Speaker 1: It's time for the v a QAA, the v a qa.
Speaker 1: What to say the b a qa with Manda the
Speaker 1: ba QA and Tiffany ain't here a what's up y'all?
Speaker 1: It's Mandy Money. I am here writing solo for this
Speaker 1: episode of the BAQA, missing my better half. However, what
Speaker 1: do we do when one of us is not feeling
Speaker 1: up to it? We got each other's back, So I
Speaker 1: am very excited to be here for today's career themed
Speaker 1: episode of Brown Ambitions QA. Just a reminder, if you
Speaker 1: guys have not been uses your first time listening to
Speaker 1: the show, it's your first introduction. Let me just clarify
Speaker 1: something with you. We ain't your financial advisor, we ain't
Speaker 1: your lawyer. We are not your uh your gynecologist. We're
Speaker 1: not your therapist, we're not your doctor. So we give
Speaker 1: advice on the show. It is just meant to be
Speaker 1: for entertainment enlightenment purposes. Okay, use it for inspo. We
Speaker 1: can't know every single thing that is right for you,
Speaker 1: but we can definitely give you our best ideas and
Speaker 1: just based off of our own advice and expertise in
Speaker 1: our different fields. When it comes to career stuff, I
Speaker 1: do qualify myself as an expert because I had a
Speaker 1: great career, I have a great career, and I help
Speaker 1: other ambitious women create incredible careers of their own. So
Speaker 1: I love getting these questions. I hope that you guys
Speaker 1: find it helpful. If you want to submit a question
Speaker 1: to the podcast to be answered, it's super easy. Slide
Speaker 1: into our DMS at Brand Ambition Podcasts, and our wonderful
Speaker 1: assistant will direct your questions into the mailbag and then
Speaker 1: we just kind of pick each week which questions we
Speaker 1: want to answer. And this week two incredible questions have
Speaker 1: been highlighted. We got one that deals with a really
Speaker 1: important topic, which is what happens and how can I,
Speaker 1: you know, create a career when I actually have a
Speaker 1: physical health condition that limits my physical abilities. And then
Speaker 1: we also have a question about someone who's got access
Speaker 1: to one of the dinosaurs of workplace benefits called a
Speaker 1: pension plan and wants to know is it juicy enough
Speaker 1: to keep her there or can she entertain other job offers?
Speaker 1: So let's get on into it. Let's start with question
Speaker 1: This comes from someone who wants us to call her
Speaker 1: Mama Bear. Okay, from one Mama bear to another Mama
Speaker 1: Bear says, hey, browan ambition, I have a career question.
Speaker 1: When do you disclose a medical condition to your boss?
Speaker 1: In this situation? A twenty seven twenty seven year old
Speaker 1: was diagnosed with MS in twenty twenty one. Recently, she's
Speaker 1: having difficulty with basic physical tasks and has a noticeable limp,
Speaker 1: awkward walking slash altered walking slash moves much slower due
Speaker 1: to MS or another yet to be diagnosed condition. She
Speaker 1: was recently hired for a role that requires intermittent physical movement,
Speaker 1: including walking, lifting heavy equipment during about half of her
Speaker 1: work days. She's one month into this new career and
Speaker 1: is excited about it, but she's worried that her wedical
Speaker 1: condition may impede her performance. People are noticing when asked
Speaker 1: she told them something but didn't fully disclose what was happening.
Speaker 1: She's in a right to work state and hopefully as
Speaker 1: the doctor slash medicine slash treatments are figured out, she
Speaker 1: will be physically better and can do the work. How
Speaker 1: do you best navigate this landmine of a conversation? Signed
Speaker 1: Mama Bear. Okay, Mama Bear, I'm going to guess this
Speaker 1: is your daughter and Ugh, it's just first of all,
Speaker 1: your daughter's only twenty seven years old, and I people
Speaker 1: getting diagnosed with MS that young is just wild to me.
