For those of you who have negotiated (or renegotiated) job perks and more, how do you think things have changed in the past few years? If you’re on the hiring side, what requests seem to be more common these days? (For the hiring peeps: Are there any common requests that always strike you as ridiculous?)

In the past we’ve talked about

• Negotiating a great salary and other benefits (as well as some other less common benefits, like a tech budget — it may also be helpful to know what vacation benefits others get).
• Negotiating flexible work arrangements, like reduced work hours and/or selling a reluctant boss on remote work (that last link was written a few years ago, though, so I’m guessing it’s much easier than it was!).
• How to save $10K a year by using job benefits (and which ones to look at when you’re negotiating).
• Whether you can negotiate future maternity leave (before you’re pregnant)

What other types of things are negotiating right now? Readers are having an interesting threadjack this morning about negotiating travel requirements (particularly in light of Dobbs); you may also be negotiating how much face time is required in the office, if at all.

Let’s hear from you guys — how do you think job negotiations have changed recently?

Stock photo via Stencil.

The post The New Job Negotiations appeared first on Corporette.com.

I don’t think we’ve had this conversation in a few years, so let’s discuss: What “vacation time” comes with your job? What happens if you don’t take the time? How much time have you taken off in recent years, as a percentage of what you’re eligible for? (If your company allows remote work, do remote workers have the same vacation time packages/expectations as in-office workers?)

I’ve seen four main kinds of paid vacation days given by companies:

Earn your vacation time: You have to work to earn your vacation time. At a smaller office, a newer hire may be prohibited from taking extensive vacations, especially around holidays, as more senior members get first pick of when they’ll take time off. Sick days may “blend” a bit with vacation. (I just saw someone tweeting about how she had worked a zillion days straight while trying to “save up” for her maternity leave. Whee!)

Use it or lose it: Your company may give you a set number of days for vacation — and if you don’t use it you’ll lose it. In my experience, people with these packages are the ones who take vacations the most, even if they’re just restful staycations, because it’s part of the company culture that everyone takes that number of days off.

Rolling over vacation time: Some companies grant a set number of vacation days, and those vacation days can roll over from one year into the next if they go unused. This can be ideal in a situation like a pandemic, where travel can be difficult — but also if you want to bank your days, either for a big trip (honeymoon!) or to extend a limited maternity leave, especially with a small company where FMLA doesn’t apply.

”Unlimited” vacation days: These benefits SEEM like they’ll be amazing at first because, woohoo, unlimited vacation! But in my experience a lot of people in these jobs take less vacation than people with limited vacation days. I think this happens for a few reasons, the biggest of which comes to company culture — without the “use it or lose it” mentality, a lot of people just don’t take vacation. (On the flip side, I know one friend of a friend who’s the top executive at a hospital who has taken probably 10 weeks of vacation between January 2021 and now … so if you can actually take it, good for you!) If you have unlimited vacation days, I’d love to hear how many you take, and what a “reasonable number of vacation days” is (unofficially) among your coworkers.

So let’s discuss, readers: What do your vacation benefits look like? Does your office or team have rules (written or otherwise) on who can go on vacation at what time? Finally, how much vacation have you taken in recent years (and how much are you planning to take over the next 12 months or so)?

Stock photo via Stencil.

The post How Many Paid Vacation Days Do You Get Every Year? appeared first on Corporette.com.

Update: Administrative Professionals Day is April 24, 2024. Some great gifts to get for your administrative professional (other than cash, of course) include:

Administrative Professionals Day is soon! We haven’t talked about it in too long, but I’d love to hear how things have changed regarding your support staff over the past year — if you work with an administrative assistant, please chime in!

I know a lot of readers have noted the disappearance of the administrative assistants from their workplace, even before the pandemic. According to The WSJ in January 2020, there had been an almost 40% decline since 2000:

More than 1.6 million secretarial and administrative-assistant jobs have vanished since 2000, according to federal data, an almost 40% decline, comparable to that in manufacturing. The losses haven’t garnered much notice. Unlike a plant closing that leaves thousands of Americans unemployed in one go, jobs in a traditionally female sector have evaporated in dribs and drabs.

I’m sure the move to remote work further condensed things for a lot of offices — I cringed at the SNL skit about secretaries struggling with a Zoom call.

That said, I saw a really interesting TikTok from Dr. Kimberly Douglass, who talks a lot about neurodivergence, ADHD, and similar issues in the workforce. She was noting that the elimination of administrative support makes things harder for people who struggle with focus and attention.

Her point was that spending time and energy to do things like remembering events, hosting events, and making travel arrangements can be draining — and she encouraged her followers to seriously look at the absence or presence of administrative support when considering new jobs or accommodations for a current position.

