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Absolutely. My husband is military so we move every 2–3 years and I hate being out of work so the last time we moved I took the first job I was offered which was a great job with great people but the commute was over 1.5 hours one way most days due to tourist traffic. Six months later, I was considering looking for a new job but hadn't applied anywhere yet when I got a call from a law office (I'm a paralegal) not even 10 minutes from my house.The office manager said she came across my resume on Indeed and they were looking to expand their company and add a new paralegal to their team. She wanted me to interview and I figured it wouldn't hurt to go.The interview was pretty standard. I met with the attorney and the office manager. I was told they would start me out at a lower pay for the first 90 days but once I got through the probationary period they would pay me $3/hr more. It was more than I was currently making. They also stated they gave employees a week of PTO as an added benefit. They offered me the job and I told them my only condition was that I would need to take an entire week off when my husband came back from his deployment and they promised it wouldn't be an issue.The only red flag at the interview was that they said they were hiring 3 new paralegals to “expand" but the offices they showed me had obviously been used and recently.The week I started I discovered they weren't “expanding” as they had told me, twice. Their entire staff had quit except for the office manager. I have worked at a few law offices and knew right away this was bad news.Instead of giving me one of their open offices the office manager said since I had the least amount of experience, I would be sitting at the secretary's desk and doing secretarial duties as well. Initially, I thought that meant I would have an easier workload. No. I had the same workload as the other paralegals with the added secretarial duties, which doesn't make sense in terms of experience, but I could handle it.After the 3 of us passed our 90 days, we never received a pay raise. In fact, another month passed before one of the other ladies brought it up to me and we decided to ask about it. We brought it to the office manager's attention and she said, “that was never the deal.” When we told her that was odd, since all three of us had been told about a pay raise in our interviews she responded, “well, did you get that in writing?” I said, “you were there in all of our interviews. You won't vouch to our boss that we were promised a pay raise?” She shrugged and said, “always get these things in writing.” Immediately, one of the other ladies grabbed her things and quit. I was considering doing the same thing when the office manager called a meeting and said we would be receiving our pay raises. It was still another month before it came into effect.It came time for my husband to come home from deployment and I filled out my request form to take a week off and it was denied. “You can't take an entire week off. Your week of PTO is meant for a day here or a day there. Think of it as sick leave.” At this point, a lot had happened and I had reached my tolerance level so I reminded them that I was promised a full week off in my interview and they could give it to me or I could quit. “Fine, you can take the week off but you're going to regret it.” It was still a month away but the attorney and office manager worked my fingers to the bone. They had me doing months worth of work to be able to take a week off. I thought this was what they meant by me regretting it. No, it got worse.As fate would have it, my husband and I got pregnant with our first the week he came home. I filled out the proper paperwork to be able to go to my first appointment. The appointment was first thing in the morning so I was just going to be an hour late to work. My paperwork was denied. “Your PTO is the only time you can take off” is what was written on my denial notice. The office manager said, “I told you you'd regret taking that week off.” I told her that didn't make sense. We were hourly employees, not salary. I would understand concerns for getting work done if someone was constantly taking off but I had taken a week off 2 months prior to this and I'd taken no other time off in the 6 months I had worked there. I wasn't allowed to come in an hour late? Inevitably, I told her I was pregnant. I told her I was mad that I even had to tell her before I told my family but that was what I needed the time off for. She approved my paperwork but called a meeting where she “let it slip” to the rest of the staff that I was pregnant later that day.All of this was on top of the office manager being obsessed with us liking her even though she did the things she did. She had a daughter that worked at the office on and off who was absolutely intolerable. She got work done but she was the rudest person I've ever come across in my career. She screamed at clients, she screamed at us, she screamed at outside sources we relied on for medical records and information. Her daughter was literally out of control. They announced that the daughter was coming to work for good and I knew immediately I wasn't staying much longer.The Office Manager pulled me into her office shortly after that announcement (a couple weeks or so) for one of her weekly, “you seem like you're mad at me, what did I do?” chats and this time I told her it wasn't going to work out. I made up some story about the workload being too stressful while I was pregnant. Truthfully, I had come home mad everyday for weeks over the stupidity and my husband told me to just quit whenever I was ready and it put a bug in my ear that came out in that moment. I went home thinking I was going to regret it so much but I never felt anything but peace about the situation. I had another paralegal job making more money and working from home about 3 weeks later. My only regret was staying there so long.

