Nobody ever gets paid what they’re worth — mostly because we have no idea what we actually are worth. Johnny B. Truant touched on this last week, and his advice about understanding the value of your own work seems like ultra-common sense. Yet three recent discussions with friends made me painfully aware of just how much everyone undervalues their own self-worth.
* One friend asked if I thought it would be a good idea to provide free consulting services for 6-12 months, in order to “establish a reputation.”
* Another friend was recently promoted to a new, ambiguous job description that makes her the sole individual responsible for her company’s design, branding, advertising and promotions. Then she was asked to invent her own title. When she suggested Director of Media & Design, her bosses objected to her use of the word “Director” and asked her to suggest something else a little less… official.
* Yet another friend has absorbed the responsibilities of 4 fired employees over the past 5 years, yet he’s never received a raise or a promotion — and he’s paying to be in a union, which is supposed to protect his interests!
How does this happen? How do we allow ourselves to be undervalued — or worse, how do we create such valueless self-identities based on the assertions of others?
Well, let’s start at the top.
5 Signs You’re About to Be Undervalued by Your Employer
1. They never raise prices. Inflation goes up. Gas, milk and heat all cost more today than they did five years ago. But if your company hasn’t raised prices at a similar rate, it means they’re afraid what they produce isn’t worth more than what they were charging five years ago — and neither are you.
2. They consistently remind you how “lucky” you are to be employed in a down economy. Translation: “No one else would hire you, so be happy with what you have here and stop expecting better.” And as long as you doubt your own worth, you’re unlikely to ask for petty things like raises and benefits.
3. They don’t respect their own time, much less yours. How many rush requests land on your desk after 4 PM, under the presumption that you’ll stay late to do what could easily have been done during normal business hours? If your boss can’t manage his own time, or if he can’t protect yours by insisting that clients and customers make requests when it’s logically prudent, he’ll be correct in guessing that you won’t complain when your raise is delayed, either.
4. They’re having family problems. When someone can’t manage his or her own private life, it’s the employees and coworkers who feel the effects. Suddenly, subordinates are elevated to confidantes, only to then be manipulated, lashed out at or taken advantage of when home life becomes emasculating or infuriating. If a person’s own sense of value and control is being called into question continually, how likely is that person to accurately gauge your worth?
5. They give away the store for free. Giving customers or clients too many discounts and freebies is a sign that your employer believes price, and not quality, is the only thing keeping his customers from looking elsewhere. If he believed in the quality of what his company provides, he wouldn’t be giving it away to “keep people happy.” And if he doesn’t think his product is worth anything, what does he think of his employees who produce it?
Confessions of Someone Who May Someday Be Hiring You
As someone who occasionally employs contractors, I’ll be honest: it’s in my best interest to hire someone who does adequate work at a price well below market value. The less I have to pay and the more I can benefit from the situation, the easier my own job is in the end. That doesn’t mean I’m actively seeking rubes to take advantage of, but it does mean that when I stumble across a lopsided deal, I’d be crazy not to exploit it. As an employer, I don’t stay in business by paying full price when I don’t have to.
That said, I’m also a freelancer. I know what I’m up against when I negotiate with clients, because I know they’re thinking the same thing I’m thinking when I’m hiring contractors: get as much as possible for as little as possible. That’s business, and I know how the game is played.
But too few people understand the realities of negotiations. They fail to see their own advantages and points of strength, so they perpetually negotiate from a point of weakness. And that invariably empowers the buyer, leaving the seller to accept whatever rate he or she can get. Often, that number is extremely low, which drags down the industry-wide value of the work being done, all in the guise of “something is better than nothing.”
5 Reasons We Don’t Believe We Deserve More
1. We have no idea what our work is objectively worth. In baseball, a player who believes he’s being lowballed during contract negotiations can seek arbitration, in which an impartial auditor evaluates the player’s statistics against those of his peers and determines what a future contract should reasonably be worth. But there’s no arbitration board for marketing directors and graphic designers. And if we don’t know what everyone else is getting paid, we have no way of knowing what we’re officially worth, so we guess. Badly.
