money.
You work to pay the bills and to survive, While you're building your talent stack.
So the idea of your first job, if you do it right, the idea is to figure out how to get a job that teaches you the most valuable sets of skills.
If you can only get one skill out of the job you're in, consider changing jobs, or consider learning things on your own.
But you should always, if you're working for a salary, you should always also Be adding to your skill set.
Once you have your skills, that gives you lots of options to work for yourself.
Working for yourself is a much better life.
And then if you do that right and everything works out, then you can start working for the benefit of others.
So this would be an example of a rewarding life that you would feel meaning at every step.
This first step feels like it's devoid of meaning.
You're just working for a salary.
You're an hourly worker with a boss.
Maybe you have a cubicle, maybe you don't, but you're sort of a drone.
The way to give meaning to that is to make sure that you're learning at the same time.
It's almost impossible to be learning useful things and also not have a feeling of meaning in your life.
It's almost automatic.
Because you can feel yourself on this path.
And that will always feel right.
Alright, now let's say you've got yourself a job and you want to get a raise.
I put together some of my best and or least obvious suggestions.
Now, There's probably a set of obvious stuff that you should do that I'll just leave out because they're obvious, but I thought I'd break it down this way.
Your negotiation for a raise does not start the moment you're talking to your boss and saying, can I have a raise?
If you wait until then, you've waited too long, you've done it all wrong.
You've got to start laying the groundwork all the time.
So your job is either to get a better job, Or to get a raise and or promotion.
So you should think of your job as getting a better job, either within the company or somewhere else.
That's a good mindset because then you're just always looking for the next opportunity, be it within the company or without.
So here are some of the things you should do in your job to set the stage.
Exaggerate your value.
Do you think I'm kidding?
Not even a little bit.
If you don't exaggerate your value, you will be at a disadvantage to your co-workers who will.
Because it's pretty common for people to exaggerate their value.
And of course the way you do that is to talk about how you've worked all night, you've worked all weekend, you solved the problem that nobody could solve.
There's the three task forces you're on.
You're working so hard and you You're doing things that nobody could have done before and saving thousands of dollars, if not millions.
And you just sort of keep drip, drip, drip.
You tell your co-workers and you tell your boss in every way you can, in every opportunity you have, but make it look natural.
Just make it look like conversation.
It's the most common way That employees seed the environment with some notion of their value.
Because the truth is, most people can't watch you work.
Most jobs are done in semi-isolation.
The boss isn't watching you work most of the time.
So the only thing they know about you, unless you make big mistakes, then they know that.
Usually the only thing they know about you is big accomplishments, which are rare, and what they directly see, and then what you tell them.
So you want to start working on them, telling them you're valuable, that you're doing things, you're accomplishing things.
Of course, I'm going to skip down to backstabbing your co-workers.
Now I say that in a funny way, but the more persuasion language way to say that is you want to set up a contrast.
If you're going to make the case that you're the valuable person and you're part of the company, It's also sometimes helpful to make the case that the other people are a little bit less valuable.
Now, you might say to yourself, Scott, is that ethical?
I would say no.
I'd say no. But I'm giving you a lesson on persuasion.
And, you know, there may be situations where you are, in fact, better than the other people in your department.
If that's true, and it would help you to tell your boss, you know...
Wally, not so good.
Dilbert, not having a good year.
Me, I'm killing it.
It wouldn't kill you to let it be known that you're doing better than the other employees.
Now, be careful with this.
Make your own moral and ethical judgments.
But if it's true, it's also valid.
If it's not true, well, then you're just a liar and you have to live with that, but it might still work.
Build your talent stack.
There is nothing more impressive to a boss than somebody who is adding talents that are relevant to the job in an ongoing fashion.
If you ever have an employee who is very dedicated about, okay, I know this much, and this next month I'm going to add this thing, and I'm going to take this class, and I'm learning these things.
I'm volunteering to work in another group to cross-train.
If you get an employee like that, That's every boss's desire.
They want that employee.
So if you can establish that you're one of those people who is building your talent stack, well, you're priming your boss for the thought that you're worth more.
You want to look sharp because we are visual creatures.
So I would love to tell you that the way you look doesn't affect anything.
It doesn't affect your job performance.
The way you look Well, it probably doesn't affect your job performance, but it might affect your raise because your boss is a visual person because we're all visual people.
So if you're looking for the most important elements of persuasion, visual is always in the top three.
Only fear and maybe one other would be up there.
You've got to get the visual right.
So you've got to look Like you're the serious employee that you want to be.
They say dress for the job, your boss's job, or the job above you, or the job that you want.