Speaker 1: And I think on the bright side, you know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot more awareness about multiple sclerosis these days. We have,
Speaker 1: you know, celebrities like Christina Applegate and Selma Blair, but
Speaker 1: then also our own first lady, the queen of everything
Speaker 1: in my mind, Michelle Obama, talks about her dad's struggle
Speaker 1: with MS even as she was a kid growing up.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more progress, I think being made when
Speaker 1: it comes to like treating people with MS. I don't
Speaker 1: personally have experience with MS, but if you zoom out
Speaker 1: of this, it's not so much about the name of
Speaker 1: her condition. It's the fact that she has a medical
Speaker 1: condition which is a private one and it can remain so,
Speaker 1: and there are protections. There's something called the ADA, the
Speaker 1: American Discrimination Act. So what it's called. I know it's ADA,
Speaker 1: but what does stand ford though? Let me oh, the
Speaker 1: American Disabilities Act. Okay, aba fan, We're going to take
Speaker 1: a quick break and we'll be right back. So the
Speaker 1: ADA basically protects employees from being discriminated against as long
Speaker 1: as they are qualified to do the job. They can't
Speaker 1: be discriminated against for any sort of quote unquote disability.
Speaker 1: We shouldn't be calling it that, I know, but different ability.
Speaker 1: So if that's issues with vision, hearing, physical movement, if
Speaker 1: you need a cane or a walker, or you know,
Speaker 1: you need special equipment, that you cannot be fired specifically
Speaker 1: for that reason. So I had to do a little
Speaker 1: bit of I wanted to understand really how the law
Speaker 1: can be applied in a situation where jobs like absolutely
Speaker 1: need someone to be physically able to do the work.
Speaker 1: For example, I imagine you'd have a hard time getting
Speaker 1: hired by like a UPS or a FedEx to be
Speaker 1: working in the warehouse if you're not able to physically
Speaker 1: lift the boxes in the whatever you need the packages
Speaker 1: into the trucks to be delivered. Right, So there is
Speaker 1: actually an allowance for companies to put on job descriptions
Speaker 1: if it is a if it's a legitimate requirement that
Speaker 1: you must be able to lift so and so, you
Speaker 1: must be able to stand for so many hours. And
Speaker 1: I think that that's fair enough because in some jobs
Speaker 1: there does need to be a physical requirement. My question
Speaker 1: for you and your daughter is she's so young and
Speaker 1: carving out her career. I know that you guys are
Speaker 1: I mean, MS is just this, from what I understand,
Speaker 1: It's not a disease where you just here's the treatment
Speaker 1: for it, and we put a bit. You just get
Speaker 1: this medication, and that's what it is. It's not like
Speaker 1: you just get a moxacillin and your day, you know,
Speaker 1: you're done, go fight the infection. It is so complex,
Speaker 1: and it's so individually complex that she may have her
Speaker 1: own treatment plan and that can change, and it probably
Speaker 1: will change as she ages and as the science develops.
Speaker 1: I hope to improve treatments for her disease. I think
Speaker 1: it's a really crucial, probably difficult conversation to have. Because
Speaker 1: you're twenty seven, you don't want any limits on your career,
Speaker 1: and I don't think she should have any limits on
Speaker 1: her career. But I do think that the same way
Speaker 1: that you know, I approached my career, like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: not great at accounting, so I'm probably not going to
Speaker 1: go into, you know, into learning accounting or becoming a CPA.
Speaker 1: I'm not great at well, I'm so not great at
Speaker 1: so many things. What do I choose? I'm not great
Speaker 1: at a sport, So I'm probably not going to go
Speaker 1: into a field that requires any sort of coordination and
Speaker 1: physical like sport activity. So I think that she doesn't
Speaker 1: need to see it as like a something that's going
Speaker 1: to hold her back, but just some some information about
Speaker 1: herself and how she can best thrive in a workplace
Speaker 1: and for her own happiness. You just don't want to
Speaker 1: be in a workplace where you feel like you are
Speaker 1: not giving your best or not able to deliver the
Speaker 1: same as your colleagues, because you're just not made the
Speaker 1: same way. We're all different. Right. What I will say is,
Speaker 1: at this stage, she is well within her right to
Speaker 1: keep the information private. I just don't want her to
Speaker 1: get hurt by doing that, because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, who is she protecting with that information. If
Speaker 1: she goes to her HR or to her manager and says, hey,
Speaker 1: I want to disclose, I think she I want to
Speaker 1: disclose that I have been diagnosed with MS. Here's what
Speaker 1: that means. Here's what my doctors have said. I am
Speaker 1: going to now ask you for to make some accommodations
Speaker 1: because I have this diagnosis. She is well within her
Speaker 1: right and as long as she is still qualified to
Speaker 1: do the parts of the job that is that they're
Speaker 1: requiring her to do. They can't legally do anything about it,
Speaker 1: like they have to be okay with that, And it's
Speaker 1: I just don't want her to be unsafe because what
Speaker 1: if they're asking her to do something that she can't
Speaker 1: do and she hurts herself or you know, or just
Speaker 1: like the even just the mental toll of like can
Speaker 1: I do this thing? Yeah, and just that discomfort of
Speaker 1: saying that you can do something when you really don't
Speaker 1: know is your body Are you going to wake up
Speaker 1: that day able to do it? Which I don't think
Speaker 1: of people with MS know every day what it's going
Speaker 1: to be like. You may have good days and bad days.
