Tried two ways to ask for a raise, one got me a yes in five minutes

I asked my boss for more money two times. The first time I just said I felt I deserved it. He said he'd think about it and never got back to me. The second time, I wrote down three specific things I did that helped the business, like cutting supply costs by 15% last quarter. I showed him the list and asked for a meeting. He agreed to the raise right then. Has anyone else had luck with writing stuff down first?

3 comments

3 Comments

elliot9492mo ago

Oh totally, I read something similar in a career tips article last year. It said bosses hear "I deserve more" all the time, but showing proof with numbers is way harder to ignore. Like, instead of just saying you work hard, you show you saved the company five grand or brought in two new clients last month. It turns a feeling into a fact they have to deal with. Your supply cost example is perfect, that's exactly the kind of hard proof that gets a yes.

faithb742mo ago

It's true for everything, not just work.

the_henry1mo ago

Yeah, writing it down is the only way to go. It's not just about turning a feeling into a fact, like @faithb74 might agree, it's about doing the boss's homework for them. When you hand them a list with clear numbers, they can take that straight to their boss or to the budget people without having to figure out the story themselves. Makes their job easy, so saying yes is the path of least resistance. The first way just gives them a problem to solve later, and later never comes.