And I would say that's approximately true, but in general, you want to just dress better than other people if you can.
That includes your fitness, your hairstyle, just your basic fashion choices, your look.
If you think that stuff doesn't matter, you're living in a dream world.
Now, you don't have to be a beautiful person.
I'm not saying that.
You don't have to be young.
You don't have to be anything in particular.
You just want to be the better version of whatever you are.
Alright. You want to be irreplaceable.
I put irreplaceable in quotes because nobody's irreplaceable.
But you can often convince people that you are.
It's the weirdest thing.
We all know that nobody's irreplaceable.
But how many times have you worked someplace where somebody was described as irreplaceable?
What that really means is that it would be a huge pain to figure out how to do things if this person left, but you'd do it.
I mean, it always works.
Rarely does a company just disappear because a key employee left.
So if you can create the impression that you're irreplaceable, That can go a long way toward getting that raise.
Again, these are all the things that you're doing way ahead of time.
So this is months and months before you even ask for a raise.
You make sure you're setting the table this way.
So in terms of being irreplaceable, if you can find something to volunteer for, if you don't already have something that you're irreplaceable at, volunteer for something.
That makes you irreplaceable.
Find some function that you're the only one who knows how to do it.
Then, I did some Googling to confirm what I suspected was true.
I'm not sure there's science behind this.
There's enough science to suggest that this is true, and that is that morning meetings to ask for a raise are going to be more effective than afternoon.
The thinking behind that is that people can make decisions in the morning, and they're not so good at making decisions in the afternoon, and what you don't want is for them to say, I'll get back to you.
If you can nail them down to a decision, that's best, or at least get them to commit to looking into it, because often the boss has to check the budget and stuff.
But you can get maybe at least a mental decision before they verbally tell you they've decided that you can mentally commit them.
So pick the morning.
In terms of the days of the week, I would say Tuesday or Wednesday.
When I Googled it, I saw some experts saying earlier in the week is better, but I would stay away from Monday.
Monday is a day when everybody's distracted and a little bit overworked and stressed.
Tuesday, Wednesday, people have sort of hit their peak, and they're not yet thinking about the weekend.
So Tuesday, Wednesday, in the morning, and schedule it.
It's very important that you schedule it, and experts also tell you to schedule it as the only topic.
Don't throw in at the end of a meeting, you know, yeah, I'd like a raise, that'd be good.
Don't do that. You schedule the meeting, so you make sure that it's on the day of the week you want and the time that you want, and it's the only topic, and you tell your boss that's what the topic is, because they get to think about it for a while.
Oh, if you make them think about it for a week, You're going to get a better result than if it's the first time I've ever thought of it.
There's something about just thinking about an idea that gets you used to it.
There's nothing but time and exposure to an idea that makes you more comfortable with it.
It works every time, all the time.
You can get somebody used to anything eventually.
Alright, and then you might want to pre-suede.
This is a term borrowed from the book Presuasion by Robert Cialdini, the follow-up book to Influence, his best-selling book on that influence.
Now, I would read both of those books if you're serious about getting a raise.
You should read my book, Win Bigly.
You should read Influence by Cialdini and also Presuasion.
Now, Presuasion teaches that there are some Exposures to ideas, thoughts, sounds, etc.
that will predispose somebody to make a certain kind of decision.
And what is interesting about it is that the persuasion can be in a completely different domain than the thing you're trying to persuade.
So here's what is not persuasion.
Hey, Bob, I hear a lot of people getting raises.
A lot of other people getting raises.
That would be too obvious, because that's the same topic that you're trying to persuade on, which is getting a raise.
Instead, persuasion might want to simply put the target of your persuasion, your boss, in the mood to be generous.
Or in the mood to be a hero.
Whichever you think is the more operative thing for your boss.
So you might tell a story about somebody who is just generous.
And it has nothing to do with your meeting, your raise.
It's just the last thing that you talk to your boss about before the next time he sees you.
And now you're asking for a raise.
And maybe it triggers in your boss's mind that story that just recently you told him About a great act of generosity, which was just an interesting story you saw in the news.
Now that would be a case of pre-suasion.
Would that exact thing work?
Don't know. The only way you can know when pre-suasion is working is sort of testing it.
And if you're just trying to pre-suade in the wild, the best you can do is take some I would say informed guesses about what would make sense.
Because you're trying to get your boss in a mood.
Just a mood. So if the mood you want your boss to be in is generosity, a story of unrelated generosity will get the job done.
Now, each of these techniques, by the way, is only going to move the needle, say, 2%, just for discussion purposes.
But there are a lot of them.
