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I wish to negotiate a change in my employment status from Full-time telecommute worker to Part-time telecommute contractor. The purpose of changing work agreements is so I can travel whist working and work for other businesses. There are about 5 critical things I would like to negotiate (see list below).

  • Negotiation Goal 1: Change work agreement from full-time to part-time employee or contractor.
  • Negotiation Goal 2: Work a minimum of 20 hours a week (sometimes more but never less). I want this to be stated in my contract.
  • Negotiation Goal 3: The worker cannot be dismissed without written notice. Must be given at least 2 weeks notice. Can be dismissed for any reason.
  • Negotiation Goal 4: The worker can work for other businesses. But not competitors.
  • Negotiation Goal 5: Work European timezone hours. I plan to move to Europe (from Australia where I am employed).

Should I state all my negotiation goals in the first meeting - put all my cards on the table. Or should I select 2/3 main goals and incrementally ask for the others in successive talks?

Context:
I am a Systems Engineer in Australia and the company is a small 'start-up' (<10 people) with an even smaller IT department (2 people).

Incentives I can offer:
- The employer does not pay super annuation (SA) for the worker. In Australia SA is similar to a 401k - the employer pays 9% of your income directly into your retirement fund. This is quite expensive for employers and a hastle.
- The worker works remotely and provides *most equipment to perform their job (laptop, internet) themself.
- Payment given hourly, weekly, monthly or salary (dont care).

'Leverage':
Whilst I dont feel quite comfortable thinking in this transactional nature, I do believe that my business value allows me to negotiate from a position of strength.
- It takes a while to find another employee with my skillset
- If I leave it would affect the ability of the business to meet project deadlines already in progress.
- My employment role has deviated significantly from what was verbally stated (contractually its a gray area). Ie, I was told multiple times I would be the GM's 'right hand man' for software development but this changed literally the first week I started with the company. My point is, due to the breaking of the GM's word I believe I have no moral or ethical obligation to consider the possible negative impact of my departure on the business.
- I am prepared to resign if I am unable to negotiate a favourable change.

*Software required to code a project the company should purchase. For eg, SAAS licences.

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  • You may have "Buckley's", particularly the time zone thing. But for sure, just tell them everything all at once. Try to keep it simple for example number 4 is obvious so you don't have to mention it in a drawn-out way (it's a point you would all "clarify" later). Paying for your own laptop (a horrible idea BTW) is not worth mentioning, clarify it later.
    – Fattie
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 12:17
  • What you mention about "moral or ethical obligations" - you (and they) have utterly no obligations (of any type, whatsoever, at all) in either direction. Regarding the issue that you foolishly believed something you were "verbally told" when u joined .... we're all young and make ridiculous mistakes like that. When someone "verbally" tells me something, I reply "press hard". (As in..."press hard as you're signing, the contract has three copies.") Again, everyone makes silly mistakes like that when young: just ensure you don't make the mistake again. Words leaving mouths == utter nothingness.
    – Fattie
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 12:19

1 Answer 1

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Should I state all my negotiation goals in the first meeting

Yes.

You are asking for a change to many aspects of your current working status. If you ever wish to actually get all of these changes implemented in any reasonable period of time, you need to start the process right away.

If you don't really care about all of these aspects, you could just request the most important one, and live with the fact that the others may never happen. I'm guessing that isn't what you would want.

And asking for one or two, then repeatedly saying "Oh, by the way, I need more..." might yourself labeled as a "high maintenance" individual who will never be satisfied. Those folks tend to be let go.

Just be professional about this and ask for what you want.

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