Negotiating Workplace Benefits

Order Kerney Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.

say with a grain of salt. But at the same time, I feel like we all deserve better, and we all should know our worth, and we should all be kind of putting that worth on the table to say no, Actually, I'm a human being who has a life and who has needs and wants, and I want career progression, and I also want some level of flexibility, and I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for those things.

I promise you, if you ask kindly and go in with your research, they're not going to turn around and be like, oh my gosh, Beck, you're over and now I mean, if you marched in and said you're treating me like trash and you need to fix this, like, that's probably not going to go. Yes, so well, so we need to on the side of caution and make sure that what we're asking for is suitable.

Instagram on my phone. And the message was essentially, hey, v I can't sleep I'm so excited and I just woke up and I thought, I have to tell Victoria if I'm this. She recently applied for a new job and it's like a career change, and she's so excited about this new role. But when they came back with an offer, the offer was fifteen hundred dollars a year less than what she's currently on for taking on more responsibilities in a different area, and she was like, what

would Victoria do? And I'm obsessed with this thought because obviously it's put her in a better position. But essentially she went back and said, hey, like I would expect you know, XYZ salary for this, and like negotiated it well, put herself first. And then they said, oh, sorry, we can't do anything about that. The salary's the salary. And she said, okay, unfortunately, I'm unable to actually accept that. I'm going to have to politely decline at this point

in time, it's not putting me first. And they said, oh, oh no, let us get back to you. And two days later they came back to her. They're meeting her salary requirements. They're giving her slightly more flexibility because they took it to the CEO and said, hey, this girl's not coming across for the salary that you know, we've

negotiated for this role. They reclassified the role, added a few extra things that she wanted to do anyway, but didn't think we're going to be an opportunity and she's in the salary band she wanted to be in all because she put herself first and said, well, actually I can't accept. I know it sounds like a dream role, but I cannot accept under this premise because that's not going to work out for me. That's not going to

put me in the best possible position. You know, there's always going to be another opportunity, which is exactly how we all should see it. And now she's getting her dream role with her dream income. And she said, the most awkward thing about this is she told all of her friends at work that she'd low key said, oh, you know, I'm going and I'm interviewing for another job. She was like, oh, I told them I didn't get

the job and I wasn't taking it. It wasn't leaving. Now I have to go back and say sorry, that was just a joke.

But I think knowing your worth is so important. And I said this was it last week on the podcast. Ana Lisa, our producer, knows way more than I do that having a low opinion of yourself is not modesty. It is actually self destruction. And we need to hold ourselves to higher levels and we need to actually put ourselves in the best possible position because if we're not, we're being self destructive and that's going to impact us in the future and it's going to be really negative.

So with all of that in mind and that beautiful story. By the way, I know you're listening to this, so congratulations, very exciting.

the amount of abuse. I got definitely viral. But I posted a video a little while ago, and it was essentially saying that if you weren't being offered a seven point five percent pay increase this year, you weren't keeping up with inflation, and you were essentially going backwards. And that is true. I mean, in every segment it's going

to be different. I had a lot of people commenting and being like, but I work in healthcare, or I work in teaching, or I'm in a salary band, and like, it's not going to apply to everybody in terms of being able to walk into their boss's office and say, hey, beck, I would like a seven point five percent increase, and they go, yeah, no, worries, beck, I looked at the inflation rate, and that story checks out. Like that's not

necessarily how it works. But what's important for you to understand is how inflation works and how it impacts you, because regardless of whether you're able to get a salary increase or not, the important thing is you understanding that if inflation is at seven and a half percent, that means that without a salary increase at all, you're able to buy seven and a half percent less stuff each and every single year, and that can hurt. Like that adds up as well. We've talked about it so many times.

We need to advocate for ourselves and understand our worth. And I mean a lot of people commented and said, oh, but that's not an option for me in my job. And I don't mean to be rude. Actually sometimes I do mean to be rude. This is not one of those times you have to be at the end of the day. If you're looking at your salary and you're super happy, that's great. If it still serves you, if it still puts you in the best possible position, that is so fantastic. But if that salary is no longer

serving you, your entire life is not about work. I definitely don't believe that a job defines you, and I think at that point we need to reconsider what our options are and go, well, what is going to help me create the lifestyle that I want and the lifestyle that I deserve. And at that point we need to have a look at maybe changing roles or being a little bit more assertive when it comes to negotiating or being able to negotiate a few more benefits into your

salary package that you weren't able to negotiate before. Because at the end of the day, if they can't increase your salary, that's fantastic, Beck, What else can we negotiate? Could there potentially be a company car, Could there be more off Could you go from working a five day week to a four day week but for the same salary, Like, there are so many options that ultimately you could be negotiating And at the end of the day, that's what

this entire episode is about. It's about negotiating workplace benefits.