If you get everything right, that's a lot of 2%.
And suddenly, your odds of getting raised are looking pretty good.
All right. Here are the things that you need to know.
So, in order to persuade effectively...
It's very important that you have a good understanding of what the other person is thinking and feeling.
And you should also have a better sense of who you are and what you're worth.
If you get those things right, you will persuade better.
The first thing you need to know is that it's always okay to ask for a raise.
Bosses expect people to ask for raises.
It's pretty routine. If your boss fired you or penalized you for asking for a raise, It's good to know that as soon as possible and then get the hell out of that company.
Any boss who penalizes you for stating what you think you're worth and bringing it up, if you get penalized for that, Okay, you need a new company, you need a new boss, and you need it right away.
Get out of there, just as fast as you can.
For any normal situation, and certainly especially for a large company where there are a lot of professional managers, things get nicier as you get down to the level of, let's say, a family business.
There's more emotion involved there.
But if you're dealing with a sizable, professional company, you can ask for a raise.
That's just part of the rules.
You can ask for anything you want.
So, know that it's okay to ask, and in fact, any professional manager is going to respect you for knowing what you're worth.
They will actually have more respect for you, even if they don't give you the raise.
Because, you know, maybe there's a budget constraint, who knows.
But they will respect you more for asking than for not asking.
Once you know that, it makes it easier to ask.
Because there's no downside.
You either gain some respect, or you gain some respect and a raise.
Or you gain some respect and not a raise now, but you're sort of the next one in line when the situation is better.
There's literally no downside.
Because like I said, if this ever did cause a downside, if you're working for a company that bad, or a boss that bad, get out of there.
The sooner you do that, the better.
Next thing to know is that everyone is bluffing, meaning that in the business world especially, not just in terms of negotiating, because there's some bluffing there too, but in terms of acting confident, acting like they know what they're doing, acting like they're worth a raise, acting like they're capable of doing their job.
Everybody's sort of acting all the time.
The moment you learn that you're not the one who's acting, you're not the only one, then you're free.
You're free to continue acting.
Because the act is actually a necessary part of the social and business dance.
So once you can recognize it as sort of a ceremonial, agreed-upon way that people act, it's not anybody being phony, perhaps.
You could say that it's phony, because it is, but it's also an acceptable, understood level of phoniness that becomes almost a language of business.
So don't be shy about speaking the language of business, which is acting a little, maybe a little bit more than you are, a little more professional than you feel, that sort of thing.
So just be comfortable with the fact that everybody's acting, and then you can do it too, and you'll feel more comfortable when you're doing it.
Make sure you have options.
That's what the talent stack does.
It doesn't hurt if you've looked around a little bit.
Maybe your boss knows you took a long lunch last week.
Maybe you left a resume on the printer.
No, don't do that. Oh, I forgot one other tip, which is to have a wing person.
A winged person is somebody else that you've sort of deputized to say good things to your boss or even to your co-workers to build your reputation.
I've actually seen this work really, really well.
So if you don't have a winged person, somebody who is just talking good things about you behind your back, see if you can get one.
Because if you have somebody else saying good things behind your back, that carries way more weight than your own bragging.
It just feels like it's more true.
Because it came from some other person.
So get yourself a wing person.
Maybe you can work with each other, be each other's wing person.
Very powerful persuasion to have other people talking for you.
Alright, so here's some basic persuasion steps.
You want to use pacing. Pacing is the idea that you match your boss in some way.
You agree with your boss, whatever he's saying to begin with.
Maybe you dress as professional as your boss.
You sit like your boss.
Your posture is like your boss.
Maybe you dress like your boss.
You laugh like your boss. Maybe you use the same kind of language and approach, the same vibe as your boss.
In other words, find as many things as you can that you can effortlessly and naturally imitate.
That's what pacing is.
Because once you're imitating somebody, then you have at least the possibility of leading them Because they become comfortable with you, you become synchronized, and then you can take them to where you want them to go.
Be irrational.
It's one of the best tips of negotiating.
If you are known to be rational on the subject of the negotiation, what will the other person do?
The other person will never give up telling you all the rational reasons why you should take less, settle for less, put up with what you already have, be happy with what you have, etc.
As soon as you are identified as a rational person, then you've also identified as the person who's going to lose the negotiation.
By contrast, compare to this.
I need to take care of my family.
I've got a special needs child.
I've got my costs have all gone up.
And I've looked around and I know that I can make a lot more money at another company.
But honestly, I looked around and I saw that other people are making more than me.
And I see what they contribute.
And it just makes me crazy.
And I don't think I could work at a company like this.
