Salary

Tom, that's probably the most immature set of responses I've ever read.

 

well hey, shit, maybe one day i might be half the man as a guy who's "born to kill." fuck you and the horse ...

 

Mr. Bitterman,
Aah, love guys who grow balls behind a keyboard. Your kind amuses me.
Dipping down to nut sack jokes. Your interest in such things explains a lot.
Never know, your resume might have been one of the more than 100 I received for the last job in our department. Would have been easy to weed out, though. It's easy to see who's scared by the prospect of having to earn money and not having it given to them.
And if you actually are "heads and shoulders" above the rest, then any decent company will pay you as such. Why else would you want to work there?

I never ask anyone what they're current salary is because that doesn't matter to me. We have a salary structure we deal with (with some flexiblity, if you've overlooked the earlier posts) so it not worth haggling over. I explain that right away, and I take away the pressure from your kind by bringing up salary right away so you don't have to embarrass yourself by doing so.

Tips: Bitterman is one word when it's a name. And there is a difference between "its" and "it's." Learn the difference. You never know, it might be worth an extra quarter an hour down the road.
Finally, didn't know what a "career fuckstick" was until I started reading your rants. Now I know the definition.

 

And as far as being a "corporate fuckstick"

The last guy I hired will make $7 more than his previous job, and his workload that he had previously will decrease tremendously. I knew what he was making, and I could have low-balled him to save a few bucks, and he still would have been happy. But that's not my style, and I'm thankful it's not the style of my company.

Hard work brings its rewards, one of which is money.

A sampling of the others: We don't get hassled about travel accommodations or $30 per diems. Wanted new jackets for our staffers. Got them. Wanted new recorders for our staffers. Got them. Needed another editorial assitant (adding staff, no way, most papers are laying off). Got it, our EA's are full-timers, making at least $12 an hour.
This is after talking with guys at the Akron Beacon Journal who have to buy their own notepads and pens, that is if they still have jobs after the cutbacks.

That's respect from the company for the hard work we put in as a department.

Respect is a two-way street. Tom Petty, have you gone to your boss and told him you were looking for a new job? I've had two guys from a staff of 14 do that in the last six months (the first two people to leave in four years). Guess who put them in touch with their new gigs and helped them land the jobs? That's right, me. That's respect for what they've done for me. Of the 14 guys on the staff, 10 have been here at least five years and seven of them have been here 10. Two guys hired three years ago came from bigger dailies who heard about the work conditions and wanted to be part of it. That's what a good company and a good work atmosphere can bring: Great people who take pride in themselves as well as the final product.

If all that makes me a "corporate fuckstick" then I guess I'm guilty as charged.

 

I found a new sig. Thanks.

 

I think once you weed through some of the more immature stuff that Mr. Petty wound in, he's making a couple of very good points.

1/You're never going to get a better raise than the one you negotiate when you first take the job.
2/You're worth not one penny more than some company is willing to pay you.

To answer the lede question on this post: Yes. You should negotiate. Every time. It doesn't cast you in a "bad light." It means you're looking out for yourself. The company -- even if it's a great company like Taylee's apparently is -- damn sure isn't going to look out for you when it needs to cut costs.

 

Sure, negotiate. But don't be a prick and let a thousand bucks hold up the process. I made that mistake at my last shop (well, it was for a little more than that) and am still embarrassed about it.

 

Taylee...

If things are run well at your organization, mazel tov. Good for you and continued success.

However, that is not the experience of a lot of people on this board and in journalism in general. A lot of people do work hard and aren't rewarded - that's not a reason to not work hard, but you have to look at things with cold, sober eyes.

And no, with most journalism salaries the government doesn't get 40 percent of people's salary. That is hyperbole and I think you know better.

If you hooked people up with better jobs, great. But to suggest that telling your boss you are looking for another job is foolish and people should not listen to that advice.

 

1. Yes, negotiate. If they don't budge, fine, but you have to at least ask for more than the offer.
2. Never give your salary history. It's none of their business. If they're going to base their offer on what you currently make, that's crap.


Taylee, a couple thousand bucks IS worth haggling over, to a point. After taxes, that can be another $100 or so in your pocket each month, and on a sports journalists' salary, that's a lot. You don't risk losing a job over it, but it doesn't hurt to negotiate to get that couple thousand, because as many have said, that's the biggest raise you'll get. At the going rate of a crappy 2-percent raise each year, it'll take you three years to get that $2,000.

Gold, I agree with you 100 percent: don't tell your boss you're looking for another job. If you know your boss very well, and you know he'd be glad to help, that's fine, but I'm guessing 90 percent of them out there would be pissed you're looking. You don't owe it to a boss to let him/her know you're looking. That's your personal business until you get hired somewhere else.

 

corporate bitch,
for starters, i'm not hiding behind a keyboard. matter of fact, if i saw you in person, i'd love to kick your ass. don't pretend i wouldn't say as much to your ass licking, self important face, which, i'm guessing, makes less than 50 a year.

second, loved the two posts it took to reach around and pat yourself on the back. fuck man, you and JRC are really treating people right. but, despite your attempts to turn the discussion in another direction, your first posts stand.

also glad to see you're buying jackets in order to turn staff into billboards bob jr., you're a real fucking peach.

note: corporate bitch is a first and last name. i'm sure the folks at "your paper" refer to you as mr. bitch, though. btw - do you often hear laughter when you leave a room?

 

Settle down, Tom.

 

oh it's you bob <nervously avoiding eye contact> i'm reaaaally sorry i talked back to your No. 2.