Having lost my business due to the pandemic, I am now looking for a job in the same field.

Anonymous

October 6,2021 at 7:35PM UTC

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Having lost my business due to the pandemic, I am now looking for a job in the same field. I've gotten very few offers and all of them were at wages considerably below what I was making 20 years ago.

Just a few days ago I received an offer at a small company where I believe I could have a positive impact. Clearly, they believed it too. The wage was lower than the minimum I've set for myself and what I believe my skills are worth. So I asked the GM to forward to me the benefits package included in the offer and when eligibility for health insurance, sick leave and paid vacation begins. I reasoned that although the wage was less than I'd hoped for, but I wanted to consider the compensation package as a whole when making my decision to accept or not.

The GM seemed to understand this and assured me she would contact HR and forward the info to me.

So far, several days have gone by and......crickets.

I believe these are reasonable and prudent requests to make during salary negotiations, correct?

Should I call/email the GM back to remind her of my enthusiasm for the job, but I just need to know what the whole package is?

Did I lose our on this opportunity because of the benefit info request?

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AnonymousOctober 6,2021 at 7:44PM UTC
It's an appropriate request. I would ping them again.
Lorna Rose, J.D., M.S.October 6,2021 at 7:49PM UTC
Very reasonable requests! If you lost out on this job because you asked for all pertinent information needed in order to make an informed decision, consider it a bullet dodged.
Gretchen SkalkaOctober 6,2021 at 7:52PM UTC
What Lorna said ... in every regard.
Doyin Abike SomoyeOctober 6,2021 at 9:34PM UTC
I think the company does not have a good benefit package else it would have been set to you.
Emmy BemmyOctober 6,2021 at 9:39PM UTC
They are reasonable requests. If it is a small co, they might not have great benefits. Either they are thinking about ways to make your total comp package more attractive, or they just haven't gotten around to sending the info (maybe it isn't compiled in a way that is easy to share?)
AnonymousOctober 6,2021 at 9:43PM UTC
The hiring process has to work for both parties. IMO, when a company is eager to onboard, they are NOT offended by any question asked by the potential candidate.