Speaker 1: Having a boss who understands that you're going to give
Speaker 1: them an opportunity to make accommodations for you and to
Speaker 1: be flexible for you. I can give an example as
Speaker 1: a as a leader when I was managing a big team.
Speaker 1: One of my my actually my number two, after she
Speaker 1: was hired. I forget at what point, but came to
Speaker 1: me and said, I have a medical condition that I'm
Speaker 1: not giving her name, so I'll just say it was endometriosis,
Speaker 1: which is if you're a woman, you should know about endemetriosis.
Speaker 1: It's very painful condition that affects your menstrual cycle. It
Speaker 1: affects your fertility for so many different things, but it's
Speaker 1: also extremely painful. And when you're in that type of pain,
Speaker 1: you can't show up to the office. And this was
Speaker 1: pre COVID, so we were come to work every day,
Speaker 1: be in the physical meetings, come to the happy hours,
Speaker 1: kind of vibe right, And so it was, you know,
Speaker 1: a request of hers, like when I'm in these when
Speaker 1: I'm having these bad days, then I'm going to need
Speaker 1: to work from home? Is that okay? And I was like,
Speaker 1: of course, but I had an opportunity to like make
Speaker 1: an accommodation, and I did and often, and I did
Speaker 1: a little bit of research on this just to make sure.
Speaker 1: Often when it comes to MS, a common accommodation is
Speaker 1: to work from home because you know, you you may
Speaker 1: feel fatigue is a big symptom also pain, and that
Speaker 1: pain can manifest in different ways. So maybe that your
Speaker 1: daughter wants to move forward in her career kind of
Speaker 1: carving out a way that she can work from home
Speaker 1: or at least have like a hybrid work situation. At
Speaker 1: the very least work for you know, a company that
Speaker 1: has management that is going to accommodate her and be
Speaker 1: like understanding when it's a bad day. I don't for
Speaker 1: her own good. I don't want to make this about
Speaker 1: you know. You could go, like I said, in the
Speaker 1: negative sort of lane of oh, this is going to
Speaker 1: hold me back from so much. I wanted this kind
Speaker 1: of career for myself. Don't think that way. I think
Speaker 1: the mindset has to be I'm going to make this
Speaker 1: work for me as I am. I'm an individual, but
Speaker 1: I have every right to have an amazing career in
Speaker 1: whatever field that she's in, you know, in spite of this,
Speaker 1: in spite of this different ability that I have in
Speaker 1: this disease that I'm contending with, and you got to
Speaker 1: take charge of it yourself and kind of move empowered,
Speaker 1: move with the sense of let's figure this out. And
Speaker 1: ideally she has employer and employer who is going to
Speaker 1: be on board with that and wants to help her
Speaker 1: be prepared. I would say, to have an employer who
Speaker 1: doesn't understand MS. I mean, you're kind of the same
Speaker 1: way you're asking me this question. If I was your manager,
Speaker 1: I'd be like Okay, I want to find out everything
Speaker 1: I can about your condition, and I want you to
Speaker 1: also help educate me so that we can create an
Speaker 1: environment that is you know, conducive to you. It makes
Speaker 1: you comfortable, and that may be you know, even paying
Speaker 1: for a certain equipment. You know, if you want to
Speaker 1: work from home, they need a special equipment like a
Speaker 1: special computer or whatever workstation that they can, you know,
Speaker 1: spend a few hundred dollars to do that to accommodate you.