2. We forget we’re specialists. Being a graphic designer means more than just knowing how to open Photoshop. It means you understand how to do things with color, layout, text and design that mere button-pushers can’t. And it means you have real-world experience solving the very problems you’re likely to be presented with again, which saves you time and your boss money. Your expertise is worth more to your employer than the low-cost ignorance of an inexperienced replacement.
3. We forget we’re providing value beyond our actual job description. Just because someone else can do something, it doesn’t mean everybody else wants do that same thing. If that was the case, there’d be no market for things like data entry, SEO or Jiffy Lube, because no one in his right mind would be willing to pay for such simple services. If what you do makes someone else’s life easier, saves them time, or otherwise provides positive intangibles that make someone else’s life better, those aspects need to be included when considering what your work is worth.
4. We really are happy to be employed in a down economy. I know money is dead, but we all still have bills to pay, and sometimes we’re willing to absorb ungodly indignities just to put food on our families. And when we start to feel that way, all of our employers convene in an unmarked room and rejoice at the fact that none of us will be asking for anything this year.
5. We hate confrontation. Asking for a raise, a better title, more responsibility or any other “perk” (like respect) our employer hasn’t already granted to us can feel like the equivalent of asking dad for the car keys. We might be asked to prove we’re worth it. We might be told flat-out that we’re not. And we might even believe it. Better to secretly suspect we’re worth more so we have something to bitch about at happy hour than to screw up the balls to ask for it and have to look someone in the eye.
So, given our natural proclivity for self-sabotage, mixed with our employers’ tendencies toward self-preservation and resource hoarding, how do we ever find the temerity to ask for — and get — what we want? (Or, “in this economy,” what we might actually need?)
Simple: we just do. Because the alternative is just more of the same, and if we’re already unhappy and undervalued, not taking action to improve the situation isn’t going to make us feel any better — and it sure as hell won’t pay our bills any faster.
5 Things to Remember About Yourself When Negotiating
1. Your work matters, or they wouldn’t have hired you in the first place. In explaining why she didn’t want to force the isssue with her “Director” title, my friend explained that what she does is considered “non-essential” in her company. If design, advertising, marketing and promotions are “non-essential,” I can only imagine what that company does consider essential, and who they think is worth paying.
2. It’s not your job to always make the offer. In a negotiation, the power is held by the person with the opportunity to say “no.” And if the only person who ever has the opportunity to say “no” is the other guy, you’re screwed, because the only way that game can be played is for you to keep making increasingly weaker offers until the other guy finally says “yes.” If you make an offer and they say “no, but try again,” decline and inform them it’s now their turn to concoct a deal. That gives you the power of No.
3. What would they have to pay in order to replace you? Trying to compare your job to something else that’s mathematically measurable? Try this: pretend you could quit tomorrow. What would the job description your employer would have to post on Monster.com look like? Now pretend you’re someone with all of those qualifications, and you’re interested in obtaining that job. What would your salary requirements be?
I bet it’s higher than what you’re making right now.
4. You’re doing your employer a favor by allowing them to employ you. That’s because you have a lot of knowledge, experience and industry connections. And even if you don’t, you’re eager to learn. You have a winner’s attitude, and you’re an asset to any company who’d hire you — and there are hundreds of companies out there who’d love to have you on their side. So when you think about it, you’re doing your existing employer a favor just by showing up every day, because you’re in demand. And in that case, aren’t they getting off cheap?
5. Your job is not a jail cell; you can always leave. Whether we’re “in this economy” or not, all jobs are consensual. If you’re in a situation where you don’t feel you’re being respected, appreciated or taken seriously, leave. There’s always someone else who’ll happily pay you to do what you do so well, and there’s always someone else who respects themselves just a little less than you do, who’s willing to do your old job for less money. When you move on, everybody wins.
Oh, and if none of this resonates with you and you still want to undervalue yourself?
Thank you. I hate paying full price.
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Tags: Business, common sense, Freelance, inspiration, perception, Sociology
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Megan Bucher
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Coree Silvera
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Katrina Miller
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Davina K. Brewer
