Thursday, December 22, 2011

Ask, and You Shall Receive?


My life might be close to being shambles in many different, sometimes completely unrelated areas, I might drink too much, I might be home sick, I might be guarded and suspicious that my dude will never commit to me the way I want him to, I might be afraid, slightly insecure and a little bit angry.

But yesterday I took charge of one area of my life. I did something absolutely terrifying that took a lot of guts on my part. I did something terrifying and was (finally!) rewarded for it.

After six months of working at my company, I asked for a raise.

I was afraid to hear a negative answer. When my boss called me into his office for a chat at the end of that same day I sent him an email with my raise request, I was fully prepared to keep my face as straight as possible and not let any disappointment seep through to the surface.

He is always an intimidating dude when it comes to discussing serious financial things. He is the type of a person who has the "fuck you" face even when he says yes to something. I nearly crapped my pants at the thought of going into his office and sitting down, one-on-one, to discuss all matters concerning my personal financial security.

But I heard something entirely beyond my expectations. I heard that I am probably the best employee they currently have at the company and that even though it is typically not within the company's policy to give employees raises so soon after their hire, that I was absolutely worth being dangled a proverbial monetary carrot in front of.

And who was I to disagree?

Granted, the raise, as I was told, would not be a great amount. And I would not see the increase in my paycheck until the end of January...

But I did it. For the first time in my life, I asked for a raise. And for the first time in my life, not only did I received it, but I was also validated as a kick-ass employee that I always suspected I would grow up to be.

And, damn, it feels good to be rewarded!

6 comments:

Tom said...

Congratulations! You're going to get hooked on doing those things that scare you the most!

Barfly said...

This is an interesting blog. I want to follow it. BTW, I am an architect too.

LAH said...

NICE! It is definitely good to have a "win" in one area of your life, to help you *kinda* hold on in all the others...

Laundramatic said...

thanks guys! it's definitely been a huge boost to my ego. Just what I needed!

Barfly - feel free to follow the blog, I am always happy to connect with fellow architectural professionals!

GirlX said...

I don't know if I'd ever be gutsy enough to ask for a raise. I'm impressed!! Congratulations!

Jessica said...

For the record, I had the dating website thing with my boyfriend. I debated for like maybe one day what to do, then broke down and told him I had found it. He explained that he checks to see if a crazy ex is viewing his profile. I know the ex--she's genuinely scary crazy and I'd much rather she not know about my existence for my own safety. But, realizing that it mattered to me, he changed his status on the site to taken. It's sorta weird if he hasn't after you've mentioned it. It seems to really be bugging you. Have you brought it up more than once? If you have, and he still hasn't changed anything, that's...odd.

Congrats on the job raise. I'm a regular reader.