So if you do still have an administrative assistant, show him or her some gratitude next week!

Some great gifts to get for your administrative professional (other than cash, of course) include:

Readers, let’s hear from you — do you work with an administrative assistant or have another form of administrative support? How has that changed if you’ve been working remotely? (Do you see truth in Dr. Douglass’s thoughts on administrative support?)

The post PSA: Administrative Assistants Day is Next Week! appeared first on Corporette.com.

Something we haven’t talked about in a while is tech budgets — do you have a tech stipend through your job? What is your tech budget, and what have you spent it on in 2020? Has your office been supporting work from home in other ways, such as loaning out equipment or providing tech help?

When I was at my law firm, we had something like $1,000 tech stipend per year. Most people I know used it for bigger monitors, or better Blackberry models (and yes, I’m dating myself).

These days, I would probably put it toward some of the other stuff we’ve recommended here to help you set up a great home office, including things like:

• ergonomic keyboards (I love this one)
• bigger (or more!) monitors
• ways to improve your WiFi, such as through Orbi
• I’d probably put money towards a better laptop or desktop if you could fund a partial purchase, but if that wasn’t an option I’d consider a Chromebook, particularly if you spend a lot of time on Zoom meetings or using web-based services (or, hey, if household members like your kids do). If you have a Surface I’d love to hear your experience! There was a lot of Lenova Yoga 2-in-1 love in our last discussion on favorite apps and gadgets, too.. 

{related: how to shop for a new PC}

But I’m curious to hear from you guys, particularly if your office is encouraging you to work from home — how are they supporting you during this time period? Do you have a specific budget for tech or home office, and what is your tech budget? What have you spent it on?

Stock photo via Stencil.

The post What Is Your Tech Budget? (Do You Have One?) appeared first on Corporette.com.

Readers, what are your best tips on how to negotiate future maternity leave benefits, such as before you get pregnant or even in the job interview? SHOULD you? I’ve gotten a number of questions about this recently, and I thought it might be an interesting topic. We’ve talked about how to announce your pregnancy at work, how to survive your first trimester, and how to leave an “out of the office” message for maternity leave — but not this. (Pictured.)

{related: tips for designing your maternity leave}

I have a few thoughts on this:

a) I really wish this is something that ALL women asked about. Heck, all PEOPLE asked about. Not only is it incredibly important for the family dynamic, but for the workplace dynamic too. If you don’t plan to get pregnant but work in a small office with lots of younger women — know that everyone else’s maternity leave may affect your work burden as well. If you DO plan to get pregnant, you should know your rights — particularly if you should be so lucky to weight multiple job offers. Of course: plans change. And, of course: no one wants to bring it up in a job interview.

b) The proper way to do it, I suppose, is to inquire about health benefits. When do they kick in? What is considered a preexisting condition? Do you have any disability coverage? (You may want to consider getting some yourself, before you get pregnant, in case bed rest is required or something during the pregnancy itself.) And in the midst of all that, ask about maternity leave benefits.

c) Know your rights before you go in. As Parents.com notes, “The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 grants all parents the same 12 weeks (it’s all considered family leave for fathers and adoptive parents). You can begin the 12 weeks before you give birth, but then you’ll have less time afterward.” The FMLA only applies to companies with at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. (So: consider asking how many employees work at the company during the initial interview stage.)

d) If you negotiate at all, try to negotiate for extra paid vacation time (perhaps that rolls over every year), as suggested in this WSJ article.

Readers — have you negotiated maternity leave (either for future maternity leave benefits, or right before you went on leave)? For those of you in smaller offices (particularly those outside the FMLA guidelines), what does maternity leave look like for you and/or your coworkers?

Pictured above, 5 great books for working mothers, L-R: one / two / three / four / five 

Updated images via Deposit Photos / Seetwo. FB images via Stencil (woman holds image of ultrasound against a pink blanket).

The post How to Negotiate Future Maternity Leave Before You’re Even Pregnant appeared first on Corporette.com.

What is the best way to evaluate your benefits package at work? When it comes to money, the true savings are never in the tiny things — they’re in the big things like your healthcare plan and your investments. My old friend Sue is a master at all of this hard personal finance stuff — I’ve asked her to share some of her knowledge with us today. You can follow her on Twitter at @suziedonuts if you want more great tips! – Kat.

Yes yes, you know how to clip coupons and shop sales. But there are two problems with this approach: First, it takes too much time for not enough payout, so you’re practically doomed to failure before you begin; and second, you’ve heard it all before, so if you’re not doing it by now, you’re not going to do it tomorrow. Plus, being frugal requires constant vigilance. I’m not saying it’s not worthwhile, because it is; but especially when you’ve got a healthy cash flow coming in, you have to put dollars before cents.

