If Your Anxiety Is Stopping You From Negotiating Your Salary, Read This

Congratulations! You received an offer letter for a new job! I am so proud of you. 

Now comes the one part of getting a new job that some people dread and other people (for some reason) love — salary negotiations.

Salary negotiation is an art, and that’s why there are so many Tik Toks, YouTube videos, and Twitter threads dedicated to educating you on how to get what you need from jump at a new place of employment. While it’s easier for some people to do it, for people who live with anxiety, it may be a bit harder.

When you live with anxiety, you already have a little voice telling you how undeserving you are of good things. It says you’re a fraud and an imposter who should just be thankful to get offered the little bit that you were. 

First, the voice is wrong. Second, sometimes it’s hard to believe that voice is wrong if you think that it may be true. 

If you’re having to negotiate your salary, whether it’s a new job or a pre-existing one, here’s what you need to remember. Your anxiety won’t tell you this, but I will.

You know how much your job entails and how much it takes you to do it.

Yes, your job description may be on paper, but what’s on paper doesn’t always match up to what you’re physically and mentally having to do five (or more) days a week. You’re being paid for what the job knows, but what about what you know? 

Assuming you live with anxiety (I mean you did click on the story) you know just how debilitating that can be on a day to day basis. Sometimes it means flowering all your emails with smiley faces and exclamation points so you don’t come off as too aggressive, and other days it means having a panic attack between meetings because your manager didn’t give you proper affirmation and now you think you’re going to get a call from HR. Maybe your job is asking you to put in extra (unpaid) hours or asking you to do something that just isn’t in your job description. 

When you’re negotiating your salary, you’re negotiating it not based on just what you’ve done in the past, but also what you may be asked to do in the future and how much mental and emotional energy that it may take. 

Beyond that, you have to remember that you do deserve every penny that you’re asking for. Look at your experience, what you have to give, and your dedication. Now double that because I almost guarantee you’re selling yourself short. Your anxiety may be telling you that you’re in over your head when it comes to negotiating for more money, but you deserve more money, not just because of all the work you’re putting in, but also because you’re an amazing soul who deserves to live a life without financial strife.

I promise, you deserve (more than) what you’re asking for. It doesn’t make you greedy or a bad person.