Have you ever asked for a pay rise?

[Sheilbh]

Prompted by the Governor of the BofE's pleas to the British people to not ask for a bit pay rise - and some polling by YouGov:


I have never asked for a payrise

[Grey Fox]

I voted Yes & I got one.

But I ask for one almost every year. I usually don't get it.

[Syt]

Nope, but have received several quite significant increases (beyond what I would have asked for myself ) when changing positions.

Austrian custom does give annual cost of living increases in most companies, though.

[Habbaku]

Have, and have gotten them. But the largest raises have always come from my job bouncing around.

[DGuller]

I never asked directly, as in walking into the manager's office and going "Yo, gimme a raise".  That said, one year, during the annual review, I was informed that I would again be getting no raise, because no one in the company was.  I was also getting no raise for getting my designation, because I wasn't eligible for one.  I was asked what I thought about that, and I answered that I was wondering why I'm still working in this company.  Two weeks later I got a significant raise.

[Habbaku]

I was asked what I thought about that, and I answered that I was wondering why I'm still working in this company.

[Tamas]

Strictly speaking no, although I have asked for promotions a couple of times, once subtly once in a fairly agitated state. Worked both times.

[The Larch]

No, but I've never really been in a position to ask for one.

[The Brain]

Several times, and got them. Duh.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Yes, I did, and no, I didn't.

[Zoupa]

Same as GF. I'm surprised at the 52% that have never asked, wtf.

[DGuller]

Same as GF. I'm surprised at the 52% that have never asked, wtf.

A lot of people are bad negotiators, and for things like that they're also up against trained negotiators who often have a lot more power in the relationship.  Being a good negotiator requires some tolerance for conflict. 

It's particularly tricky in this situation, because the person you'll be negotiating with is not a salesman that you didn't know yesterday and won't interact with tomorrow, but a person you need to maintain a good relationship with.  I think on a societal level it's a bad policy to require workers to have good negotiating skills to get their fair share, and negotiating is in general a wasteful zero-sum game.

[The Brain]

I think on a societal level it's a bad policy to require workers to have good negotiating skills to get their fair share, and negotiating is in general a wasteful zero-sum game.

We've talked about this before, and I still disagree completely. Without negotiation you are very unlikely to happen to hit on a good price.

[Sheilbh]

Same as GF. I'm surprised at the 52% that have never asked, wtf.

A lot of people are bad negotiators, and for things like that they're also up against trained negotiators who often have a lot more power in the relationship.  Being a good negotiator requires some tolerance for conflict. 

I think that's why 52% of Brits have never asked for one.

I would struggle with it internally - which is weird because a lot of my job is negotiations which can absolutely involve conflict and friction but I'd struggle with people I work with.

[DGuller]

I think on a societal level it's a bad policy to require workers to have good negotiating skills to get their fair share, and negotiating is in general a wasteful zero-sum game.

We've talked about this before, and I still disagree completely. Without negotiation you are very unlikely to happen to hit on a good price.

Yes, I remember, and I guess I still disagree completely as well.  I think negotiation is a wasteful activity unless you're engaging in unique deals where there is no market price to anchor on, and I think it's a zero-sum game that lets the powerful entities scoop up most of the economic surplus from the deal.