Work

Not sure if I mentioned this back in February, but I met with the HR Manager to ask for a raise. One of my recently departed Swedish colleagues at that time had put the idea in my head. He had negotiated his pay higher when he was in the process of being hired. Anyway, my reason for requesting a raise was that I didn't feel like my effort was being fairly rewarded. It was a good meeting and a great idea to let my feelings be known. However, it was made clear at that point that there was nothing that could be done. Salary reviews are given very sparingly and only under specific circumstances (after having been with the company for a certain period of time and when you meet the minimum requirements of performance, punctuality, etc.). She asked if I would like to go on contract with Bo-ny. I told her that I did not because it would effectively mean less money up front in each paycheck because the holiday pay is put away, rather than paid out. She said I shouldn't be spending that money anyway. I replied that I had no choice. So, we were at a stalemate. At that point, I left the meeting, still feeling not fairly rewarded, but empowered by having spoken my mind.

About a month and a half later, the HR Manager was passing by my desk on other business. She stopped and quickly told me that they were working on my request, but then I didn't hear anything else for quite some time. The day before I was leaving for Florida, one of the Team Leaders came to my desk to ask for a copy of my passport and Belgian ID card. Apparently reacting to my look of confusion, he explained that it was for my permanent contract. He thought I knew about this already and was even more surprised when I explained why I did not want to sign a contract. Later that day, he said that apparently they had found a solution to the problem and they would speak to me about it when I returned.

So, this week almost went by without "incident" until Thursday afternoon. I received an e-mail from the office assistant asking me to contact the HR Manager regarding my contract which I subsequently did with my heart pounding in my chest. It was time to face the music. My stance on accepting a contract was the same, but I also had a piece of information in my pocket that they were not aware of yet: my plans to go to University in September.

I met with her towards the end of the workday and looked over the offer they had put on the table: a permanent contract with all it's benefits and a salary raise that affectively gave me the same amount of money "net" as I was netting already. Even though the holiday pay was being saved, I would end up with almost the same net per month as I was getting when the holiday pay was not withheld. I thanked them for the offer and then asked how they would feel about offering this when they knew that I "might" be leaving in August/September. I told her I had applied to two schools in the UK, but was still waiting to hear if I had been accepted. If I also told her that if I was accepted, I would most likely go. She asked when I would find out. I told her "in about a month". She passed this info by the guy who makes all the decisions and came back to me with the offer still standing. I told her I would take all the documents and think it over that night. We agreed on a meeting at noon the next day, Friday (yesterday).

Another good meeting that I left feeling pretty good about. At that point, I was 80% sure that I would go ahead and take the contract because when I left I'd get most of the withheld holiday pay issued to me. So I wasn't really losing much. However, when I got home I thought of another plainly obvious question I should have asked: is the raise contingent upon signing the contract? Suddenly, the choice wasn't so clear. From my standpoint, the up-front gratification of a 145 euro per month raise was a lot more appealing than the "security and benefits" of a permanent contract. With only 3-4 months left in Belgium, I was much more interested in being able to live a little more "richly" for that period of time. Either way, it wasn't a raise that would allow putting money away in savings or paying off big bills. However, if we can go out to dinner a couple of times per month or take a day trip here and there, we would be able to enjoy the rest of our time here more.

The next day I e-mailed her and asked about this. I didn't hear from her before our scheduled meeting at noon. So, I went up there with all of my contract papers with an open mind. I would make the decision then and there, based on the answers I got. She was actually surprised to see me. She said that after reading my e-mail, she was sure I wasn't going to sign and wasn't going to come up for the meeting. They had already cancelled my interim contract for next week and she had to try to make sure that they could put me back on, if needed. We agreed to meet that afternoon because she was really busy with other things she had moved on to when she thought I wasn't coming.

Meeting #3. By this point, I wasn't sure at all what I wanted to do. And I also felt like a schmuck for being so wishy-washy and questioning. Here they are offering me a raise and a contract. Then me taking a good hard look in the gift-horse's mouth. This meeting was productive however. She confirmed that I would get the raise either way and also explained the very complicated Belgian holiday-pay system. My stance crystallized and I was able to lay it on the table without hesitation: the reason I came to her in the first place was because I didn't think I was being fairly rewarded. While I was very grateful and thankful for their offer, it would still amount to me having the same size paycheck each month. I told her that there was a VERY strong chance that I would in fact leave in August, so it made more sense to me to accept the raise, but stay on interim contract. If I was less sure about getting into one of the schools, there would be no contest. Accepting the stability of the contract would be the obvious choice. My decision was made: I stay on interim. I asked her what she thought about the decision. She agreed with it and thought it was a wise decision. The good thing about the HR Manager is that she is very approachable and easy to talk to. A bit eccentric. She likes to get deep into the psychology of the job. After the business was settled, we talked for a while about behavioral psychology theories. She mentioned something called "Transactional Analysis" which I'm going to have to look into. Sounded very interesting.

Anyway, it's official. I have a raise. It starts on my contract for next week. Just goes to show... honesty is the best policy. Or at least, "near-honesty" is the best policy. After all, I don't want to tell them so soon that I'll definitely be leaving. I need this job and I'd rather not be replaced before I'm ready to be. The interim contract allows me to quit with three days notice. But I'm not going to do that to them. I'll let them know in mid to late May. That gives them a little over two months to recruit and train another Swede or two. They're very hard to find, so I think they'll need at least that long!

-RP-