But I think what really gets me is when people say, oh, my boss said no, I'm not worth it, or we get so many beautiful comments like this story that I told you at the start of this episode, where we know that the content beck we create puts people in better positions, and I'm so insanely proud of that. But I mean, TikTok's a wild place to live. Like, I have never got worse comments on the Internet than I have on TikTok. Instagram semi nice place, Facebook really nice place.

Like the people on Facebook they're relatively kind, but TikTok wild. Some people are absolutely vile, and that's fine, that's no worries at all. I think my favorite comments were, oh, you don't understand inflation and how it works, and I was like, I think I do, but what thanks anyway, and someone else who was like, glad you don't run a business, and I was like, oh, glad you can read.

it and not abusing that power. As very solid advice and just to kind of, you know, help people along. If you do want to listen to some older episodes about the same topic, we do have a few. There's one having difficult conversations with your boss back in May of twenty twenty two, and employee writes September twenty one, twenty twenty two, So go back and have a listen if you haven't already, if you need more information. But

we are going to continue on, aren't we, Victoria. We are actually Beck before you were saying that you find this stuff really challenging to talk about, but I guess it's really important to also challenge yourself because even though you find it really scary and sometimes a little bit challenging or a little bit hard, if you don't learn to have these conversations now, you're essentially going to lead yourself down a path where you either burn out or

you're feeling really frustrated with your job or your life, or the not getting out of it what you deserve, Like there's nothing worse. And I mean I say this having not been through this circumstance at all, but I can imagine that there's nothing worse than you know, getting to a point in your career where you look back and you go, I'd be so much further along, and I deserve to be so much further along, and I

deserve so much more than what I'm currently getting. I wish I'd been able to speak up, or I wish I'd been able to see my worth or my value. And there's something about finally seeing your own value where it's obviously empowering, but it empowers those around you. And I would argue I'm that type of person right, Like I did not see my own value historically. And that's not just financially, that's individually, Like as a person, I was just like, oh, like, I don't have a lot

of confidence. I don't have a lot of self worth, Like I don't. I think it's really rude when people have a lot of confidence because they must be cocky or have a big ego, and like that's not the case at all. But I look back and I go, oh, baby, Victoria, I wish I could like pick you up and say worth more than that, Like people can't talk to you that way, or you know, you should be negotiating a pay rise here, or you actually should be paid for

the work you're doing. It's not for free. There's just so many times where I want to scoop myself up, and I guess I've translated that into the community and now I want to scoop all of you up and give you all those tools and resources because you deserve them. And I don't think anyone should be feeling frustrated or burnt out because of work.

to understand our rights. We're going to know what we are worth, so that when somebody comes back to us and says no, you can be like haha, actually yeah, like actually yeah, that is happening before entering any type of conversation or I guess you could say negotiation about your position or about your rights. So I think it's important to understand where you stand. So whether that is in Australia or in New Zealand or in the US or whatever country you are listening from, are going to

be I guess regulations and rules. And here in Australia we have the Fair Work Act of two thousand and nine, which needs to be updated because it's from two thousand and nine. It was least to sell about that, but yeah, you know, right, like it feels like it was yesterday, but like beck, it was ages ago, Like that's the

year that I graduated from high school. That was so long ago and I don't want to admit that, so maybe like let's not But the Fair Work Act two thousand and nine actually sets out minimum standards for employment conditions including benefits, and obviously we're going to cover some of those non negotiables, but essentially know that and go

to the website and look at that. So you just google Fairwork Act two thousand and nine and it will pop up, and it's going to be different based on what segment or what industry you work in, whether you're casual, part time or full time or a freelancer, there's going to be different segments. And it feels overwhelming because the

act is huge. Like beck, if I said, hey, here's the Act, I'd be like slamming it down on the table and you be like, oh, it's thicker than a bible in type twelve bench frends like, yeah, it's massive, right, But the website actually sets it out really easily so you can kind of jump to the sections that make sense for you. So if you work in retail, you can go and read the retail segment, or if you

work in hospitality, you can look at that segment. So don't think it's too overwhelming, because I promise it's not, and it's written in a way that is going to make sense to you, not be overwhelming, because it's definitely written for everybody to understand where they stand.

