All Articles
Career Growth
How to Talk About Money at Work
Pay conversations feel awkward because we rehearse them badly. A calmer way to prepare and open one.
The discomfort is not really about money. It is about asking someone to judge your value out loud — so the fix is to move the conversation onto evidence rather than feelings.
Before you open the conversation
- Collect specifics: what you own now that you did not a year ago.
- Find an external reference point for the range, not just an internal one.
- Decide what a good outcome looks like, and what you would accept.
- Pick the timing deliberately — ahead of planning cycles, not after them.
Then open it plainly: "I would like to talk about my compensation, and here is why I think it is worth revisiting." Clear beats clever, every time.