The Lowball Offer: Momentum Meets Undervaluation

After surviving the painful near-foreclosure experience, Cindy and I put our heads down with an intense focus on climbing out of the hole it put us in. Outside our full time jobs, we continued to put every ounce of energy we had into growing our multilevel marketing business. That provided plenty of adversities to search for seeds in, and we’ll circle back to that soon enough. Within the company I received my W2 from, though, a unique opportunity was brewing.

While I wasn’t traveling extensively to support other facilities’ behavior-based safety initiatives through 2008 and 2009, I was still involved and had a very close relationship with the gentleman based in the UK who oversaw the process globally. I learned in mid 2009 that he planned to retire the following year. Having led a process locally for nearly a decade and supported him throughout North America for so many of those years, there wasn’t a close second in the company who had qualifications that even resembled mine. 

Before I move on, please know I don’t make that statement based on ego; it was anything but… I was still paid hourly at that point, with overtime being viewed as a cardinal sin, so my annual earnings barely hit $40,000. Even as the first decade of the twentieth century came to a close, that wasn’t setting the world on fire. All that said, I had no complaints. That role provided me with a reasonable living and growth opportunities I may have never had otherwise. When Dave formally announced his retirement, I had several serious conversations; with him, with the corporate safety director Dave reported to, with Cindy, and with Rod (my local HR manager). If I moved forward with the interview process, I knew there was a high likelihood that I’d be offered the position. Being offered the position was one thing, accepting it and fulfilling the responsibility that came with it was something far more intense.

The job duties weren’t at all intimidating, I had done very similar work (just on a smaller scale) for the sites in the US, Mexico, and Canada for several years. The big change would be the significant increase in international travel. Dave traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America; I hadn’t been to any of those places. And he was often away from home for weeks at a time. Even without considering the business Cindy and I were juggling on the side, this would require tremendous family sacrifice. Matt was fifteen at the time. We didn’t have the best relationship then, but young men need their dad to be present to grow into the strong men they’re capable of being; he was no exception.

Rod provided me with amazing insight before I threw my name in the hat for official consideration. I had a very candid conversation with Tim, the corporate safety director I’d be reporting to if I was offered and accepted the position, to get clarity on the full scope of the role and the total compensation package. To that point, I had always been an hourly employee working out of a home facility. Both of those things would change in this new role. I also had conversations with friends who held similar responsibilities in other organizations, so I knew what the market rate for a position like that was. Tim provided all the details about the job I had hoped for, including the pay range. 

With all those bases covered, it was game-on! At the risk of sounding arrogant, I interviewed exceptionally well - and I should have. Not only was I the most qualified, I had nothing whatsoever to lose if by some chance I wasn’t offered the job. I can’t remember where I was traveling home from, but I do remember getting off a flight in Charlottesville, VA and getting a text from Tim that the offer letter was in my inbox. I spoke with him by phone as I drove back to Harrisonburg, discussing the timing of my transition if I accepted the position. We did not, however, discuss money; I didn’t think there was a need to since he was very specific in our initial conversation about the range.

When I got back to my office, I opened his email with the offer and was shocked by the number - and not in a good way. The annual compensation was just two-thirds of what he said he thought was too low in our initial conversation. I called him immediately to let him know there was clearly a typo in what I had received, but it wasn’t a typo. He explained the “corporate policy” limiting any internal promotion to a 25% overall pay increase, regardless of the change in workload or responsibility. When he confirmed that this was indeed the best he could offer, I (not so) politely declined.

Even after years of scarcity, a “promotion” can still feel like a professional gut-punch when the compensation reveals how little your value is recognition - whether it's masked as a corporate policy or not. Bad situations disguised as opportunities force real negotiation of worth, even when it takes years to recognize the greater benefit available in those seeds. Looking back, I’m completely certain that this was God’s hand moving because I wasn’t nearly smart enough to understand just how much every aspect of my family life would be strained if I had accepted the role. That said, it still stung! We’ll look at that more next. Before that, I’ll challenge you to reflect on a time an opportunity felt like a step forward until the details smacked you in the face - like I experienced when I opened the offer letter. Note the immediate emotional reaction and one early warning sign you might have ignored.