Answer by Jay Bazzinotti

Jay Bazzinotti给出的答案

There are three things you can do in any given situation – accept it, change it, or leave it. What you are saying is that you are unwilling¹ to accept it and now want to change it by getting a raise. If they refuse to give you the raise, are you willing to leave the company? If not, then you will have to accept it, though it will be difficult.

无论在什么情况下，你都有三个选择——接受现实、做出改变或者一走了之。现在你的情况是，对现状不满，希望通过加薪来改变。如果公司拒绝给你涨工资，你打算一走了之吗？如果没有这种打算，那么你就得接受现实，尽管这有点难。

Here’s the thing: with the exception of your first job out of college or technical school, you are ALWAYS being underpaid. It’s to the advantage of the company to always underpay you and so they do. They know it and now you do too. On the other hand, it’s not their fault that you (don’t talk about your recruiter, that’s just an excuse for your failure) negotiated poorly at hiring time. The money they offered you was acceptable to you at the time. The fact that you somehow found out that others get more is not their fault. You owe them the exact same loyalty² and effort now as you provided before you learned about the pay disparity.

这个世界的真相是：除了走出校门后的第一份工作，你的薪水永远是偏低的。少付你些薪水能给公司带来好处，所以他们当然会这么做。关于这一点，公司心里很清楚，现在你也明白了。从另一个角度来说，你在入职时商定的工资水平就偏低，这也怨不得别人（别去抱怨当初招聘你的人，那只是为自己的错误找借口）。他们给你设定的工资水平当时是经过你认可的。即便后来发现别人的工资比你高，这也怪不到他们头上。就算你知道了自己薪水偏低，你对工作的认真程度也不应该受到影响。

It’s always difficult to negotiate in retrospect⁴. The only real lever you have is that if they don’t pay you what you are asking, you will leave. This is most effective if you have become a key player, add positive value and are seen as a future asset that they don’t want to lose. Making a list of great stuff you have done in the past is OK, but you won’t get a raise or promotion⁵ based on what you did yesterday — you get it based on what they expect you to do tomorrow. Therefore, your best bargaining position is to show them how you will assist them in their abilities to be successful in the future and how therefore it is worth their while to increase your pay.

入职后再协商工资总是很难。你唯一的谈判砝码是：如果他们不给你涨工资，你就辞职。如果你是公司的骨干，对公司有价值，并且是公司不愿意失去的未来资产，那么这个砝码会很管用。或许你会列举自己的过往业绩，但是，会不会给你加薪或升职并不完全取决于你过往的表现，而是取决于他们对你未来表现的预期。因此，对于你来说，最好的谈判切入点是向他们展示，你将在公司未来发展中能发挥怎样的价值，让他们认为给你加薪是值得的。

In the future, negotiate at the beginning before you accept the job. Here’s another thing to remember when you negotiate: they expect you to negotiate, and if you don’t they lose respect for you. Everything is negotiable. Everything — from pay to bonus to perks⁶ to vacation time to office size to parking spaces and more. You should always ask for something that is way more than you think you are worth. Lots of times, and I have seen this myself, they will give you what you want without even blinking because their perception of your value is different than your own and usually higher. Even if they don’t give you the ridiculous things you ask for, such as an in-office masseuse, they might counter with something that is still more than you expected. It’s often difficult for companies to give more money – but they will almost always agree to give you more vacation time, if nothing else. And get it all in writing. If it’s just a handshake, or just a little “secret between you and me,” then it never happened and you will never get it. Get them to write it down and sign it.

下次要记得，在入职前先谈好薪资。关于薪资谈判你还需要知道的是：他们会等着你提出来，如果你没提，他们反而会看扁你。什么都可以拿来谈——工资、奖金、额外福利、休假、办公场地的面积，甚至于停车场地。你开出的待遇一定要大大超出你认为自己应得的部分。很多时候，他们会毫不犹豫地满足你的要求，我自己就经历过这种情况，因为他们对你的价值判断与你想的不同，通常会更高。即使他们不能满足你的某些荒唐要求（比如在办公室配备女按摩师），他们也会提供一些仍然超出你预期的补偿。另外，要公司加薪往往很难，但是，即使给不了别的，他们一般都会同意给你更多的休假时间。协商结果要形成白纸黑字。如果只是握握手，或者说些“只有我和你知道”之类的话，那么之后就会仿佛什么也没有发生，你的要求肯定会落空。一定要他们在白纸黑字上签字画押。

But I digress. So you are going to go to your boss and tell him the truth — through a confluence⁷ of events that you won’t discuss, you discovered that you are making significantly less than your co-workers for essentially⁸ the same work and that you would like to be brought up at least to par³ with them and out of the review cycle and you don’t want it to effect your future raises when the review cycle comes around.

