We Don't Pay For Your Lunch Break
Out of context: Reply #17
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- vaxorcist0
Hah! This is often an "initial conversation negotiation issue" .... and I once heard a good lesson in negotiation over the phone, when I overheard a hapless account exec at an agency talking to a headhunter for a hotshot programmer guy I was about to work with....
Agency Acct Exec:What's his rate per hour?
Freelancer's Headhunter: $155 per hour, but the most important thing is that he gets a $35 per day lunch allowance, and not just 1 hour, but 1.5 hours for lunch, he's happy to stay late, but this midday break is important for him.
Agency Acct Exec:what?!? $35 per lunch?!? what?!? an hour and a half, the rest of us get 1 hour, nobody gets $35 for lunch...
Freelancer's Headhunter: Well, we can talk about this for a long time, but it's important to him, he'll take an hour and a quarter minimum for lunch...
Agency Acct Exec: but... $35 for lunch?!?
... and so it goes, TOTALLY IGNORING the $155 per hour,they argued over the $35 hour-and-a-half lunch for a good 20-30 minutes till they settled on $25 lunch and 1.25 hour lunch, and left the $155 per hour alone... wow!
and of course, he was treated like a rock star.... he was good, but that good?!? ..
- they can easily go with someone who doesn't ask that much, and he knows it ;)monospaced
- yes... it was 1999... the programmer was in the catbird seat.... very true, they needed him...vaxorcist
- still, that's a crazy negotiation to overhear!monospaced