Negotiation
Asking for a raise
You have been in your role for over a year and taken on more work. Today you ask your manager for a pay rise.
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Duration
- 10-15 minutes
The situation
You booked thirty minutes with your manager and said it is about your role and pay. Over the past year you took over work that used to belong to a senior colleague and delivered a project the team relies on. Your salary has not changed since you joined. You know budgets were described as tight at the last all-hands meeting. You do not know how much room your manager actually has or what they need from the team next.
Your goal
Leave the meeting with a concrete outcome: an agreed raise, or a clear path to one with a date and conditions you both accept.
Who you talk to
Your direct manager
Supportive of you in general, but busy and under pressure from their own leadership. Careful with commitments about money and quick to mention budget limits.
The counterpart also has private goals and information that are never shown upfront. You discover them only through the conversation, the same way you would in real life.
Skills you practice
- Making a case based on your results
- Asking questions before naming a number
- Responding to "there is no budget"
- Trading, not just conceding
- Closing with a specific next step
What the feedback looks at
- How clearly you connected your request to results and scope
- Whether you learned about your manager's priorities and limits
- How you handled the first objection
- Whether concessions were traded for something in return
- Whether the conversation ended with a concrete, dated agreement