Speaker 1: Companies I've seen do that many times over on the
Speaker 1: off chance that you're working and they they don't want
Speaker 1: to accommodate you, or they say, okay, we respect this,
Speaker 1: but given the requirements of this job, you're not qualified
Speaker 1: to complete the tasks that are required. This is the
Speaker 1: point where I think it would be smart for you
Speaker 1: to go in ahead of time, like really well educated
Speaker 1: on ADA, the American Disabilities Act and what is protected
Speaker 1: and what isn't. Like I said, if it's a job
Speaker 1: where like they were very specific, you need to be
Speaker 1: able to do this type of physical labor. And that's
Speaker 1: a big chunk of what the job is. I know
Speaker 1: you say that it's about half of her day. That's
Speaker 1: a pretty significant amount of time. Then they may be
Speaker 1: within their rights to say, unfortunately, you're no longer able
Speaker 1: to do what we are what's necessary for this role.
Speaker 1: But it would be in their best interest, I would say,
Speaker 1: and yours for them to find a better fit for
Speaker 1: you at the same company. And I would want to
Speaker 1: if it was me, if it was my daughter, I'd
Speaker 1: want to help her kind of do her own research
Speaker 1: before having the conversation and figure out maybe she could
Speaker 1: even come to the table with a suggestion this may bee,
Speaker 1: may not the best, may not be the best long
Speaker 1: term fit for me, But how about I check in
Speaker 1: with you once a month and just let you know
Speaker 1: how I'm doing, and we can sort of stay ahead
Speaker 1: of it. And then if things start, you know, really
Speaker 1: deteriorating to where I can't actually consistently show up and
Speaker 1: do what I need to do, then here's an idea
Speaker 1: about transferring me to this other department, this other team.
Speaker 1: Where can we use my talents in the best way
Speaker 1: so that I can deliver for you guys, and that
Speaker 1: you guys, you know, are getting your business goals met.
Speaker 1: But I'm also bringing value to the team. It is
Speaker 1: a really complex conversation but I would not shy away
Speaker 1: from it. Like I said, it's your baby, it's your daughter,
Speaker 1: and she needs to be safe and they need to
Speaker 1: know not to ask her to do certain things and understand,
Speaker 1: you know, don't treat and not be able to judge
Speaker 1: her negatively if she's like if they're like, oh gosh,
Speaker 1: this girl again is calling out sick or saying she
Speaker 1: needs to work from home, like, ough, what is going on?
Speaker 1: If you just give them the information, then they can
Speaker 1: be more generous with you. I hate to say, but
Speaker 1: human nature is to sometimes think the worst of people
Speaker 1: who who you know, are not showing up to work
Speaker 1: the way that they think that they should be and
Speaker 1: all that. But if they just know what's going on,
Speaker 1: they can be much more sympathetic and empathetic to her,
Speaker 1: and that, ultimately, I think, is just going to be better,
Speaker 1: better for her, healthier for her. She'll feel safer and supported,
Speaker 1: and if she's not getting what she needs from this place,
Speaker 1: then hopefully she can find well not hopefully she's going
Speaker 1: to find something else for sure where she'll be able to, yeah,
Speaker 1: find a job that's a good fit for her as
Speaker 1: she deals with as she deals with these conditions, and listen.
Speaker 1: As we know in this country, health care is tied
Speaker 1: to our work, so she has to work, right, It's survival.
Speaker 1: It's like for her, all these bills she's going to
Speaker 1: be bringing up, like she's going to need to work
Speaker 1: unless it comes to a point where she's so debilitated.
Speaker 1: I pray it won't ever happen, but that she will
Speaker 1: need some sort of like social services to help, and
Speaker 1: then there's options for that Medicare, social Security, all of that.
Speaker 1: But as I don't think that that you're even close
Speaker 1: to that. I think as a mom, you know, you
Speaker 1: may just be like thinking of worst outcomes because it's
Speaker 1: your baby and you're so scared for her. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, I think I would I would be
Speaker 1: really optimistic because that's going to help her stay optimistic
Speaker 1: and just say, like, we can figure this out, you know,
Speaker 1: don't keep it a big hairy, scary secret. Let's be transparent.
