By: Jason Markum

Starting a new job can be stressful. One part of picking a new job that doesn’t have to be stressful, and in fact can be a lot of fun, is picking which perks to sign up for if you have that option. In this article I’m going to discuss a pseudo-shopping list of perks that you might expect to find when you start a new job.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, and it doesn’t mean that your specific company is going to offer all these perks or even any of these perks… this is just an example of what may be out there, of what you might expect, and if your company doesn’t offer some of these perks; why not ask for them?

Perks, by their very nature, are special. They are important because they allow you to save your money when you would normally spend it on the perk. This allows you, in turn, to save more of your paycheck each week which will in turn, allow you to accumulate wealth at a faster rate than you would be able to without the perk. Because of this, perks can be very important. That is why you may want to negotiate better or different perks when you start a new job or when you get promoted at your current job.

But enough about that, let’s get to the list!

Some of these perks may tend to go with higher-level jobs, but then a lot of perks do, simply by their nature… for instance, there is use of company aircraft and use of executive apartments and suites.

Another common one is a company provided car. Some companies may even offer to provide you with a chauffeur to drive you around in your company car.

Rounding out the list of higher end perks is country club memberships. These are great both for you and your company, because you can socialize at the country club and possibly bring in new business for your company at the same time.

Other perks that are not so high-level include deferred compensation plans, discounts on products or services, educational programs, employment contracts, and health club memberships. Many of these things can be negotiated at almost any level of employment.

Expense accounts are another normal perk. The size of your expense account, whether it is a small expense account or a large one, would probably be determined by the level of job you are beginning.

Other perks includes incentive stock options, group life insurance, home entertainment allowances, added health-insurance, life insurance, or disability benefits. Many companies also offer loans for mortgages at low or sometimes even zero interest rates for employees.

Other perks include lunch club memberships, big offices, medical expense reimbursements, personal computers, and special parking spots for key employees. Also you may expect to find personal financial, legal, and tax advice as well as preretirement counseling. Use of private secretaries might also be considered a perk

Some less obvious perks include resort accommodations and fancy convention hotel rooms for your use. More stuffy perks include severance payment plans, supplemental retirement plans, signing bonuses, and things of this nature.

Other perks include tickets to theater or sporting events (use of company sporting tickets is quite common), first-class travel, and extra vacation time throughout the year.

So there you have it, a fairly comprehensive list of perks that you can expect to receive or negotiate for when you start a new job.

By: Jason Markum

We are in the middle of possibly the worst recession in American history. People are getting laid off right and left and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. If you are one of the lucky ones to still have a job, or have just received a new job, you may feel a little apprehensive about negotiating a higher salary; even if you deserve one!

Since the economy is in such bad shape, why not try this technique to increase your compensation levels without increasing your straight salary, or I should say, without increasing the “cash” part of your salary. What the heck am I talking about? I’m talking about alternatives to straight salary, or non-cash compensation.

You may suggest to your new employer that they lower or give you the minimum range in cash compensation, but make up for it by increasing the non-cash compensation part which may be easier for your employer to do within the current state of the economy. It also shows that you are a team player, and willing to help out the team in any way!

So what are these non-cash compensation things that I keep talking about? Well they include stock options, employee benefits, perks such as company cars and limousines, club memberships, and things like that; as well as low interest rate loans and free financial planning advice. Basically, we’re talking about anything that is not cash.

Maybe the best non-cash compensation is stock options. Options make a lot of people nervous because on any given day the stock market can go up or down. If the stock market goes down, your options aren’t worth as much. And also, stock prices don’t always reflect the companies true earnings or true worth.

Regardless of these objections, stock options continue to be a fantastic non-cash compensation, especially in a down economy because they don’t cost the company anything out of pocket.

Options usually come in three variations. These include; incentive stock options, non-qualified stock options, and various forms of hypothetical stock usually called stock appreciation rights or sometimes called phantom stock plans.

Incentive options and non-qualified options are actual stock while hypothetical stock or phantom stock may not involve actual stocks. Regardless, in all three cases you would need an increase over the initial stock price at the time the option was issued before you can exercise the option and actually benefit from it.