I'm actually dropping very very soon. Actually, when this episode comes out, I've probably already dropped it and that's a script to negotiate your salary so that you feel a little bit more empowered. But you need to think about factors like flexible work arrangements, paid parental leave, supernuation contributions, potentially health insurance. That's not as common in Australia, but it's becoming common because health insurance costs are going through

the roof. And having that in your I guess employment package it's pretty hot. We've got professional development opportunities, work life balance. There's so many different things that could be included, because you need to sit down and work out, well, what is a value to me, what's going to actually provide some benefits? Because Beck, if you and I sat down and how to look at this, like, I'm pretty sure at this stage in your life, paid parental leave is probably not on the top of your list, not

at the moment. But looking at like work life balance, you might go, oh, I'd love some more like leave days. Or you might say, oh, I'd really love some more flexible working arrangements because I'd love to work from home a few more days a week, or at least one day a week, or whatever that looks like. And all of those things can be negotiated at the end of the day. I think it's so wild. It's twenty twenty three, Like we can be flexible and still have super productive stuff.

It's not the nineties anymore, where our staff only have access to a computer that's a big clunky desktop at their desk and they have to come into work Like I can work from literally anywhere.

that way. Sure, if you're a traffic controller, you probably can't work from home, Like that's not really you can try promote and if it's so valuable to you that you do work from home, maybe we should be considering a different career product, right right, right, But that's just me, bad, that's just me.

to seven. Yeah, I think that you should have your laptop on you to access emails. If you really want to have your emails on your phone for your own ease of access, that is absolutely fine, But I find it so interesting because I had a friend the other day, go oh, my boss said that I had to download this particular software so that I can have my work

emails on my phone. And it's like a security software, but it's essentially a tracking software that like tracks the phone and they can wipe my friend's phone remotely, like if they lost it or you know, there was a data breach or whatever. I just feel like that's such an invasion of privacy and that's okay, Like if you accept it, no worries, Like if you're a bit like me and you're like, man, I don't say anything bad and my DMS go for it. I think that's fine

if you accept that. But that's now a work device, Like that's now a device that to me exists for work. So you either give me a work device that at five PM I can put in my draw and I only use it for work, or are you trying to tell me that you think I need twenty four seven access to my work emails, in which case, why right?

happy with that. And if you know my team are like that, then great, but I want that to be for their own benefit, not because my team need to you know, accessible to me twenty four to seven. And I think that there's a lot to say about asking your boss to pay your phone bill if it becomes a workfonm am, I expected to use this device for work, Yeah, great, pay.

hours playing the sims like I do. Sometimes Like, maybe that's not that reasonable to ask for. But if maybe, let's say you live in an apartment and you're expected to work from home five days a week and you don't actually use the Internet for anything else and you had to have it connected specifically to work from home, That's when I would mention to my boss like, oh, hey, what does this actually look like? I wouldn't have this service otherwise it's definitely a work expense, Yes.

a personal half for work. Maybe they pay thirty dollars of your bill and that just gets added to your salary so that you can pay that, or maybe it gets taken internally and it's like there's a lot to do and it's up to your boss how that happens. But I do think that we need to be advocating for those costs, like don't even get me started on reimbursements, like crazy. Okay, so this is actually kind of looking exciting and not so daunting. After all, it shouldn't be. Yeah, yeah,

I think that's the case. It feels very all good, it feels very uncomfortable. But for you, what other things should we take into consideration moving forward?

and you go, oh, V, that's actually really scary. I'm not sure, Like I don't want to get them offside. I don't want to have a bad conversation. Go all right, Beck, Well, what's going to make you more comfortable with this? Collect your information, do some research about whether your boss should be paying it. So I would google, you know media phone bill's boss pays, and forums are probably going to come up, and conversations are happening. These conversations happen every

single day. And now she's on the money community. So if you're not there, you're missing out. But you could have that conversation. I'd go, Beck, go and ask your colleagues, are any of them having their phone bills comped? And you might go around the office and a few people go, now,

I haven't thought about it. Now I haven't thought about it, And you're only asking trusted colleagues Like these could be people that you see as friends in your workplace, or they could be people that you see as friends outside of your workplace that are in similar roles. And you know, friend that works at a competitor goes, oh, yeah, Beck, actually my boss pays for half my phone bill. And you go, oh, how do you negotiate that?

