Inflation. You can’t click past a paywall, hit your Twitter feed, or listen to NPR without somebody reporting on inflation in grim tones. With supply chains mangled, the Ukraine war disrupting food and energy markets, and consumers ready to invest in a merry post-COVID-19 Christmas, it’s no wonder prices have risen. Everything’s more expensive, including you. But does inflation mean asking for a higher wage? Not always. Not if you’re thinking about your career in the long term.
Of course, it’s important that you be fairly compensated for your work, especially if you’re in a leadership position. That’s especially true now, with difference-making talent so scarce and turnover so high. Yes, even though the attention of headline writers is elsewhere, “Great Attrition” continues, according to McKinsey partner Bonnie Dowling. “People are continuing to quit their jobs,” she said on The McKinsey Podcast. “They are going to different industries. They are leaving the workforce entirely. These things haven’t necessarily changed since our original research despite the fact that the economy and the world has changed.”
In this environment, it makes sense to demand more for your talent, especially if you’re a young, smart, provocative leader. But when you can demand more in an inflationary environment, should a bigger paycheck always be your only goal? In many cases, no. Money is a moving target. With inflation, the purchasing power of your income goes down over time, so that 10 percent raise could be worth next to nothing if your rent and food bill continue to rise. But even when inflation is flat, mo’ money doesn’t necessarily mean mo’ satisfaction at work.
The reason is the adaptation principle. When you get something like a pay bump or a new car, you feel a rush of euphoria as the novelty stimulates your brain’s dopamine production. But eventually, what happens? Right—the improvement becomes your new normal, the euphoria fades, and after a while you feel dissatisfied again. You crave a bigger raise or the latest Tesla, and so on and so on. That’s why money isn’t the best predictor of workplace happiness.
But there’s a more compelling rationale for not necessarily chasing higher pay during an inflationary period. As a Rare Breed, your gifts, skill set, or fearless spirit will always be sought after. When you’re in a position to ask for nearly anything from your employer, doesn’t it make sense to look for forms of compensation that will increase your value independent of the supply of talent or the state of the economy? These “value multipliers” make you a scarce commodity in any market, guaranteeing you negotiating power and freeing you of the upward/downward salary pressures that make work so stressful for so many.
What kind of value multipliers might you ask for when it comes time to renegotiate your compensation package? We thought you’d never ask.
Advancement
Insisting on a fast track to a position higher up the organizational ladder could be politically risky. However, it’s your willingness to take risk that makes you a Rare Breed. If the organizations desire not to lose you gives you the chance to leapfrog others or possibly bypass the usual steps to higher position, greater responsibility, and greater recognition, it’s probably worth taking.
Flexible work arrangement
With the increasing pressures to return to the office, hybrid work seems to be an endangered species. However, this could be the perfect time to play your trump card and insist on a partial work from home arrangement that gives you more flexibility and better work life balance. Of course, it’s possible that you like being in the office full-time and fine working from home to be suffocating or dull. If that’s the case, think about requesting that your employer pick up the cost of an office at a coworking center near your home. That could give you the best of both worlds: your own flexible work environment that’s not filled with dogs, children, and interruptions from the DoorDash delivery guy.
Sabbatical
Numerous companies offer extended sabbaticals for employees, so this is not an unusual ask. In fact, more and more employers are offering extended time off as a way to keep their employees from heading for the exits. The trick here is to press your advantage (remember, you’re the one in demand) and tailor your sabbatical request to be exactly what you want. It doesn’t have to be a year off every five years; it could be whatever works for your life and your goals. It could be as simple as additional vacation time every year so you can feel like one of the French.
Freedom (or funding) for your side hustle
Some employers encourage their employees to pursue the side projects or businesses they may have developed during pandemic shutdowns, believing that such freedom keeps employees from leaving while encouraging them to be more creative and entrepreneurial. Training firm Rebel Business School even writes permission to run a side hustle into its employees’ contracts. (Google dumped its policy of paying for its employees’ side projects in 2014, so we wouldn’t suggest asking for that.)
If you’ve got a pet project, but can’t see quitting your full-time gig just yet, talk to your superiors about carving out time to work on that side hustle. You might even consider inviting your employer to take part ownership of and offer up a little funding for what you’re working on, if you think it might have value to them. After all, Twitter and Slack both begin life as side projects, and last we heard, they were pretty successful.
Wellness
The pandemic was hard on everyone, physically and psychologically. We can’t think of too many better investments than your long-term physical and mental well-being. This is where you can become a beloved benefactor for your team, your department, or the entire organization by asking about wellness resources like yoga classes, healthy food, meditation retreats, nap rooms, onsite mental health services, and so on.
Engagement resources
Why not ask for something that will help you be a better leader and make your team both happier and more productive? That’s a way to reward yourself in the long term while earning greater loyalty from your team members. Talk to leadership about ways you can increase engagement among your direct reports: team events, engagement surveys to find out where the trouble spots might be, community programs to add greater meaning and impact to the work, employee recognition award programs, and the like.
Redefinition of your role
Perhaps advancement isn’t an option for political or financial reasons, but you’re tired of your role and the job is getting stale. Why not ask your superiors to discuss redefining your role? Talk about shifting your duties to an area that intrigues you for that you find incredibly challenging. Discuss taking over a long-standing problem for the organization—which of course, puts you in position to be the one to solve that problem. There are few times in any career that you have the freedom and opportunity to redefine everything about what you do, from the type of work, to your goals, to the people you report to…even your title. This could be that time for you.
Spokesperson
Looking to build your reputation and increase your visibility? Ask about being a spokesperson for the organization. This could entail things like talking to the press, giving speeches, or traveling to professional conferences and events as the official Representative of your company. To be fair, this sort of thing is not for everyone; you need to be out going, confident, and charismatic…or as we call it, Hypnotic. But if that describes you, you could build a solid gold net work that will help shape the next 20 years of your career.
Publishing
If you have writing skills and ideas, and your organization has a platform for publishing content such as a company newsletter or LinkedIn page, talk about getting permission to write and publish under your own byline. As you might expect, this sort of thing is going to be subject to the review and approval of your superiors, but that might be a small price to pay for the opportunity to have your ideas read by thousands or even tens of thousands.
It should go without saying that not all of these will be possible in every organization. Some will be out of the question in your organization. Others will have to be handled with tremendous care to avoid the appearance of favoritism or to avoid causing unplanned resignations due to the resentment of other employees. We never said this was easy. However, value multipliers are worth pursuing, and not just for the reasons we’ve cited. They are also an excellent screening tool for your employer. If the people you work for aren’t willing to be creative and forward-thinking in order to keep you, a valuable talent, in house, then perhaps you should be working somewhere else.
Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger are founders of Motto and the authors of Rare Breed: A Guide to Success for the Defiant, Dangerous, and Different.
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