Speaker 1: Let's go in with like a solution oriented mindset and
Speaker 1: just say, hey, this is what I'm capable of. I
Speaker 1: can still contribute so much, Here's where I can do it,
Speaker 1: here's what I think. Get the advice from your medical
Speaker 1: team as well, and bring that to the table and
Speaker 1: let your employer in on that so that they can
Speaker 1: be a supporter as well. Thank you, Mama Bear for
Speaker 1: sending this question. Is I hope? I mean, I know
Speaker 1: that so many of our listeners are either dealing with something.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's an invisible ailment like MS can be, or
Speaker 1: maybe it's just you have a loved one who's dealing
Speaker 1: with it and you've seen it effect their career. This
Speaker 1: is not uncommon. I mean, you never know what people
Speaker 1: are going through, So I'm glad you asked. And if
Speaker 1: you're someone who's listening right now and there's something that
Speaker 1: you're holding back from your employer because you're afraid of repercussions,
Speaker 1: educate yourself on your protections too, and think about are
Speaker 1: you doing more harm than good by keeping it a secret?
Speaker 1: And what good can come of it if you open
Speaker 1: If you open up and let them in and let
Speaker 1: them see what you're going through, you may find on
Speaker 1: the other side there's understanding, compassion, flexibility waiting for you. Okay,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your question, Mama Bear, and
Speaker 1: we'll take a quick break, take a little woosa, and
Speaker 1: be right back for a question number two. All RIGHTBA Faan,
Speaker 1: we are back with another question. I recognize this ig
Speaker 1: handle City Floor. I think you have sent a question before,
Speaker 1: but I'm excited to hear from y'all again. You say, hey,
Speaker 1: Mandy and Tiffany, y'all are my favorite podcasters of all time.
Speaker 1: All I seriously love you guys. Thank you. I'm so sweet.
Speaker 1: All Right, I have a career dilemma and need your help.
Speaker 1: I work at a big company and they've offered great benefits.
Speaker 1: One of them is a six percent retirement match and
Speaker 1: a pension plan after three year. One of them is
Speaker 1: a six percent retirement match in a pension plan after
Speaker 1: three years of employment. I'm going to be at two
Speaker 1: years this September. My dilemma is, I've been getting a
Speaker 1: lot of in Mandy's words, juicy job offers on LinkedIn
Speaker 1: that offer a minimum one hundred K and great benefits
Speaker 1: slash work balance, they're one hundred percent remote, etc. I'm
Speaker 1: currently making a little over eighty K and I'm coming
Speaker 1: into the office three days a week. It's enticing to
Speaker 1: consider one of these other offers, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to forgo the money the company has been putting into
Speaker 1: my retirement and the pension plan, especially since I've only
Speaker 1: got a year and change left to be vested. What
Speaker 1: advice would you give me? Please help many things, City Floor. Okay,
Speaker 1: I love this question. I love a company that offers
Speaker 1: not only a match for your retirement contributions, but a
Speaker 1: pension plan of their own. That's incredible. I don't unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I want like, I want to know more about the
Speaker 1: details of your retirement match and of the pension plan.
Speaker 1: I need to understand that to give you, like a
Speaker 1: really specific answer to your question. But I'll do my best. Okay. So,
Speaker 1: when it comes to your four one K match and
Speaker 1: a pension plan, the keyword you mentioned it is vested.
