Begging for dollars

What's the best way to ask your superiors for a pay raise without feeling like you're doing something wrong?

 

I'd place a two-week moratorium on the theft of office supplies before asking for said raise...

 

Let us not forget that we need not steal food out of the fridge as well...

 

Dammit, now who took my chinese food I forgot to take home the other night?

 

At my last job, I wasn't given either of the two promised raises. So I helped myself to all the toilet paper, napkins and printer paper I could grab. Sure, it wasn't money, but it might have been worth more than 2 percent.

I think if you go into your publisher's office and state with confidence how valuable your work is to not only the section, but the newspaper, he or she should respect your position and be more than willing to make you happy. I've heard people go in with another job offer on the table, hoping to get the extra dime. But that's quite a gamble.

 

Please tell me you forgot to use the blue font here. I really hate to sound all self-righteous, but I don't think you should deliberately steal stuff. You have to be better than that.

 

One thing I've learned (badly, sometimes) is: it's not about the raises, it's about your starting salary because no matter how damn brilliant you are, no matter how you exceed all expectations, that damn starting salary is always going to be an albatross.

If you agree to a salary of X when you start a job with the "promise" that raises will be forthcoming, you're basically screwed--unless you have the specifics of said raises in writing

 

You're 100% right. Particularly because so many raises in guild contracts are percentage raises. The guy making $1,000 a week is getting twice the raise a guy making $500 a week gets when they both get a 3% raise. Both got 3%, but one got 30 more bucks a week and the other got 15 more a week. And the gap will just keep widening.

 

One that I have lost a couple of times but came out a winner in the end.

 

Or, if you work at a CNHI paper, you can very firmly and confidently -- and justifiably -- state your case and be told just as firmly and confidently that there's just no money. TS!