Lowball job offer - take it or leave it?

[Anonymous]

How often are performance evaluations and how much are the yearly raises based on those evaluations? Bonuses included? How much time in commute do you save?

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks for all your good comments.

The new company is a much better fit for me, has a week more vacation to start, awesome health insurance, and is a eight minute drive, against traffic. The office is nice, coworkers seem friendly and smart.

My current job: toxic coworkers, 50 percent reduction in staff in the past 18 months, terrible morale, poor leadership. Awful health insurance. And again, I anticipate I will be laid off in the next couple of months.

I got the call at 3 pm on a Friday, and HR said they will talk to the hiring manager about my salary request. Now I have to wait all weekend, and I am sweating.

[Anonymous]

Good luck. I think you'll be ok.

[Anonymous]

I think the news on Monday will be good, OP.

[Anonymous]

Hang tight OP, even if they don't get exactly to your current pay I'm willing to bet they come up a bit.

[Anonymous]

The new job sounds so great except for the salary-- my fingers are crossed for you, OP! Let us know what you hear on Monday!

[Anonymous]

I took a job at one salary, then discovered that it had been lowered by $16K when I went to fill out the paperwork. It was too late for me to do anything about it. I tried to no avail.

Then, once I was on the job, a former manager who is a dear friend of mine became apoplectic when he learned how much I'd been brought on for. The original offer was a low ball, but to lower it still absolutely enraged him.

The only thing I can do now is apply for a position opening in December/January with the same institution.

I can only shrug it off. I'd been unemployed for long enough that I couldn't have said no even if the lower salary had been given up-front. I have an extraordinary amount of freedom with this position, so I'm choosing to see this in a positive light. I have to give so much less of myself in this position. It's as if I'm getting a (low) full-time salary for a part-time position. I'm available to my children when they get out of school each day and the commute is ridiculously easy; just a few blocks from home.

With regard to the benefits and having gotten in to a system that allows for considerable upward mobility, I am at peace with what happened.

Do your own calculations and see how this may or may not be a good fit. Will it put you in a better position in the future? Is it radically less demanding that a job that paid more would? Can you live with it? Only you can answer these questions.

Good luck in figuring this out.

[Anonymous]

About 2 years ago, I took a lowball job offer because where I was employed at the time sounds alot like where you are now. Staying there was even taking a toll on my health. I HAD to leave. Lowball or not. I negotiated with the new company asking that they look at my performance at 90 days and 180 days and consider raises at both intervals. I got increases both times. Fast forward to 14 months after I started, I was given a third increase. Now I make more than I made in the previous position.

[Anonymous]

Good luck, OP. Maybe they will come back with something slightly higher.

I wish you the best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Good luck OP. Hopefully they come back with a more realistic salary.

[Anonymous]

Good luck - it sounds like even if they meet you 1/2 way you will be made whole.

Spend the weekend thinking about the value of all the things you listed -
1 additional week of vacation - flexibility and less camps you need to pay for
short commute (less time and $ on gas)
nice co-workers (a place you want to go to work everyday)
Good health insurance

Good luck! I hope you get good news on Monday!

[Anonymous]

What, 12:34?!? You agreed to work for one salary and then showed up on the first day and they said the salary was less? Oh, hell no.

[Anonymous]

OP, given all the positives you've mentioned for the new position, I would definitely consider taking a pay cut to come work there. But it's definitely worth negotiating- I would say something like, "I'm very excited by the opportunity, but as I told HR, I currently make $x and it would be very difficult for me to take a pay cut. Are you able to offer me a salary more in line with what I currently make?"

Then you know what they'll offer you for real and can make a decision weighing everything.

[Anonymous]

They lowballed you OP-standard practice with job offers. Since you are female, there was a good chance you would meekly take it and they would save money. They fully expect anyone worth his or her salt to negotiate the salary up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They lowballed you OP-standard practice with job offers. Since you are female, there was a good chance you would meekly take it and they would save money. They fully expect anyone worth his or her salt to negotiate the salary up.

Would a woman really jump at an offer so much lower than she was already making??