Speaker 1: Are you actually vested? You say that after three years
Speaker 1: of employment you have access to a pension plan. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to make an assumption here that in order
Speaker 1: to even have a pension plan, you have to work
Speaker 1: through three years. Then the company starts making an employer
Speaker 1: contribution to a pension for you. At that point, you're
Speaker 1: still not vested. There's going to be a vesting schedule
Speaker 1: for that pension, so the employer maybe making contributions to
Speaker 1: your pension for years of employment. This happens in a
Speaker 1: lot of public sector fields, a lot less common in
Speaker 1: private sector, but hey, you found a little unicorn of
Speaker 1: your own. However, they're making these contributions, but you may
Speaker 1: you may not have access or you will not have
Speaker 1: access to those funds until you are vested. All right, now,
Speaker 1: your retirement match This is when a company says, if
Speaker 1: you put in a certain amount of money to your
Speaker 1: retirement each month, we will match that up to, in
Speaker 1: your case, six percent of your contribution, or sorry, we will, yeah,
Speaker 1: we will contribute up to six percent of whatever you
Speaker 1: do or six It can it can vary the language,
Speaker 1: but they're going to be matching what you're putting into
Speaker 1: your four one K to a certain extent. But even
Speaker 1: that match can be on a vesting schedule. So even
Speaker 1: if they're like, we're going to cover one hundred percent
Speaker 1: up to six percent of your contribution, they can still say,
Speaker 1: but you can't touch that money that we put in
Speaker 1: until you have been vested. It's for or until you've
Speaker 1: been here for ten years, then you're fully vested, or
Speaker 1: it'll probably be less than that. But you catch my drift.
Speaker 1: What I call when you're when I call this situation,
Speaker 1: it's actually a really positive one because this baby girl
Speaker 1: gives you lever rige just my favorite word. It gets
Speaker 1: me up in the morning. It gives me life leverage,
Speaker 1: baby leverage. Here's what happens when you are applying for
Speaker 1: these other jobs, or you're not even applying, you're just
Speaker 1: getting little like you're getting nice, juicy offers on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1: Probably because you have a great profile that is specific
Speaker 1: about what skills you bring to the table and the jobs.
Speaker 1: The people who are looking for talent and posting jobs,
Speaker 1: they are finding your profile and reaching out to you. Amazing.
Speaker 1: That's a great sign that you have a strong you know, profile,
Speaker 1: a strong brand professionally, and also that your skills are
Speaker 1: in demand. Love that for you. However, what that means
Speaker 1: for the people trying to poach you, which is what
Speaker 1: they're trying to do. They're trying to get you to
Speaker 1: leave your comfortable job with the six percent match, with
Speaker 1: the promise of a pension, with the decent salary of
Speaker 1: eighty k. They're trying to get you to leave that job.
Speaker 1: And do you know what, all these these delicious things
Speaker 1: on your plate, all these benefits that you have, what
Speaker 1: that's telling them is, oh city floor, that floor is
Speaker 1: not going to be an easy catch. We're going to
Speaker 1: have to bring the best, juiciest benefits and compensation to
Speaker 1: the table to get her to even consider taking our offer.
Speaker 1: That's leverage, baby, And that is when I say you
Speaker 1: can quit your way rich. What I mean is when
Speaker 1: you are willing to walk away from a job or
Speaker 1: even interview while you already have a job, it just
Speaker 1: puts you in a much more powerful position because they
Speaker 1: already expect to have to win you over. Versus someone
Speaker 1: who is applying to a job and they've recently been
Speaker 1: let go or at their very first job, and the
Speaker 1: company is then thinking, oh, well, there's nothing else they have,
Speaker 1: so let's just give them the market value that we
Speaker 1: think is best for them. But you have a current
Speaker 1: market value, okay, So what I would do is I
Speaker 1: would not let your pension or your match stop you
Speaker 1: from job hunting. That would be career suicide in a
Speaker 1: couple of ways. One, even though your company is giving
Speaker 1: you great benefits, they can still lay your ass off
Speaker 1: and will and did and has and will always. Companies
Speaker 1: constantly will reorg, have an acquisition, sell off a part
Speaker 1: of their company. The economy changes, you can be extremely disposable.
Speaker 1: So you want to keep your options open. You want
Speaker 1: to take those interviews, You want to keep in contact
Speaker 1: with recruiters, hiring managers elsewhere. You want to do it
Speaker 1: just for your everything from interview experience to actually having
Speaker 1: competitive job offers that make sure that you are getting
Speaker 1: paid market rate for your skills constantly, versus staying loyal
Speaker 1: to your employer and being at the mercy of what
Speaker 1: they consider you to be worth being at the mercy
Speaker 1: of those bullshit, you know, cost of living adjustments. If
Speaker 1: you're lucky in January each year, that's like two percent
Speaker 1: or nothing that's ever going to match what the real
Speaker 1: cost of living adjustment is. Okay, thanks inflation. So when
Speaker 1: you're looking at this, you want to take these other
Speaker 1: job opportunities and you want to go into it obviously
Speaker 1: want you know, you want to find the right fit
Speaker 1: for you, even if it's one hundred thousand dollars they're offering.
