The Worse Reason To Use During a Salary Negotiation (2024)

I have no idea why I don't like salary negotiations as an employee.

No clue.

Perhaps I do not like to talk much about money. Or maybe I do not know how.

Negotiating a fair compensation is a conversation that ALL of us will have at some point in our careers. I've learned it through the hard ways to negotiate to increase my own compensation.

I've also learned the art of negotiating salaries with candidates (I still don't like this bit, so, I'm thankful for Talent Acquisition partners in the company).

We all deserve fair compensation but focusing on personal needs during negotiation WILL backfire.

During salary negotiations, never use reasons like you need more money for your upcoming house, loans, family, etc.

It shifts the focus away to "okay, I guess I have no more added value that I can bring to the company" and then it leads to "well, I just applied for a new house, you need to help me pay off my house, up my salary please."

This absolutely weakened your bargaining power by 1000%.

Yes, I have had experiences from candidates using these reasons to negotiate salary offers and, though valid in that individual's life, but from corporate POV, the negotiation shifted to be seen as a "need-based".

I'm just going to say it, super bluntly but with full of respect - "No one cares".

Salary negotiations must be seen as a merit-based. I repeat, not need-based.

Why disclose such financial vulnerabilities to the hiring-manager? It's not his/her job to make sure your pet dogs have enough to eat. This can make the candidate seem "desperate".

Your personal expenses that you chose to uptake, should not be the negotiating driver. Personally, I did not end up hiring those candidates. Yes, corporates have all the rights to rescind job offers for various reasons and you cannot do anything about it. (Yikes, I know, that's why corporate world is a tough world to navigate but it's possible to survive and thrive if you know how to manage).

But why people do this? One hard truth - you do not have confidence of your true worth.

What can you do instead?

1. Know your market value based on your position, experience, location.
2. Show quantifiable results you've achieved and the value you bring to the company. I personally did this and guess what? My salary once jumped a whopping 50% during one salary negotiation for the same role I was in.
3. Practice your tone of delivery during the meeting to sound confident. I have had team members and candidates trying to talk about compensation like they are super uncertain if they could even ask for it. News flash - NO ONE is stopping you from asking. Sounding confident will definitely place a stronger emphasis to your position and negotiating power.

For larger companies following a fixed salary adjustments timeline, even if you missed a timeline, you'd definitely caught the attention of your manager and his/her own manager that you'd be negotiating again for the next cycle.

Then this will be your chance to add more data and results. If that still don't work, well, you can make a decision whether or not what's your next step in your career.

With love,

Eliza Koo