I am not a haggler. I will either think the price is okay and pay or not okay and walk away. Yay. The one time I did try to haggle, I came away with nothing. It was a little porcelain figurine, which was visibly damaged and I felt the price was too high, even after haggling.
I have never had to haggle about my pay either. When I started driving a bus, I started at the lowest pay scale. Every year or two years that went up, until I was at the top. I moved to Norway, drove a bus there and told them I was at the top and they said: okay and paid me accordingly.
I am not even going to talk about the Northern Irish pay because that was laughable at every turn, but once I got back to the Netherlands, I just slotted right in again at the top. Which is a decent enough pay if I were to work full-time.
Now I am hoping to start work for the public transport sector. During a recent general meeting with potential drivers, they had said that 'experience would be taken into consideration'. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I got their proposal and they put me in the lowest possible scale!
Where was my 21 years driving experience? In which I did plenty of public transport? There was only one way forward: I needed to haggle. But haggling on my own, without back-up? Oh no, I wasn't going to do that, because as luck would have it, I have been a member of the union ever since returning to the Netherlands!
After contacting the union and getting their: 'you should be in a higher scale', I put forward my case to my new employer. I want to be about half-way up, which would mean still growth for the future and a similar wage to what I am earning now.
Let the haggling begin!
Your proposal seems fair.
ReplyDeleteMara yes indeed time to haggle. What indeed is their issue 21 years experience is 21 years. If the statement about experience had stipulations, they should have had that in writing...
ReplyDeleteFrisco is such a Ginger-guy laid back and easy going.
Hugs to you and Ms. O
Cecilia
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely fair. Let's hope the employer sees it as such! The union backing will surely help. YAM xx
I am keeping my fingers crossed here as well. I won't hear anything until next week now, so it's a waiting game.
DeleteWe hope you get paid what you are worth. Good luck on the negotiations.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked it never occur ed to me to haggle about wages. My son who is a human resources professional tells me it is normal to negotiate. So you go!!!
ReplyDeleteI had never had to. The general contracts that protect nearly all of us is quite clear in how much you should get in a given profession with a given age and a given experience. In this case though I felt I should, as I don't agree with their offer.
DeleteFingers crossed.
I love to haggle and I am a good one, according to the Egyptians, with me they don't earn much, but they have fun and me too. In my job I never had to haggle, I always even got more then expected. That was because when I started in the 60th there were not many employees knowing 3 languages that was a big +
ReplyDeleteGot my fingers crossed for you!!
ReplyDelete