Now what I just said is purely emotional.
It's just emotional.
But, how does your boss make that go away?
The only way your boss can make that go away is by giving you the raise.
So that's why it works.
As long as you're acting rational, your boss will keep giving you reasons why you should be happy the way you are.
The moment you show that reasons don't work, Because you've got an emotional investment.
It's either you're taking care of somebody, you can't be happy with how you're treated, that sort of thing.
Then there's just nothing you can do as a boss but give the raise.
It's your one chance.
Now, the other thing you should know is your boss is always going to prefer keeping a good employee over replacing somebody.
The employee just to save 5% or 10% or whatever you're asking for.
So they're always going to be biased toward giving you the raise.
Because the alternative, if they believe you're going to leave, you have to have a credible threat of leaving.
But if they believe that's the risk, they really don't want that.
That's very expensive. They would rather pay a little extra to keep you.
So make sure your boss knows you have options.
It's also good to be specific and confident If you are confident in what you're asking and specific, you're giving your boss something to say yes or no to.
You want to boil the decision down to the simplest yes-no.
So you come in and you say, boss, I've been earning $85,000 a year.
I've been looking around.
I've added these three skills.
I've taken on this job.
I think, you know, I can make $120,000 across the street for the competitor, but that's the last thing I want to do.
I don't want to leave. I like this place.
But I really need to know that this is the best place for me.
And if you could give me $120,000, I would not look.
I would just say, you know, you got me.
That's a fair deal.
So that's my request.
Can you give me $120,000 a year?
And say that confidently.
Now the confident part has two variables to it.
If you say that you're worth this confidently, then it sounds believable because you said it confidently.
If you said it with some, you know, let's say hesitation, it's like, yeah, I could be worth, I don't know, you know, as much as $120,000?
$120,000? You know, if you say it that way, then what's your boss going to think?
Well, if you're not sure, if you're not sure, why should I be sure?
So, confidence not only shows that you're a more capable employee, because anybody who looks confident and can ask for a raise is going to be a competent employee.
That's a good sign. You could probably do a lot of other things.
Because there aren't that many people who can confidently walk in and make a case for a raise and sell it.
If you walk in, make the case, and sell it, You're going to be a superstar.
Your boss is going to say, you know, you made the sale.
There's nothing more impressive to a boss than convincing the boss of something, even if it's just something for you, a raise.
Alright, here's another thing you could do.
Use a proxy. In other words, send another person to ask for your raise for you.
Hold on. You're saying, in what world can you send somebody else to ask for a raise for you?
A couple that I can think of.
Number one is you've got your wing person that I mentioned, and the wing person can go to the boss and say, you know, I think you're going to lose Alice unless you give her a raise.
I don't think she's happy.
She's doing the work of three people.
You know, I think you really should just give her a raise.
So that might not close the deal, but you can certainly, if you have a strong enough wing person who might be, let's say, friends with the boss, that would help.
Send somebody else.
That probably wouldn't work, but here's something that might.
Suppose, let's say you're a woman and you found out that you earned less than the men in your department who are doing the same job.
A fairly common situation, right?
Now, forgetting for the moment, let's forget about why.
It doesn't matter if it's because you have less experience.
It doesn't matter if it's because of sexism.
What matters is, it's going to look like sexism.
So here's one of the things you could do.
This won't work very often.
I'm just giving you a full canvas of the options.
You could actually convince a male coworker to go get you a raise for you so that he doesn't have to deal with the fact that you're underpaid and it doesn't make sense.
You could probably talk your coworker into getting you a raise.
If there's a reason. And the reason is there's an injustice here, or it looks like one, which is good enough.
And people like to fix injustices.
Almost every company has somebody who wants to fix an injustice.
If you happen to know somebody like that, maybe you can send them.
So those are really your options.
Obviously the best choice is to do this all yourself.
The strongest play is to walk in, be confident, know exactly what you want, pick the right time of day, Set the table, have a lot of options, have a lot of talent, pace your boss, be a little bit irrational, pull it all together, and take a shot at it.
What happens if it doesn't work?
If it doesn't work, you still win, but a little bit less.
If you ask your boss for a raise and it just goes south, Let's say it's a boss who's not going to fire you or anything, they just didn't give you the raise.
You still have the experience of you walked into your boss's office and you asked for a raise.
Think how few people can do that.
If you've done it once, even if it didn't work, you're the most experienced person you know at doing that.
Well, my cat's calling me, so I think that means we're done.
So this is your micro lesson on how to get a raise.
Some of these techniques might generalize.
Be ethical. Be moral.
Just because you have these powers, don't abuse them.
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