a similar industry. Actually, yes, I get this. You've been told by someone who works for you that they negotiated it upfront, So you now know that that workplace do pay it. You just didn't negotiate it upfront, and now you do. So you're going to walk into this conversation a whole heap more empowered, so that you can say, hey, I'm just wondering, you know, you're not going to throw the influ in their face, just wondering what your thoughts about, you know, helping me out with this are. I've been

thinking about it. I do use the phone for personal use half the time, work use the other half. So you know, obviously I don't expect you to cover it all, but i'd like to propose that you know, you pay half the bill. Let me know your thoughts. Obviously, you don't have to answer immediately, and they're very likely to say yes. But also you're going to be so much more confident because you've had these conversations and you have

a really compelling argument. And if they then say no, that's when you come back and say, Okay, well, you know, I've got a friend in a different role at a different organization similar to mine, same thing happens. And have those conversations, obviously without throwing your colleagues under a bus, but have those conversations so you feel really empowered and so that you don't feel like you're asking for too much, because I promise you're not. Yeah, so V what else

should we be considering during this time? You need to look at how long you've been in the job. I mean, tackling this in the first week is probably going to make your boss give you a little bit of bombastic sidehi.

overall productivity and development. Like we're not just saying, Oh, I want to work from home because it's so nice, like my cat's there. I like being able to wear my slippers all day. I really like that when I finish at five o'clock, I can just slam my laptop shut and jump on Netflix. Like that's probably not what

your boss cares about. I think going to your boss and saying, look, i'd really like to work from home and highlighting the benefits to them, but also the benefits to your career and your overall productivity is going to make the most sense. So if I was trying to negotiate more work from home time, I'd go, Hey, Beck, you're my really cool boss. I really want to talk to you about my benefits and being able to work

from home. So I currently commute an hour and a half to and from work, and I know that that time's not productive, it's being lost. I also feel like I'm quite distracted in the office by you know, office politics and what a coller chat and all of that. I just think if I was working from home two days a week in comparison to the five I'm spending in the office, I think that I could be way more productive. I really want that. I guess, really solo time to smash out my emails and just get a

whole heap of projects done. I think my productivity is going to increase. That's really good for you know, obviously my career progression, but also for the business.

So obviously those are really good suggestions. But if I were you, I would actually book a time sure, so I would make sure that I am sitting down with my boss. I'm not just going to like walk into their office because I've been inspired by a podcast and be like, oh, beck you free for a sec. Like that's just going to get them offside. They're busy. I

promise you that's not going to go down well. But like preface it a little bit, Oh, I'd love to have a career check in, or I'd love to have a check in about you know, work from home and what that means, and book a time and if they say, oh, I don't have time for that, be like, okay, well, how do I make time for that? What would that look like? I'm happy to do it over lunch, I'm

happy to do this. I'm happy to do that. And I think that by being relatively assertive that this is important to you, they're going to make time for it. But also, if you pick a good time where you're already talking about how well you're doing, like a performance conversation, or you're re signing a contract, or you know, your employers asking for feedback, like, that's obviously going to be taken a lot better than you randomly walking into their office, which I do not recommend.

and professionally is very, very important. So make sure that when you go in there, maybe you've practiced it in their mirror, maybe you've practiced it in the car on the way in. But also to make yourself a little bit more confident, have some specific examples and some data to support your requests. So discuss the potential benefits, as I said before, for yourself, but also for the organization. So as I said before, saying I really want to work from home, like my cat's so lonely, it's not

going to go down. Well, let's not do that. Let's put the organization first and go all right, let's talk about more productivity. Here's some research that says people who work from home are way more productive. Let's consider that.

in earlier and leave earlier, depending on your role. It could mean a couple of days a week you work a longer shift so that on a Friday you only work a half shift, And it really depends on what is going to work for you and how that works. And obviously, guys, it's twenty twenty three. Work life balance is a top priority nowadays for most of us, and it's also something that a lot of organizations are talking about. So it depends on what you want to do and

how it works. But there's a lot of different ways that work life balance could be prioritized with your work hours. Additional leave options are a very attractive one as well. Beck So some employers they might offer additional paid leave options beyond the minimum requirements, like you might get extra annual leave days, or you might get paid volunteerly or cultural leave for specific events, or you know, extended unpaid leave for personal or travel purposes, and you can absolutely

