Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

A young woman, Susan, was recently asking me for career advice. She felt moderately satisfied with her job, but she wasn’t thrilled with it and believed she could find something more in line with her passion and skills. The one big perk of her position was that it paid well, and she had been able to save quite a bit of money since she had started working there. I suggested to her that she use her savings to invest in herself and her career and pursue her passion.

A few days later, she called me and said that she had spoken to her supervisor about possibly terminating her employment. On the spot, she offered Susan a $15,000 (or 30%) raise. She told her she was so valuable to the company that they couldn’t bear to let her go.

The lesson here is not that threatening to leave is the way to get a great raise. The lesson is that you should never stay stuck because you believe nothing better is out there for you. You are a valuable person with unique talents. Use what you’ve got to shape a great life for yourself.

Filed under: First, Best or Different
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1. I just doubt that she will stay with that company for too long. ONce you are demotivated to the point of wanting to leave, it is very hard to entice people to stay within the company and stil perform well.
   These are usually corageous people -they had the courage to leave the job with no guarantees- and it won’t be too long before they get de-motivated again.
   In my experience as a manager, I would have better worked out with her better ways to make her feel better in ther current jobs, give her more interesting projects, etc…but a money bribe won[t work in the long term. That company is not only losing the employee in a few months time, but also losing the “bribe” money.
   Regards

   Comment by Javier — March 21, 2006 @ 14:41

2. I agree. She is going to use the money to continue to pad her savings so that she can eventually follow her dreams.

   If the manager had listened, he would have realized that Susan didn’t want to leave because of money.

   Comment by Dave Lorenzo — March 21, 2006 @ 14:50

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