My wife is principal of the high school in a private K-12 school. She is up for head of the whole school, and is virtually certain to be offered the job.
The problem is that she is petrified by the prospect of negotiating her new salary. Not merely nervous, but nearly paralyzed by fear. Although I have pointed out to her that they want her for the job, she has a great track record in her current position, and that negotiating is an ordinary part of the process, she feels that she has no preparation, experience, or training for the process, and REALLY doesn’t want to have to do it.
Is it ever done to have someone else negotiate a person’s salary in this situation? Ideally, I’d like to hear if it is common, occasional, or never done in private schools, but any comparable experience would be appreciated.
Or can I negotiate on her behalf?
I realize that the real answer is whether the particular hiring official(s) will agree to it, but if it is not unheard of in comparable situations, then we would have some leverage in proposing it here.
Some (possibly relevant) details. Her current salary is just into six figures, and she has recently learned that her predecessor (a man) and one co-worker at a comparable level were being paid $10-20K more that she was, even though she has performed vastly better than either. (Both were essentially fired).
The current holder of the new position (also a man) is paid more than 2.5 times her current salary, and has not been performing at the top of his game for a year or two. She will definitely do much better than him. The hiring officials almost certainly recognize this fact.
For this reason, we feel she shouldn’t have to accept any less than he is making now, but suspect that she will be offered substantially less, since it would be a very big jump, and because she is a woman. (Like many schools, this one has had a pattern of offering women less for equivalent positions.) Hence the importance of having a strong negotiator.
Let me be clear. I am not asking for negotiating tips. We have some books and are well aware of the techniques. She wants someone else to do it for her.
So we want to know if the idea of hiring an “agent” to handle the process is a realistic option. (My wife would be happy to pay 10% of her first year’s salary.) If the answer is yes, how would we find such a person?
Or failing that, can she inform the school that I will handle the negotiation on her behalf?
Thanks.