Stock options will require tax planning on your part. Be sure to negotiate free tax planning advice from your employer. Let me make that clear; I don’t mean getting advice from the employer I mean that your employer will pay an accountant or legal professional who is licensed to give advice in this area for you.

Stock options in my mind are the best non-cash compensation. I did mention earlier in the article employee benefits as a feasible non-cash option. Perks and employee benefits would be included in this sort of thing. I’m not going to go into those in greater detail because they aren’t as valuable or as fungible; that is, not as easily converted into cash as stock options are and therefore may not be quite as acceptable to you in lieu of cash salary.

However you end up splitting up the non-cash compensation, keep in mind that the economy may turn around in the future at which point you may be able to negotiate a decrease in non-cash compensation and an increase in cash compensation. Be sure to discuss this before hand, that is to say, before you agree to take any non-cash compensation offers that your company may provide.

By: Jason Markum

This global recession is hitting just about everyone. Companies are losing money because the economy is doing so poorly. One way for companies to make up for losses is to lay off its employees, thus reducing a major cost center. If you have an employment contract though, it becomes much more difficult for them to fire you… but not impossible.

When you first started the job and first signed the contract neither you or your boss probably thought about firing you. It was just a distant possibility, not something to think about at the time. For whatever reason, things may have gone wrong somewhere along the way; whether because of the recession or for some other reason, your boss may be looking to get rid of your. What do you do?

The first thing you should do before you do anything else is to review your employment contract. Don’t just look at the severance clause which shows you the specifics of what a company should pay you if they terminate the agreement. Also be sure to pay attention to any other section that you think your boss may use to get out of paying severance pay, or that they may use to pay less severance than you deserve. Be sure to review the “for cause” section that will describe in greater detail what conditions you can be held in violation of the agreement, in which point your employer doesn’t have to pay you anything.

The next thing you want to be sure to do is fulfill all of your contract provisions to the letter. Don’t give your boss any pretext for kicking you out without severance. Go to all meetings, stay at work for the whole day, and don’t violate any company policies whatsoever… even tiny stupid policies. Don’t even bring home an office pen, so they can’t fire you for theft. Realize they may be looking to fire you for any reason whatsoever; even a stupid reason.

Next you should collect proof of your situation. Create a file that lists all the good work you’ve done for the company; I’m talking about good reviews you’ve received from supervisors, documents or memos that showed how you have achieved certain goals, things like this. Anything that can show you in a good light so that they can’t suggest that you are a bad employee.

Next you may request an evaluation of your work to date. This shows that you are open to criticism and are actively working to do the best that you can. Along the same lines you might try sending a memo to your supervisor discussing the current state of any projects you are working on. In the memo say things like “we are currently achieving the goals of this project”. Even if they don’t agree with you, later on you can produce this memo as evidence that you were doing your job well.

None of these things will keep you from getting fired if your boss has already decided to fire you. What they will do however, is allow you to make a case for receiving full severance and make sure you don’t get cheated out of what you deserve.

But every little thing you can do along these lines will surely help in the end.

By: Jason Markum

I know we are in the middle of the worst recessions in the history of America right now, and people are getting laid off left and right. But that doesn’t mean you can’t necessarily negotiate a better salary. In this article I’m going to discuss my best negotiating tactics when it comes to salary.

I’m not going to lie to you, anytime you have to negotiate salary with a prospective employer, or even with your current employer, it is going to be awkward. On the other hand, you might not ever have such a good opportunity to negotiate exactly what you want from your employer, especially if it’s a new employer.

It doesn’t matter what you’re negotiating for, salary, or anything else; in all negotiations you can’t expect to prevail unless you know exactly what you want and exactly what you can realistically expect to get.

In my opinion, the best tactic when it comes to negotiating salary, is to wait and not talk about salary at all until you’re absolutely sure that you have the job. Why is this? Because most of the time if you are actually offered the job, then the other candidates have been turned away. I find that most of the time companies don’t keep any sort of back-up applicant ready and waiting in case you turn them down. They usually put all their eggs in one basket. And now you are holding the basket!