Speaker 1: Look at their benefits package and keep in mind, do
Speaker 1: they offer a match Okay? Do they offer a pension plan? No?
Speaker 1: Now you may think, okay, I do have a pension
Speaker 1: right now, or I could have a pension right now,
Speaker 1: and I do have this six percent match. Even if
Speaker 1: you're not vested, and I have done this myself, even
Speaker 1: if you're not vested, you can still negotiate for them
Speaker 1: to make you whole for any money you're leaving on
Speaker 1: the table. So just the fact that, like, let's say
Speaker 1: you have ten thousand dollars of a retirement match that
Speaker 1: you're not vested into, so you can't do anything with it.
Speaker 1: But it's a carrot that your company's dangling in front
Speaker 1: of you to keep you there. It's called a retention
Speaker 1: kind of benefit. They want you to stay with them,
Speaker 1: and they're making it a little bit harder for you
Speaker 1: to leave by giving you this match and saying you
Speaker 1: can't have it. Yeah, but it's day with us for
Speaker 1: another three years, and we're going to make sure that
Speaker 1: we squeeze every bit of talent out of you while
Speaker 1: you're here. The other company that's trying to poach you
Speaker 1: may be willing to just snatch that carrot for you
Speaker 1: and just give you their own carrot. So let's say
Speaker 1: you've got ten k in this retirement match that is
Speaker 1: you're not vested into, you can't access it. Company B
Speaker 1: who's trying to poach you could say Oh well, we'll
Speaker 1: give you a ten K signing bonus. So not only
Speaker 1: do you get another job with juicy benefits, but they're
Speaker 1: literally like advancing you the money in your retirement match,
Speaker 1: so you wouldn't even have access to now if you stayed. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I did this personally one of my last jobs,
Speaker 1: which is I think I had something like one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. I'll just get my business. I had like
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars worth of equity in the company
Speaker 1: that had been given to me that wasn't vested yet.
Speaker 1: It wasn't going to be fully vested for four years.
Speaker 1: It was going to be incremental, which is how it
Speaker 1: typically happens. So every year I would potentially have twenty
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars that I could vest or access. That's
Speaker 1: if the stock market thought it was valued at one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars, you know, like that's if the stock
Speaker 1: continued to perform. Well, it could have done even better
Speaker 1: than that, but it also could it no way worse.
Speaker 1: And when I was interviewing it about to take a job,
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I've got one hundred k worth
Speaker 1: of equity, so let me get one hundred K your
Speaker 1: equity please, and they were like okay. And I think
Speaker 1: I forget what the mix was, but it was a
Speaker 1: lot of equity they gave me, and not just equity.
Speaker 1: I also asked for a cash advance, so not just
Speaker 1: give me your own equity, but like, hey, make me whole,
Speaker 1: Like write me a check for the money that I'm
Speaker 1: leaving on the table. Even though this is crazy, but
Speaker 1: even though that equity could be worth less than it
Speaker 1: is right now if I were to stay here, I'm
Speaker 1: still risking losing it by coming to your company. And
Speaker 1: so at that position, at that time, they were like, okay,
Speaker 1: understand good, here's a check for such an amount of
Speaker 1: money and we'll give you this much equity. So that's
Speaker 1: why I call it leverage. This is a good problem,
Speaker 1: baby girl. It's a good problem to have. I want
Speaker 1: more of y'all to have the problem that floor has. Okay,
Speaker 1: take notes. When you have these juicy benefits and the
Speaker 1: reason you should be fighting for them when you're negotiating
Speaker 1: your compensation package, it's because think about what leverages can
Speaker 1: give you in a future, you know, negotiation with another
Speaker 1: company that wants you. And it's not all about job popping.