When I interviewed at Google several years ago, they told me up front that the salary was non-negotiable. It was very much a take-it-or-leave-it offer.You may run into situations like this once or twice over the course of your career, but in most cases, there’s room for negotiation.In fact, I get worried when one of our senior hires doesn’t attempt to negotiate their offer. That’s actually a bad sign, and I start wondering how they’re going to react when a vendor makes an offer. Will they just accept it without negotiating in that situation, too?I know these negotiations can be anxiety-inducing, but there are things you can do to ease any nerves and put yourself in the best position to come away with a better offer.Negotiate based on what's important to you.Your salary can certainly be important to your quality of life, but it isn’t the only part of the contract you can negotiate.In fact, most people I talk to don’t name salary as the most important factor in their decision to take a job. There are so many other aspects of compensation and responsibilities that can have a much bigger effect on overall happiness.For some, a title is important. For others, it’s the amount of ownership they have over their work. At a startup, many people value equity and upside potential the most.Figure out what matters to you and focus your negotiations around that. If it happens to be salary, that’s perfectly fine. Just realize it's not the only compensation you can consider.Know the market ahead of time.Depending on your career and industry, you’ll want to be aware of the market dynamics at play when you’re interviewing.I worked in investment banking for two years out of college and then took some time off to travel. This was 2002, so when I began looking for work again, we were still in the midst of a recession. In that type of market, the labor pool for companies that are hiring is huge—and it can work against you.I ended up getting a job offer to be a financial analyst at a well-known magazine. It seemed like a natural fit for me, and they gave me a week to make my decision. Unfortunately, I waited until the day before the deadline to tell them I would accept. And when I got in touch, I found out they’d given the job to someone else.By dragging out my decision, I made it look like I was balancing different offers. I didn't factor in the poor job market, and there was obviously someone who seemed more eager to take the position.Remember, nothing is official until the paper is signed. If you’re going to take a role, let the company know you’re really excited about it—and understand the market dynamics that may influence your negotiations.Don’t get too ahead of yourself with career planning and optimizations.Over the course of a long career, a difference of a few thousand dollars won’t matter as much as the more intangible aspects of the job.What really matters is whether you like your manager, whether you like the company, and what you’ll learn in this position. How is this going to help you get to your next role? It may not feel great to take a lower salaried position, but if it puts you on the trajectory you want, then it probably won’t matter in the long run.Personally, there were times in my career when I took pay cuts because I wanted to pursue a more interesting opportunity, or I wanted to take a role where I had no experience. When I started working at Aeropostale after business school, I had no tangible experience in retail, but it was a way for me to shift industries. So even though my salary was lower than a lot of my fellow graduates, I took the job.In my experience, the people who tend to make the most money are those who are really good at what they do. That comes from doing something you love, something that plays to your strengths. You should always negotiate your offers—just remember there are other forms of compensation than numbers on your paycheck.This article originally appeared on Inc.

You cannot make your boss “feel” anything, since bosses are not mind readers, and it is too big of a risk for bosses to try reading employees’ minds.You can only inform your boss of your growth goals, whether these goals mean an increase in pay, an increase in responsibility, or both in the form of an advancement/promotional opportunity.If you truly “love” your job, you would feel rewarded by the demands of the job, feel appropriately compensated for your time, and see yourself growing within this job until you change your mind.If you are talking about a promotion, it sounds like you are looking to step into a role with more responsibilities. This is not the same as getting some form of a merit-based pay raise or other on-the-job incentives/bonuses.Giving you a good performance appraisal does not automatically guarantee promotional opportunities, especially if your boss may perceive that you are happy where you are. Inform your boss of your growth goals in specific, clear terms and discuss how you can work together to achieve these goals.