Did you have a contingency plan if your request was rejected?
No!

What was the scariest part of the process?
It wasn’t too scary. I had nothing to lose by making the suggestion and everything to gain if they said yes. It was uncomfortable because I hadn’t done anything like that before.

I felt quite relaxed. My boss wasn’t the final decision maker; they had to present it to the CEO, so I was pitching to a warm audience. I needed to give them the evidence they needed to convince the CEO. I knew the CEO likes to deal with facts and to have time to think things through, so I prepared a paper outlining the proposal and highlighting the profit benefits.

How long did the process take?
It took about six weeks from submitting my proposal to getting the sign-off.

Would you do anything differently next time?
I wish I had done it sooner and not doubted myself when writing the proposal.

I had feelings of doubt because I’d always thought that if you worked hard you would be rewarded for it. What I’ve learned is that you have to make your own opportunities. I could very easily have taken on the extra work with no increase in pay or change in job title and ended up being very overworked. This was the first time I’d said: “I could do this extra work for you but you would need to pay me more.” It was uncomfortable for me to say, partly because it was new and partly because it was so ingrained in me that hard work would be rewarded. Now that I’ve done it, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again, and it has really shifted how I think about my worth at work.

Know Your Worth: “How I found a new role and £8,000 salary jump without leaving my company”