It’s hard to ask for a raise or get the salary you deserve when you are trained to believe you are greedy if you do so.
- BUT, it is a fairly common challenge to work through.
- Successful women raised as Good Girls were taught to be selfless servants who are responsible for everyone’s happiness.
It’s not nice to make a supervisor unhappy by asking for more money – especially when you know:
- Budgets are tight – just like always.
- Everyone is working hard – you don’t want to look weak by asking for more money when you can handle your work.
- And the year starts with the number 2!
I often have to dance with clients to get them to a place where they stop worrying about being greedy AKA “bad” – and realize they deserve to be paid what they are worth.
Kerri, (not real name) was doing the work of two people.
A colleague had quit six months ago – and the company had still not posted the position.
Kerri buckled down, worked long hours – and still met the majority of deadlines for BOTH positions.
- She was stressed out and exhausted.
- She had received a minimal pay raise just before the departure – and nothing after six months of doing both jobs.
- Kerri asked her supervisor re the job posting and the woman told her she was too busy to get to it yet.
I asked Kerri if she had asked for a raise or even a bonus given how much she was doing.
- She didn’t want to be greedy.
- Greedy even though the company was saving the full salary of the second position that Kerri covered.
- They had the money – but why pay Kerri more when she did the job without asking for any more?
It took a couple of months to unravel those darn Good Girl Rules which made Kerri think she would be greedy and BAD if she asked for more money.
- Once Kerri started to embrace her own worth, she saw her work with new eyes.
- She realized no one else was working the extremely long hours she was.
Why should she give up her life to finish work when others still had time for life beyond work – like family, fun, and relaxing?
We practiced together what she might say.
Long story shorter… Kerri ended up with a raise, a bonus – and a job posting executed to fill the open position.
It’s often fascinating how once a woman realizes fear of being GREEDY is an internal block to taking action, additional funds are unexpectedly available.
You deserve to be paid what you are worth – breaking free of Good Girl Rules will help you get it!