Would you sell your Nan for a fiver?

Would you sell your Nan for a fiver?

If yes this post might not be for you but if you wouldn’t (and hopefully you wouldn’t!) then don’t do this to your employer either.

Having worked in the print industry for close to 7 years, I couldn’t possibly count the number of times that I’ve heard “my employer doesn’t know my worth” and “I deserve so much more money”.

Don’t. We. All.

If you’ve been offered an extra twenty thousand pounds then fair play to you, but the idea of moving jobs for an extra £1000 per annum really got me thinking. Do people within the print industry often move roles for the right reasons? “The grass isn’t always greener” is the most clichéd term and as a recruiter quite frankly makes me want to gouge my own eyes out but do I really want to move someone for a minimal salary increase? And is this the type of person that you want to be employing?

The main thing I’ve learned about people within the print industry is that in the most part they love it. Often people discuss starting as a “young lad” in an apprenticeship 3 decades ago and just by speaking to them for five minutes, you can sense there is a real passion for print. Alternatively, there’s guy that worked a 90-hour week last week because his organisation had a project deadline to hit, and he didn’t want to let his team down. Aren’t these the people you want in your team?

Loyalty and hard work go such a long way. If you’re looking to move for a handful of extra cash, if you’re worth it and within the right type of organisation, it should be brought up in your next pay review without you having to jump ship every 6 months to get it.

Next time you think about banging your ticket in for a small salary increase, you need to consider the following….

What kind of organisation are you leaving behind? Have they invested a lot of time, effort and development in you?

If you were to have the conversation of wanting a salary increase with your employer, would they be open to considering it or giving you some goals to work towards?

Are there other factors contributing to you wanting to make a move or does it just fall down to money?

Do you truly deserve it?

This is not to say employees within the print industry should not move on, if I’m being honest, I am the first to encourage it but only for the right motivations and company. If you move to an organisation with money as the only factor, it is unlikely to fulfil your dreams long term and you are more than likely to find yourself making another move fairly quickly. As an employer, if you take someone on whose motivations are solely money, they are likely to leave you for the same reason.

That leaves us all in a bad situation (including me!).

No one likes paying an agency fee for an employee they kept for 3 months.

Jo heads up the production industry with a focus on Large Format/Digital, Exhibition, POS and Signage markets.