Sometimes, you might ask yourself: Can I really negotiate my salary? And what should I do about my slacking co-worker? These are the kinds of common questions that can plague you when you’re just starting out in the workplace.
Additionally, you might be too shy or embarrassed to ask questions and end up making assumptions about what is and isn’t okay. Not to worry, because here at TalentEgg, we can clear that all up for you!
New employees tend to ignore various common work-related problems to remain professional in the workplace. You might be worried that speaking up will label you as “hard to work with” or keep you from getting promoted. But that isn’t always the case! You just have to handle these things professionally and know when to act. So, let’s get right into the details!
Negotiating Salary
If you’re anything like me, the idea of negotiating your salary comes across as daunting and overwhelming. It can often feel like you don’t have the right to ask for more pay, especially when you’re already being offered a position that you like.
Well, you might feel this way for a good reason. In general, negotiating an entry-level salary is probably a bad idea, except for a few special circumstances. Here’s why.
When you’re just starting out, you don’t usually have many bargaining tools. You might have a lot to offer a company, but it’s hard to prove your worth until you’ve put it into action. Let’s use a sales job as an example. Before you take your first sales job, you don’t have much proof of your sales skills. You might have a little bit of experience as an intern or in your old retail job, and that’s great! However, the company has no real idea how you’ll perform at their business in, say, a corporate environment.
If you try to negotiate your salary at this point, it would just seem arrogant. While you know that you have a lot to offer, the company has no reason to pay you more than any other entry-level person with the same experience (unfortunately).
Now, let’s say it’s 10 years down the road. You have 10 years of experience and proof of your consistent work ethic and commitment to improving the companies you work with. Your new boss-to-be knows that you’re a catch. If they offer you less than your previous employer, you could use your experience and proven skills to negotiate a higher salary. For example, if you’ve consistently improved sales by 15% at every company you work with, you could argue that you’ll be saving the company that much money and are therefore worth getting paid a little more.
See how important experience is as a bargaining chip?
There is one major exception to this rule: when you get multiple job offers.
Even in an entry-level position, multiple job offers are an amazing bargaining tool. Let’s say that Company A is offering you $40,000 per year, and Company B is offering you $50,000 per year. You could go back to company A, tell them about the second offer, and ask if they would match that salary or give you other benefits to make it worthwhile. It’s an amazing way to up your starting salary!
If that isn’t the case, I would avoid negotiating salary altogether until you get into a higher-level position. It’s much more appropriate and more likely to go well for you once you’ve got that experience under your belt!
Informing Your Boss about A Co-worker’s Bad Performance
This is another topic of contention among young workers. You might think it’s rude to tell your boss if your co-worker isn’t doing their job, even if you end up doing all their work. You don’t want to get them in trouble, and you might be worried what your other co-workers will think if they find out what you said. Sometimes, being patient and putting up with a bad co-worker can make you look even better.
The thing is, it’s completely valid to go to your boss if your co-worker’s bad work performance is impacting you. Often, people won’t notice who is doing the work—they’ll only notice if it hasn’t been done. There’s nothing wrong with covering for your co-workers once in a while, but make sure it isn’t holding you back from succeeding at work.
If you’re spending all your time helping other people and getting behind on your own work, that isn’t good either. It can get to a point where other people just expect you to do the work while they just slack off. That’s definitely worth talking to your boss about! Just make sure to have that conversation in private.
Once you’ve taken your boss aside, you might say something like, “I hate to mention it, but I’ve been having trouble with [co-worker].” Then, explain the issue. For example, “He isn’t finishing his part of the task until my shift is nearly over, meaning I constantly need to take overtime. It’s costing the company extra money and making it difficult for me to complete my work by the deadline.”
If you decide to speak to your boss about a co-worker, think about how the co-worker is impacting the rest of the company, not just you. For example, is he slacking off at work and wasting company time? Is his behaviour making it difficult for other employees or departments to complete their work?
If reaching out to your boss doesn’t seem like the right call, you’ve got another option. You might want to reach out to the co-worker directly. This is a great option if you know the co-worker pretty well and believe that you’re on good terms.
Here’s an example you’re probably familiar with: Say you work in retail and your co-worker decided to take an extra, impromptu break, right when they were supposed to help you with something. This wasn’t a scheduled break, meaning they took it on company time.
To keep them from being embarrassed by other people, you should pull your co-worker aside or speak to them when you know that no one else is around. You could say something like, “I noticed that you took an extra break yesterday, and I wanted to make sure you were okay. Just so you know, there’s a policy here where you’re only allowed two breaks per day. I wanted to let you know so you don’t get in trouble for that.”
Depending on your co-worker, they might appreciate this more than going to the boss!
Remember that it’s not really your job to tell your co-worker if they’re making a mistake, but it’s valid to do so if their mistake is impacting you.
If your co-worker is doing something that’s dangerous or harmful to your or someone else, it’s important to go to your boss about the issue right away.
Questioning Workplace Practices
You might feel like you can’t question anything your boss says and have to follow all the workplace rules to a tee. It’s good to follow the rules and get along well with your team, but critical thinking is good, too. If you think a rule or policy is outdated, it’s okay to bring it up with your boss. Just do it in an inoffensive way.
Genuinely asking, “Why do we do things this way, rather than another way?” will usually make things clearer. Even if your boss isn’t open to changing the policy, you’ll understand it a bit better. In general, asking questions to get clarity is a good thing.
When it comes to workplace practice questions, just be sure to ask them delicately. Careful phrasing and tone will help your boss to see that you want to understand the policies and improve them, not just fight them.
For example, you might say, “I noticed [specific policy] in our handbook, and I was a little confused by it. I know that our company really values [general topic related to the policy issue, for example, women’s rights, environmentalism, equality, etc.] but I feel like this policy is contradicting that value because [reason]. Could you help explain it to me?”
This is a non-confrontational way to get your point across. You’re giving your boss the opportunity to reject your change and keep things the same, while showing how the policy could be an issue. If you feel that something more needs to be done, you can revisit the policy issue depending on your boss’s response.
Now that you have a general idea of how workplace etiquette works, you can apply it to almost any situation. Asking questions and standing up for yourself are always okay (and important). Workplace etiquette is just doing those tasks with respect and professionalism.