Are You Having Trouble Getting A Raise At Work

For a number of years people grew accustomed to receiving annual pay raises at work. The last couple years, things have been different. A lot of people will blame this phenomenon on a weak economy. This is partially true. There is another factor at play as well though. Have you ever hear the phrase “The World Is Flat”?

That phrase refers to the fact that the world is evolving into a global marketplace. Every year, the labor market becomes more and more competitive. This is especially true for wealthy countries like the United States. As anyone in the U.S. already knows, there has been a steady outflow of jobs for many years now. Jobs are leaving the states because those jobs are so much less costly in other parts of the world. This trend is going to continue.

As the rest of the world becomes more educated, the average person in those countries is becoming closer and closer in productivity to comparable workers in more developed countries. Technology and education are leveling the playing field. This is going to continue to provide downward pressures on wages in the wealthiest countries.

Can you see how this is going to impact your ability to get a larger salary?

In order to really earn more money down the road, you are going to have to focus on your own personal productivity more. You are going to need to find ways of making yourself far more organized and far more productive than ever before. All the while you are working to accomplish this feat; you need to also make sure that those above you on the corporate ladder take notice of your improvements. Here are a few tips.

1) Start by reorganizing your work space. If you work at a desk, clean everything off of that desk so you can slowly rebuild it. One of the biggest obstacles to productivity is having a messy desk. Even if you are highly productive with your messy system, it won’t appear that you are all that productive. We all know that perception usually matters more than reality. Make it look like you are organized. Once people get used to seeing that clean desk for a month or so, they’ll whisper rumors that you have really got it together.

2) Create better systems. Anything that can be systemized can also be measured and improved upon. Think about all of the most mundane tasks you do throughout the day. One of these tasks might be checking email. Do you really need to have your email open all day long? Wouldn’t you be far more productive if you could minimize the amount of times you check your email in a single day? If you try, you can probably limit email checking and answering to four times per day or hopefully way less than that. That would be a huge time saver that would allow you to focus on getting more done.

3) Start using a “To Do” list. I cannot stress enough how useful those lists are. I know a real estate man who has an almost entirely empty desk except for a small book that looks like a diary. That little diary looking book holds every daily To Do list. He keeps that book open all day. Every time he acquires a new activity for the day, he records it into that little book. He then works systematically at crossing off everything on the list. His workday doesn’t end until every item on his list has been crossed off. The guy is insanely productive. Plus, I guarantee he makes more money than you and I do combined.

4) I recently noticed a new method that a highly productive business colleague of mine uses. Actually it is the same real estate guy that I talked about who uses the To Do list diary. He doesn’t keep his computer screen on his desk. He has it on a second desk where he can access it if he spins his chair 90 degrees. This keeps that stupid computer screen out of his direct sight. When it is out of sight, it is out of mind. That allows him to stay more focused on the task at hand instead of constantly being interrupted by low value tasks on the PC.

Imagine how you would stand out among your peers if you had a completely empty desk. Imagine how everyone would notice that you look extremely organized. They would wonder how you do it. Your boss would probably notice as well. When he asks you why you decided to rearrange things in such a manner, just tell him that you are way more productive when you don’t have distracting objects in front of you all the time. Explain how it allows you to focus on one thing at a time until completion. That will turn on a light bulb inside his head. You might also suggest that they consider sampling this method on other employees. That is how people get noticed.

Things are going to be somewhat different in coming years than they were in the past. You might find that it is more difficult than ever to convince your managers that you are worthy of a raise. I believe that following methods like those I mentioned are the ideal methods for how to get a raise at work. Remember all of the pressures that are going to be on them to keep wages as low as possible. You are going to have to employ some stealth tactics to get noticed. Try the tips I suggested and see where it gets you.