August 27, 2007
Try this: Don’t ask for what you want when you negotiate
When I founded my first company I didn’t have time to find someone to date, but I knew that I wanted to get married. So I followed all the advice I had read about how you should tell people what you want in order to get what you want. I started telling everyone that I […]
by Penelope Trunk | 11:08 am
June 21, 2007
Yahoo column: 7 Tricks for negotiating in business situations
Your gender might matter most when it comes to negotiation — women just aren’t as good at it as men. Part of the reason for this is that women are more hesitant to ask. But to be fair, women who negotiate competitively are judged negatively, whereas men aren’t.
Another factor that has a huge impact on […]
by Penelope Trunk | 2:05 am
June 18, 2007
How to negotiate when you have nothing to leverage
You probably know by now that while I go by the name Penelope today, it didn’t start out as my real name. It was a pen name. My editor at Time Warner gave it to me, and the first time I saw it was in a contract. It looked like a good place to start negotiating.
But […]
by Penelope Trunk | 2:47 am
May 17, 2007
How to negotiate more effectively with anyone
During my first job interview, my mom drove me to 31-Flavors while we practiced interview questions.
One question we did not practice was “How much money are you expecting?”
When the ice cream store owner asked, I said, “Well, my parents are cutting off my allowance for the summer so I’d like twenty dollars a week.” That […]
by Penelope Trunk | 11:50 am
April 5, 2007
Yahoo column: Five steps for getting a raise
Here are numbers one and five on the list. You can read the rest at Yahoo Finance.
1. Understand your boss’s perspective.
This is not a moment of truth, it’s a moment of negotiation. You convince your boss you’re worth more and your boss convinces you he or she is fair, and you reach some sort of […]
by Penelope Trunk | 2:41 am
August 2, 2006
Office politics is not optional: Five tips for doing it better
John Annabel, of Northampton, walked into the office one day to find himself working side by side with a new employee whose only qualification seemed to be that she was having an affair with Annabel’s department head. Annabel says people didn’t particularly care that she was in the office doing no work until she started […]
by Penelope Trunk | 10:43 am
July 24, 2006
Upbeat news about flextime requests
The best thing you can do if you want a flexible schedule is ask for it. Younger workers are finding more and more success when they ask, which should give everyone encouragement to request flextime if they want it.
Laurie Young is a founder of Flexible Resources, a company that specializes in finding flextime jobs for […]
by Penelope Trunk | 9:56 am
July 18, 2006
How to get a raise
You do not deserve a raise just because you have been doing your job well for x amount of months. It is your job to do your job well. That’s why you were hired.
Also, do not complain about your salary not being at market rate six months after you take your job. Because if you […]
by Penelope Trunk | 11:42 pm
July 7, 2006
When it comes to office politics, consider the sibling factor
Time magazine’s cover story is How Your Siblings Make You Who You Are. There are a few good tidbits about how your sibling experience affects how you are at work.
Adult life is made up of relationships - at work, in marriage, among friends — and we learn the skills for these relationships through siblings because […]
by Penelope Trunk | 12:16 am
June 23, 2006
Take your pet to work day
Today is take your pet to work day. In New York City, pet owners are carrying around doctor’s notes that say their dog is a medical necessity — as in the psychological benefits of dogs — so that store owners legally have to let the dogs come in. I can see that doing this at […]
by Penelope Trunk | 10:50 pm
May 10, 2006
The time is right to ask for perks
The deluge of press about the difficulty of attracting and keeping Generation Y employees is amazing.
Here’s an example of a press release pandering to the media infatuation with the topic. Even the sheep are suffering : “Fewer and fewer people are choosing the sheep and beef industry as a career. There are huge job choices […]
by Penelope Trunk | 7:36 pm
March 13, 2006
Getting a promotion is so last century
Can we all just stop talking about promotions like they matter? A promotion has meaning when someone is moving up the corporate ladder at such a slow pace that every small step is grounds for celebration.
But there are no more ladders because no one stays long enough at a company to get up the whole […]
by Penelope Trunk | 8:55 pm
August 8, 2004
Lessons from a French chicken farm
One summer, when I found myself with no job and no plan, I panicked and took a job on a chicken farm in the French countryside. I told myself the job would look good on my resume – showing I am adventurous and understand the agriculture business to boot. Neither is true, in fact, and […]
by Penelope Trunk | 2:51 pm
July 25, 2004
4 interview questions you should never ask
Most interviews reach a pause when the hiring manager says, “Do you have any questions for me?” In a world of workplace transparency the most common response to this question would be, “No. I have no questions. I am sick of job hunting. Give me a job.”
But alas, you must play the interview game. So […]
by Penelope Trunk | 2:58 pm
December 11, 2003
4 tips for salary negotiation
Don’t be afraid to negotiate your salary. Once a hiring manager chooses you from what is probably the largest pool of candidates she’s ever seen, you know you’re a top candidate. The current economy won’t give you the edge to ask for first-class air travel, but you do have options that can improve your salary […]
by Penelope Trunk | 12:41 am
October 5, 2003
Couples therapy can help your career
Couples therapy: My husband is slumped at the edge of the sofa, sulking. I sit in the center cushion, upright and animated, ranting about why he needs to get rid of his bike.
The therapist tells me to be quiet, but in a couples-therapist way: “Let’s give him a chance to talk about the bike.” He […]
by Penelope Trunk | 10:55 pm
January 6, 2003
What to ask for if more money is not an option
It’s salary review season. Most managers conduct performance reviews at the beginning of the year, and most performance reviews entail some sort of salary review. Don’t get your hopes up for a raise though. In this economy, many companies have a salary freeze, and no one’s coming out of the cold any time soon.
By all […]
by Penelope Trunk | 8:28 am