[masraum]

OK, so I still have to talk to the HR chick on Monday. I'm certain she's still going to push for an answer to:

"Are you saying that you are turning down the offer of $xx?"

I don't like that question. This situation is a little stickier than usual. Normally, you have job A and you want to move to job B, but if the negotiations for job B fall through, no problem because you still have job A. Now, it's like I'm negotiating to keep my job which means that there's no fallback. Fortunately, it sounds like there might be something to fall back on with this other job, but I won't know for sure in time. Also, I think I want to keep my current job, but I do want to get paid more.

My thinking is that this may be a good answer to "are you turning down the offer?"

I think something like this may be a good answer.

"I won't go on record as saying I'm rejecting the position; I am still interested in the position, and want to work with you to obtain my services. I am not completely satisfied with the offer and would like to know if you can go to $xx or how close you can get to that."

To me, there's a big difference between rejecting an offer and being happy with an offer. Would I reject it, possibly putting myself out of work at Christmas time? No. I'd take the job and find another, better one 3 months, 6 months or a year down the line. I was thinking the other night, this small increase is not that much money in the grand scheme of things. But if it's not much money to me, than it should be even less substantial to the company.

Any thoughts to help answer the question tomorrow?