Negotiation

Indy has just had her first experience in the art of negotiation.

Last year she got a part time job at a retail store and has been working there since. This store does annual raises in February and it is all handled by "Corporate", basically the local manager does not have much say in it. It is apparently based solely on meeting your monthly sales goal. Well, Indy had a rough patch of sickness last fall that ended up with the removal of her tonsils and this had an impact on her ability to meet her targets at work. That plus fewer hours worked resulted in less sales. So, come February she did not get a raise.

She has continued to work there because she has been focused on school. Now that school is ending, she has been considering changing jobs to a restaurant hostess, or other retail outlet that pays better. Her Mom helped her draft a letter of resignation and discussed with her some basic talking points about why she was leaving.

Monday was the day. She was scheduled to start just before the store manager was to leave for the day. Also, this is a new store manager that Indy has only worked with a short time. There has been a lot of turnover recently. Turns out that the store manager had changed shifts and was closing with Indy on Monday. She however did not know that until after giving him her two week notice. He was understanding of Indy's concerns and asked if she had already obtained new employment. She had not, so he asked her if she would consider holding off for few days while he tried to work something out.

For the remainder of the evening this manager spent a lot of time on the phone with the district manager and regional manager extolling Indy's value to the store in more ways than just the sales goals. At some point during these conversations he even asked Indy what it would take to keep her there. Indy, while not prepared for this turn of events, was quick enough to suggest a 15% increase at a minimum, and more preferably 20%, as well as more scheduled hours during the summer.

I have to point out, during this time, Indy made a significant sale that surpassed her goal for the month of May with that one sale. How about that for "excellent timing". It still remains to be seen if this will conclude with Indy remaining employed at this store, but the manager was confident that it could be worked out. Indy has agreed to temporarily not pursue new opportunities and the manager has agreed to honor the two week notice should they not be able to make it a win-win situation.