Knowing your worth has a lot to do with the word negotiation. The current podcast episode looks at why it’s important to the female wage rate. Despite some of my reservations regarding Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” she does have a point, up to a point. I was reading a recent interview with Laszlo Bock who is Google’s senior vice president of people operations, better known as HR.
He mentioned two serious numbers crunching studies done at their organization regarding gender equality both in school and in business: First, girls don’t raise their hands as often as boys when answering math problems, even though they have a higher rate of accuracy when they do; and second, women don’t offer up their ideas as often as men in business meetings even though observers say their thoughts are often better than many offered by their male colleagues.
So, Bock tried an experiment. He had one of the engineering heads send an e-mail to his staff describing the two studies and then reminding them it was time to negotiate raises. Immediately, the application rate for women soared and the rate of women who received raises rose higher than that for male engineers. Every time the e-mail reminder was sent out, female raise rates climbed. However, during one review period when he forgot to send the e-mail the number of female applicants dropped sharply while the male engineer’s level remained constant.
Bock was surprised by the result but also indicated he had begun to realize that encouraging even tech savvy women would take more of an effort than simply presenting them with data. That said, there are a number of factors that go into what still causes women to earn 82 cents for every dollar that a man earns, but one of the primary factors is the fact that women fail to negotiate. I remember my boyfriend coaching me for a job interview years back and marveled when he told me to “Start at this range, just for respect!” I had never looked at it from that angle, but it was the male view that I think few women consider.
Women want a set price and view negotiation as a hassle, but the world demands it. If you were selling an expensive vase that you created and someone offered you a price below your cost, would you say “I’ll take it, and thank you so much”. Of course not! The same applies to your worth in terms of employment. And yet, women complain about lower wages and the unfairness of their plight as they continue to devalue their worth.
An encouraging employer once told me you could negotiate anything and I quickly learned that he was right. While shopping at a big department store at one of those end of the month sales, I found a silk blouse that was perfect but someone left a small lipstick stain on it. I asked the sales clerk if she could take an additional ten dollars off because I would have to have it cleaned. Her immediate response was “No”. Refusing to be deterred I asked to speak with the buyer and explained my reasoning. She instantly understood, and agreed. A bargain then became a steal as I sent it to the cleaners.
Despite all the advances women have made, we still need to get beyond our disease to please and understand how we are our own worst enemies by our failure to recognize the rules of the game that is negotiation. I’m not saying you have to be pushy or rude, only aware of how the game is played by reading books or attending workshops with groups like “The Wage Project” to become skilled in the process. Following this approach will not end gender pay disparity in the workplace, but it certainly would be a great start. What do you think?
Happy negotiating
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