In honor of the original title for this series (Tales from the Wallet)… here’s a great wallet!

First you need to make sure you are fully maximizing your savings the big stuff, and not necessarily the stuff you read about. The big savings can be found in your workplace benefits and your investment accounts. The tips below will help you shave up to $10,000 off your expenses.

(Note: For simplicity’s sake, we’ll assume in these examples that you are making $150,000, are married filing jointly with one dependent, and are living in New York state.)

Saving at Your Work: $3,576+

Whenever you start a new job, HR gives you a giant info packet. Grab a cup of coffee and dig in. A good benefits package is worth its weight in gold. At a large company, the benefits might include perks such as:

– Free admission to major museums in your city

– Discounted rates on mobile phone service, banking, childcare, and insurance

– Health Advocate services (I can’t say enough good things about these guys)

– Flex spending accounts

Sure, the museum and gym perks are nice, and I’ve used them. A lot. But the real savings for me has been in the boring stuff.

Let’s say you are spending $500/month on groceries, and you cut your food spending by 50% by shopping sales and using coupons. That’s $3,000 a year. And it’s a pain in the neck to do. Believe me, I’ve done it. I’ve got the coupon organizer and the deep freezer and the stacks of sales circulars. I even wrote up a grocery price book, although that’s a whole other post. Suffice it to say, there’s a reason that most of the women on Extreme Couponing are stay-at-home moms.

Alternately, you can save almost $3,500 a year just by finding tax-advantaged ways to do the same stuff you’d do anyway – namely, by using the flex-spending accounts that your company may already be offering. In our example, you’ll save 34% by using flex accounts:
– $1,700 savings: Flex Spending Account for medical out-of-pocket ($2,500/year per worker @ 34%) – just be sure to “use it or lose it” each year
– $1,876 savings: Commuter Spending Account for mass-transit passes or parking ($2,760/year per worker @ 34%)
– BONUS ROUND: $1,700 savings: Dependent Care Spending Account for daycare or preschool ($5,000/year per household @ 34%)
Source: Bankrate.com 125 Cafeteria Plan Calculator

During Benefits Season in November, set up your flex accounts for the year. Then, take the afternoon off and visit your local museum on the company’s dime; you deserve it.

Saving with Your Investments: $6,721

With all that extra cash, you can front-load a 529 plan, which can be used for educational spending for yourself and then handed off to your children when the time comes. In New York, you can deposit up to $10,000 a year state-tax-free into the New York 529 College Savings Program Direct Plan, which is administered by Vanguard. In this example, maxing out the 529 will save you another $738 in taxes this year. Not to mention, the money grows tax-free. If that $10k sat in the 529 for 18 years, growing at 7%, you’d save $5,497 in taxes versus using your regular brokerage account.

Source: Bankrate.com 529 College-Savings-Plan Estimator

There have been countless books written on investing. I’m not going to tell you how to invest, but please, make sure you pay as few fees as possible. I’m a Boglehead myself. I make a regular contribution to an index fund every month; if the market tanks, I increase my contribution as much as I can stand it. Since I put in relatively small amounts each time, I want to minimize my commission fees (the price you pay per trade) and my expense ratios (the % the fund charges annually for maintenance). So I stick to index funds from discount brokerages like Vanguard or Schwab, which have very low expense ratios. You can open a brokerage account at Schwab with as little as $100. (Vanguard’s minimum is $3,000.) You also should never have to pay a commission fee when buying an index fund.

Schwab’s expense ratio for its Total Stock Market Index Fund (SWTSX) is 0.09% as of this writing. The Morningstar industry average is 0.38%. If you invest $500 a month with Schwab, you save $174 a year in fees.

You can also link your Schwab brokerage account to its High Yield Investor Checking account, which is truly free checking – Schwab even reimburses all ATM fees. At two, $3 trips a week, that’s $312 a year in fees.

The Long View: Break a Million Without Breaking a Sweat

Based on the above examples, a married couple with children could save as much as $6,500 a year. What does that get you in the long run?

Let’s say you’re 30 now. If you invest that $6,500 in an index fund making just 7% annually (because that 10% figure you always see thrown around is so 2007), you’ll be a millionaire by age 65. All without clipping a single coupon.

Source: Bankrate Simple Savings Calculator

Readers, are you maximizing your money with all of these big picture items? What are your best tips with the big picture items?

The post Tales from the Wallet: The Easy Way to Save $10k appeared first on Corporette.com.