Speaker 1: It ain't all about quitting. I'm not someone who's saying
Speaker 1: quit willing nilly just for a dollar bill. I never
Speaker 1: have been all this great resignation bs all this. You know,
Speaker 1: millennials quit generations Z All they do is quit and
Speaker 1: job pop. I've never bought into any of that. This
Speaker 1: is smart strategic career management to keep your options open,
Speaker 1: to have a healthy network of people who are ready
Speaker 1: to support you so that not if, but when a
Speaker 1: company does what a company does, which is treat their
Speaker 1: employees like a part of their business that is disposable
Speaker 1: if no longer providing the return on investment that they
Speaker 1: need for Wall Street, for their investors, for their own
Speaker 1: bottom line. Like when that happens, And I say when,
Speaker 1: because it's hold on the screen just went dark. E there,
Speaker 1: I still hear. Okay, when that happens, and it probably
Speaker 1: will happen over the course of your career, You're going
Speaker 1: to be ready because you're going to have a bunch
Speaker 1: of recruiters who have reached out to you over the
Speaker 1: years that you've taken their calls. You've gone on those coffee,
Speaker 1: those coffee interviews, those phone screens, you've kept their email
Speaker 1: address because you're a smart cookie, you've kept their phone number, whatever,
Speaker 1: you can reach out to them and say, hey, this
Speaker 1: has just happened, but I'm available. If you have anybody
Speaker 1: else in your network that you're recruiting for hiring managers
Speaker 1: like be good at your work. Make sure people remember
Speaker 1: you for being brilliant at your work when you get
Speaker 1: laid off, if you get let go or whatever, it
Speaker 1: won't matter to them because they're going to know you.
Speaker 1: They're going to be rooting for you, and they're going
Speaker 1: to be there to help you and lift you up,
Speaker 1: carry you on the fast track to your next opportunity.
Speaker 1: That's why it's so important to put yourself in a
Speaker 1: strong bargaining position by negotiating the heck out of your
Speaker 1: current job offer and getting what you're really worth. You know, so,
Speaker 1: I love this question. Thank you so much, Floyd for listening,
Speaker 1: for being such a valued part of the BA fam
Speaker 1: and for always supporting and loving us, and for apparently
Speaker 1: taking our advice because you're killing it. If this is
Speaker 1: where you're at in your career, and I'm excited, really
Speaker 1: excited to hear what may come of any of these conversations.
Speaker 1: You may be having with people who are interested in
Speaker 1: working with you, and just to close out. I will
Speaker 1: also add that if you haven't thought of it this way, definitely,
Speaker 1: if you've been listening to the show, you've probably heard
Speaker 1: me say it before. But even entertaining outside job offers,
Speaker 1: it's not about taking another offer. It can be about
Speaker 1: making sure that you know what your current market rate is.
Speaker 1: Because your company gave you your salary right now based
Speaker 1: on salary data from almost two years ago. Right if
Speaker 1: you're in a certain kind of field, value me have
Speaker 1: gone up. It may be more expensive, there may be
Speaker 1: more rare. You may have developed new skills that have
Speaker 1: made you more rare, more unique, more specialized than when
Speaker 1: you were first hired. So when you get another company
Speaker 1: to interview with them and they do their assessment of
Speaker 1: your skills and the job opening and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we think you're worth one twenty five, you know you
Speaker 1: can actually take that offer back to your manager and
Speaker 1: say like, I'm really happy here, but I've gotten an offer,
Speaker 1: or i am even you don't even need an offer.
Speaker 1: You can just say I'm being you know, approached by
Speaker 1: a company that's saying that they would, you know, give
Speaker 1: me like fifty k more, twenty five k more or whatever.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about my career trajectory here, my compensation here?
Speaker 1: And is there flexibility? Is there an opportunity to increase
Speaker 1: my compensation just to be aligned with what the market
Speaker 1: rate is and that again gives you leverage with your
Speaker 1: current employer. Oh, I love talking about this stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you Floyd so much. This has been so fun.
Speaker 1: If you guys want to submit your questions, you can
Speaker 1: reach us at Brown Ambition Podcast on i G. You
Speaker 1: can also send us an email. We are Brown Ambition
Speaker 1: Podcast at gmail dot com. Until next Friday, B a
Speaker 1: Q and a fam. I will see y'all. Bye,