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| That is, unless, of course, you pay me one hundred billion dollars. |
Reader's Digest
Haggling for a raise can be a nerve-wracking experience, particularly in America. The workplace can be pretty cripplingly stressful as is,
but now you have to talk about proper compensation? What if you get
nervous and just request to be paid in marbles? Now that would be a real
comedy of errors.
But actually, comedy may be the best way to avoid said errors, at
least when it comes to negotiating your salary. According to Lifehacker,
a proven tactic to leave your salary negotiations with better pay is to
severely highball your worth, in a joking fashion. “Mr. Upperman, I want to be paid one million marbles.”
A 2008 study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology
can be thanked for this tactic. Todd J. Thorsteinson, a University of
Idaho professor, conducted a series of negotiations with a group of
participants, and found that the group that the “joke” group, who would
ask for a salary astronomically higher than the actual projected
compensation, would always end up leaving the discussion more
financially well off than the control group.
The difference wasn’t negligible: the control group left negotiations
with an average starting salary of $32,463, while the “joke” group left
negotiations with an average starting salary of $35,385. That’s a pay
bump of roughly nine percent, which is, statistically speaking, a larger
pay bump than seven percent.
So, for the love of marbles, ask for something ridiculous next time
you’re negotiating your salary. It also couldn’t hurt to make sure you
have this one thing on your resume.
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