扯远了。所以你应该直接去老板那里告诉他真相：通过种种途径（不用说太具体），你发现你和同事做着一样的工作，拿的工资却比他们低得多。你希望至少将工资涨到和他们一样的水平。记得避开薪酬审核周期，以免影响你未来的加薪。

As I said, it’s harder for you to negotiate after the fact — the only implicit⁹ threat you have is that you will leave the company. The unspoken threat is that you will stay and make everyone miserable¹⁰. Unless you are some guru they don’t really care if you leave (they’ll replace you quickly), but they will care if your attitude deteriorates¹¹ from your pay situation and brings down productivity by spreading poison throughout the office. Charlie Spork, the President of National Semiconductor¹², once said to me, “It’s bad when good employees quit and leave, but it’s worse when they quit and stay.” That is the real threat you have looming¹³ over them.

我说过，入职后要求加薪更难，你手里唯一的筹码就是辞职。不过还有另一个隐藏筹码，那就是你留下，让大家日子都不好过。除非你是某方面的专家，否则他们不会在乎你是否辞职（反正你很快就会被新人取代），但是他们会在乎你因为不满薪酬而变差的态度，因为你可能在办公室制造糟糕的氛围而降低大家的工作效率。美国国家半导体公司（National Semiconductor）总裁查理•斯波克曾经对我说，“我们当然不希望优秀的员工辞职离开，但如果他们辞职后却没有离开，那更糟糕。”这才是你手里真正的砝码。

However, I urge you to avoid this path at all costs. Suppose you approach your manager and explain your situation and the desired outcome and he refuses. Your choices are to quit and leave, quit and stay or stay and apply yourself so that they cannot ignore you in the future. Only you can decide what you will do, but I urge you to avoid any bitter action, negative outpouring, sabotage¹⁴, property theft, time chiseling¹⁵ and so on. Once you are on that road then they will be forced to make the choice, and that will be to fire you. That sort of thing follows you.

不过，我奉劝你尽可能避免出现这种局面。假如你找到经理，向他说明你的情况和想要的结果，而被他拒绝了，那么你可以选择辞职并离开，或者辞职并暂时留下，又或者留下，努力让自己发挥更大的价值，让他们未来无法再忽视你。只有你自己可以决定自己要做什么，但我奉劝你不要有任何仇恨行为、流露出消极的情绪、怠工、盗窃财物、磨洋工等等。一旦你走上那条路，这将迫使他们做出选择——炒掉你。就是这样的下场。

If your choice is to quit, then work diligently¹⁶ while you seek another position elsewhere. Give notice and leave on good terms. People have long memories and you never want to be remembered as a bitter, negative employee but as a positive contributor. Blind references are like sleeper¹⁷ cells that can either make or break your career, decades into the future. I have seen it happen more than once. Companies hire you because they seek solutions to business problems. Don’t become a problem yourself that needs to be solved.

如果你选择辞职，那么在寻找新工作期间也要努力工作。提前通知公司，好聚好散。人的记忆力很好，你绝对不希望给人留下尖酸、消极的形象，而是要成为一个积极的贡献者。口碑的有效期很长，未来数十年它既可能成就你，也可能毁了你的职业生涯。这样的例子我见过不止一次。公司聘请你是为了解决业务上的问题。不要让自己成为需要解决的问题。

I will close with a quote by writer Elbert Hubbard I have memorized through the years:

多年来我一直牢记著名作家阿尔伯特•哈伯德的一句话，我想用它作为结束语：

“If you work for a man, in heaven’s name, work for him. If he pays you wages which supply your bread and butter, speak well of him; stand by him and the institution he represents. If put to a pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify¹⁸, condemn¹⁹ and eternally disparage²⁰ – resign your position and when you are outside, damn to your heart’s content. But as long as you are part of the institution, do not condemn it. If you do that, you are loosening the tendrils that are holding you to the institution, and by the first high wind that comes along, you will be uprooted²¹ and blown away, and probably will never know the reason why.”

“如果你为某个人工作，那就好好工作。如果他付给你工资，让你养活自己，那就赞美他、坚定地支持他和他所代表的组织。如果遇到困境，一分忠诚胜过十分聪明。如果你一定要辱骂、谴责和不停咒骂才能平息心中的怒火，那就辞职，并且离开后在心里默默谴责。但是只要你还是组织的一份子，就不要去谴责。如果你这么做，就会松动你和组织联系的根须，当第一次大风来临时，你就会被连根拔起，被风吹走，并且可能永远也不知道为什么。”

But the fact is — he owns you. Even if you quit and leave, you must never say bad things about the company. This kind of poison will hurt you in the future.

事实是，你和老板荣辱一体。即使你辞职离开，也千万不要说公司的坏话。因为你搬起的这块石头，将来可能会砸在自己的脚上。