On the Eve of Negotiations

Budgets matter; recessions matter; the bottom line matters. Money matters...of course it does.

As a negotiator of salaries, I can tell you that the financial arguments matter; you need to find the money, analyze the reports, dig into the budgets, understand the math, and see the reality in front of you. Negotiating is, after all, about the balance between hope and reality.

As a human being, though, as a father who wants to give his children every chance I can, who doesn't want to tell his kids (brilliant and wonderful young teens) that a state school is "good enough," as a husband who wants to see the world with the love of his life, to live in comfort with her, as a teacher who wants to feel in front of his students like a respected professional and not a fool, I can tell you that the bottom line, the cold calculations of the business-minded fail to consider a basic truth: money is about emotion. Salaries are about quality of life. And it all comes back to RESPECT.

The stories are everywhere:

• the married teacher couple with two young children who are burdened under huge student loans with little hope of paying them off because their salaries haven't kept pace with the cost of living
• the art teacher who works a night and weekend job at Starbuck's because her salary isn't enough to get married and buy a condo and live a middle class life, who actually then spends a chunk of the money she earns on art supplies for her students because her school doesn't budget well and she is THAT kind of teacher
• the promising young teacher who comes in like gangbusters, is clearly destined for teaching and seems to be answering a calling who decides after a couple of years that the working conditions and salary make teaching untenable as an option and then leaves the profession forever.
• the veteran teacher with more than two decades of teaching who is angry, frustrated, and bitter because he feels robbed, feels like promises were broken, feels like there is no hope he will ever see the top of the salary range. He feels disrespected, disregarded, and forgotten.

The businessman running Broward Schools doesn't understand something simple. His business classes forgot to teach him something. Every time he refuses to budge, every time he plays with numbers, every time he manipulates money or analyzes and reworks a budget, he is dealing with people, with their lives, their futures, their hopes, their dreams, and the hopes and dreams they have for their children, for their students, for their loved ones, and for their lives. He doesn't understand something critical. 

Sure, the bottom line matters. But people matter more.