How to Negotiate With the Boss

Negotiating Techniques to Use At Work

Jul 28, 2009 Jacqueline Trovato

Subordinates don't negotiate enough with their bosses. There's lots of blame to share, but the important thing is that everybody-and the organization-is worse off.

Subservience leads to low morale, poor decision-making, and reduced productivity. In a typical case, a boss will give a subordinate a task that—unknown to the boss—exceeds the subordinate’s readily available resources. The subordinate, who prides himself on being a team player, salutes and says, “Yes, sir!” He knows he's got a problem, but doesn’t want to complain; besides, it’s an opportunity to show how valuable he is.

The boss hasn’t a clue that the subordinate must work nights and weekends to complete the task, and thus expresses no gratitude for these extraordinary efforts. The result is (1) an employee who feels overworked and unappreciated; (2) slipshod work; or (3) both. Of course, if the work is deficient, the boss will let the employee know immediately. Each time this cycle is repeated, the employee becomes unhappy and less productive.

Most bosses don’t want to make poor decisions, give unreasonable assignments, or embitter their employees by requiring them to sacrifice their personal lives. But yes-people unwittingly encourage their bosses to do all those things. By refusing to speak up, sycophants deprive their bosses of information they need to manage intelligently.

Negotiating Assignments

The ideal time for boss-subordinate negotiations is when the boss first gives an assignment. If the project is well-considered and within the subordinate’s capacity, then negotiating isn’t called for. If the subordinate believes it needs to be rethought, or if given its deadline and priority, it clearly exceeds readily available resources, then he has a responsibility to negotiate it.

First, the subordinate should make sure he fully understands the project. This is a very important step from which he must not be deterred, either by his timidity or the boss’s impatience. It’s even okay to be a little pushy about this if necessary. If he jumps into an assignment with a flawed understanding of what the boss really wants, he’ll look bad, the boss will be angry, and everybody’s time will be wasted. He should get agreement on the overall outline, the tasks and subtask, and the desired outcome. He should also discuss the anticipated short-and long-term effects. If he see’s public relations, political, ethical, or legal issues that the boss may not have noticed, he should raise them.

Next, if the project seems to exceed the available resources, he should point this out and attempt to discover where there might be flexibility. Negotiate on each of the task elements. (This is called a “Krunch.”) Is every individual report necessary: Is the deadline flexible? Must everything be completed before the deadline? Could some elements be delivered later? Would a preliminary draft by the deadline be sufficient, or must the work be in final form? Krunch for resources, as well. Is assistance available from within the organization? Can outside help be obtained?

Armed with this information, the subordinate can now make an offer to his boss. He can propose a package—or better, alternative packages—that provide for successful completion of the assignment” “With an additional programmer, the job will get done on time,” or “If we can get Tom’s group to take over my current project, I can get this one done on time,” or “If you can give me two more weeks, I can get it done.” The timeframes proposed should be a little high to allow for unanticipated events and to provide some flexibility if the boss should wish to negotiate further.

What To Do If Nothing Works

If the boss regularly refuses to negotiate assignments that are ill-considered or require out-of- his-hide personal time to complete, it may be time to negotiate a salary high enough to make the situation tolerable. In the long run, the subordinate will probably be happier if he negotiates himself a new job.

The copyright of the article How to Negotiate With the Boss in Business Management is owned by Jacqueline Trovato. Permission to republish How to Negotiate With the Boss in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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