That means that the company has to start from scratch to find a new candidate if you turn them down. This costs them a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of headaches that they would rather not deal with. Not to mention the fact that they will probably find less qualified candidates the second time around.

If they start to talk about compensation early in the interview process, try and change the subject or evade the question as well as you can. Remember, it’s in your interest to leave salary talk till the very end. If they keep pushing it on salary the beginning, I suggest mentioning what you made earlier in your old job and then distract them with a generic stock phrase like “I’m actually more interested in the career opportunity here than anything else”. You get the idea…

After you’ve been offered the job, be confident with your salary demands. Just don’t go overboard. If you ask ridiculously high compensation levels that are not in line with current industry standards, the fact that you’ve been offered the job and other candidates have been turned away may not save you. Be confident just don’t go overboard. You don’t want to start your new job, after all, off on the wrong foot by haggling over pennies.

If you do reach a standoff at this stage in the game try throwing a curve ball. Offer to work for a period, say a month or two, at the minimum wage level that they are offering with the understanding that after that trial period if they are satisfied with your work, the compensation level will increase to what you have been asking for.

I’ve never heard of a company actually taking somebody up on this offer… but just the fact that you offered it may be enough for them to go ahead and grant the salary level that you are asking for. This sort of selfless behavior should impress them enough to take a chance on you.

Whatever you do, and however the negotiations go, be sure to remain confident, surefooted, and act in a professional manner and I’m sure you’ll be just fine.

By: Jason Markum

People move from job to job all the time these days. In fact, job hopping seems to be more popular now than ever. This has become a huge problem for many companies because they are finding it harder and harder to keep key employees. Because of this, employment contracts are becoming more and more complex in an attempt by the companies to keep a hold of their employees.

But there is a golden lining. Because companies are so keen on holding on to their employees, you can negotiate a better employment contract in many cases. There are benefits and disadvantages for you and the company when it comes to signing an employment contract and I’m not going to go into these in any sort of detail in this article, just keep in mind that there are pluses and minuses involved from your point of view and also from the company’s point of view. It’s not a bad idea to try and look at it through the eyes of the company, but that’s a subject for another article…

So what should you expect to find in your employment contract? In other words, what should you expect to find in a normal employment contract?

The first thing you’ll find is the “term”. The term indicates when the contract should begin and when the contract should end. Many if not most employment contracts tend to run from 3 to 5 years.

The next thing you’ll find are your specific duties. Some people call this a job description. This is a very important part of any employment contract because it is the basis for any employers claim to fire you “for cause”. Many times this section will be generic or general in nature, but for your sake you want it to be as specific as possible.

The next thing you’ll find is a section on compensation. How much will you earn? This usually discusses the minimum salary as well as lays out any bonuses or stock options and things of this nature that you can expect.

The next thing you’ll find is a section on vacation time. How often each year and for how long can you expect to have a vacation? Can your vacation days be accrued? Will you be paid in lieu of a vacation? These are all things that you can expect to find in this section of your employment contract.

Benefits, including life and health insurance, and any sort of pension plans you can expect your company to provide will be found in this section. You can also find information on relocation expenses especially if you will be moving to your new job from another area of the country or world.

Next you can expect to find a section on termination. We don’t like to think about this but it’s good to be spelled out before hand in your contract exactly what circumstances will lead to your termination. It will probably also discuss how you yourself can terminate your employment contract; making it a very important section.

Expect another section on severance pay. Will you receive a golden parachute if you get fired? Under what circumstances will these things occur?

You should also find a disability provision that discusses exactly what happens should you be unable to continue your employment due to disability; as well as what does and what does not constitute a breach of contract when it comes to disability.

Finally expect a clause that discusses perks. Will you be receiving an expense account? What about a limousine or club membership? Will you have to sign a noncompete provision or arbitration clause? Will the company buy your old house from you in order to relocate you? These are all things that fall under the category of perks.

Well there you have it… these are the main things you can expect to find in any employment contract. They are all negotiable, so keep that in mind before signing anything. Depending on the level of the job and the amount of compensation, you may wish to speak to an employment attorney who specializes in employment contracts.