Jan

26

Your Manager Does Not Want You to Leave: Does He/She?

January 26, 2007 |

This is a question you should ask yourself, and do it often. It certainly helps you obtain the better edge when negotiating a salary increase or benefits like flexible time or education reimbursement.There are many reasons why your manager wouldn’t want you to leave. Consider these as examples:

  • A manager needs subordinates to be a manager. If you leave, his reason to exist diminishes and he/she is farther away from the next level in the management chain.
  • A manager doesn’t like to interview people anymore than you like to interview. Interviewing people take a lot of time – time that could be spent in more productive matters if the interview wasn’t needed. And also interviewing reminds the manager of the risk of hiring the wrong person.
  • New employees take a long time to be fully effective. How long did it took you to become effective enough to produce more than you where consuming from the company. It certainly depends on the career where you are. A cashier may be effective with only a few days of training, while someone in technology sales may take a couple months to become effective. Paying a salary to an ineffective employee is a loss that most managers would like to avoid by keeping an effective one on board. Training (if paid to other people) may also be a cost that a manager will have to pay to replace you.
  • It costs a lot of money to bring an employee on board. You have to advertise the job and then interview people. Sometimes people have to be flown in from distant cities. In some industries it is even common to pay sign-in bonuses, or referral bonuses.
  • Opportunity cost. No one is doing the productive work that would be done by you if your position becomes vacant for some time. The hiring process may be a lot slower than the two weeks notice most people give.

While it is good to be optimistic, lets think about the reasons your manager may indeed want you to leave:

  • You are too expensive. If your manager can pay two people with the amount you earn, and get more than a 100% of the production you do, he/she may be more inclined to make the investment hiring and training two junior employees and letting you continue your career elsewhere. This is one of the reasons you should always find a tasks/jobs that take you out of your comfort zone and make you learn new and more complex things. If it is hard for you, chances are it would be hard for someone that is junior to you.
  • You are too good. You are a threat to the manager. Another reason why you should always be in a job with the appropriate level of challenge and complexity. Your manager should still be able to coach you into becoming a better professional.
  • Effectiveness. Not everyone does every task as effective as expected. Sometimes it is something you can improve on your own with harder work or with some training. Sometimes it is just you don’t want to improve it: you may have other priorities, like caring for family. And sometimes it is simply out of your league – you would need to do such an immense effort that it may look like an overwhelming task. Most managers would take the hit of loosing an employee an replacing it with an effective one.
  • Culture shock. Maybe your personality and the company culture are not a perfect match. A tree-hugger may not want to work for Big Oil. A health-conscious person may not want to work for Big Tobacco. A very conservative person may not like and be liked by a publicity company, and a very happy and outgoing person may not do well in a company where everyone has long faces and big frowns.

It is important to know where you stand. You want to be in the situation where your manager doesn’t want to loose you. And I bet most people are in that situation. It is your responsibility to take advantage of it. It is your responsibility to use that edge to make sure that you get better salary, better training, flexible hours, and opportunities to work in projects that reflect your experience. Your manager will try to be on a comfortable position: after all he can fire you, and may even remind you of that fact. It is your job to bring the conversation to a level (or inclined favorable towards you) field, maybe even by reminding the fact that your departure from the company is not on their best interest.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. fivecentnickel.com on January 29, 2007 7:16 am

    Carnival of Personal Finance #85

    Good morning and welcome to the 85th Carnival of Personal Finance! Before we get started, I’d like to say a few words of introduction. First of all, if you’re new to FiveCentNickel then welcome! If not, then welcome back!
    This site is nearl…

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