negotiate that. So I have a girlfriend who recently negotiated this, and I'm so of her because I just think it's so baller. And she was like, I need to tell you about this because at the end of the day, I only did it because you told me that I could do it. She couldn't get a pay rise, and she was a bit salty about it, to be honest, and I would be too if I was in her shoes, because she'd been there for like five years, not how to pay rise, like nothing when it came to CPI

any of that. But she went back to the boss and said, Hey, no worries, I know that you can't afford more when it comes to salary, but I'd like two additional weeks of paid leave. And so now instead of having four weeks a year, she has six weeks a year paid leave. She gets to go on her Europe trip completely paid because she's you know, allocating that

time and energy to it. And I just think that that's such a sexy benefits, Like for some people, having more paid time off makes sense because she wouldn't have been able to afford to pay for it herself. But now it's in her contract. The employee is not out any more financially. Obviously, there's obviously an implication to that she's not there, but it worked out for everybody.

important is professional development and training. So there are a lot of employers that invest in their employees' professional development or their growth by offering training and skill development and career advancement. So what can your employee offer you. Are they maybe paying for you to go to a conference

each and every single year. It could be anything from financial support for different certifications or workshops or conferences, or just further education or even just time off for study. You could negotiate EAP SO Employee assistance programs so these are designed to support employees with personal or work related challenges, and they often provide confidential counseling services or legal advice, financial guidance, and resources for mental health support, which I

think is incredibly important. You could if they say no to a salary increase, you could negotiate a bonus or an incentive. So an employer might be able to offer you a performance based bonus or incentive program to reward you for your exceptional work or meeting specific targets. And these can be financial. It could be like a profit share scheme or you know, share options, or non monetary rewards like company sponsored trips or events, or even just

like training programs that you want access to. You could negotiate a sneaky little employee discount or perfect so. These discounts could be on like products or services offered by the company that you work for or its partners. These could include a range of things, including reduced pricing on company products, or subsidized childcare or transport, or access to

employee discount programs for shopping, travel or entertainment. Like ask your employer about these things, because sometimes they have them and they just not well communicated as well. Like I remember a couple of years ago talking to my dad, and my dad works in corporate and he was like, oh, we got this notice in our emails to say that this specific car dealership that you know, we've got a

partnership with is ending their partnership. He's like, I wish I knew about that before before I bought a new car, because I had no idea that we got a discount there. Right, I was like, what a good benefit, but also sad

it's leaving. Sad you didn't get access to it. He had no idea, So I think it's really important if you don't know whether they do, do a little bit of research is probably on your Like you know how lots of companies have those like portals that you can log into like intranets, have a look on there see

what other benefits are offered to you. And then again, work life balance in issuating and so I'm so about this and think it's so important that employers might implement I guess various incentives to promote work life balance, like on site childcare facilities, or flexible parental leave pies, or paid time off for family events, or the ability to purchase additional leave. So ask all of these questions. I

think that they are so important. But I guess you can see where my priority is live when it comes to work life balance.

few of the following. So minimum wage, So Australian workers are entitled to minimum wage, which is set by the Fair Work Commission and it's reviewed each and every single year. Stullbrainuation employers must make regular contributions to their employees super funds,

which are designed to provide a retirement income. The current minimum contribution rate is eleven percent of an employer's ordinary earnings, and as of the first of July twenty twenty six, employers will have to start paying your SUPER each pay day, which is an interesting concept that I got asked about the other day because a lot of people get paid their SUPER quarterly and they go, wait, why is it? Or may pay sleep for weekly or monthly or however often I get paid but only put into my account

every quarter. So if that's happening to you, yes, that is legal. I do look forward to the change, though, because I feel like I would like everybody to be investing more consistently and more regularly, to be making the most of dollar cost averaging, aside from that which I

obviously am very very passionate about. MEG And you'll leave and sick leave, so full time workers are entitled to paid annual leave, typically four weeks each and every single year unless negotiated otherwise, and personal or careers leave so sickly based on the National Employment Standards or the NES, which you can google for your industry. We then have parental leave, so the NES provides for unpaid parental leave

for eligible employees, including maternity and paternity leave. The Australian government also offers the Paid Parental Leave Scheme, providing financial assistance to eligible parents, which is very cool. And then the last one I've popped on my list is workplace Health and Safety, because I just think it's really important

to work in a safe environment. But employers are obligated to maintain a safe and healthy work environment and provide appropriate training and resources to ensure that your safety is put first. Back That's all I've got on my list.