Benefit: Casual Dress/Atmosphere (Australia)

When it is difficult to find temporary work a recruitment firm can be a useful friend. However they try to charge a premium of around 1/3rd of all of your earnings for their services as I was to discover.

For the unwary negotiating with a recruitment firm is nearly impossible as most feel the firm holds the upper hand. This is not always the case, the key is to prove or improve your value. When you become indispensible in the position you can then leverage that fact gently if it is reasonable.

As a clerk, it became apparent that certain personalities were favoured in our office culture. When we candidly discussed pay rates internally, which was only a vague inclination as permitted by our contracts, it outlined some discrepancies, the individual negotiations with the recruiter for the same type of position varied in range.

While the employer was paying the same flat rate, which was marketable, the recruiter was taking a varied percentage. Benefitting from workers in a clandestine fashion and then locking them into non disclosure contracts.

Once I discovered the actual rate of pay from the employer I had a superior platform to negotiate with the recruiter and knew the limits.

A successful negotiation netted a 30% pay increase. Furthermore the process impressed my manager and provided an incentive to promote me to a manager from a clerk. This was despite being very underqualified relative to my peers, who were placed under my direct authority.

Although competent and highly qualified they were lacking the communication skills required to train the constant inflow of trainees.

Additionally the inevitable positive feedback from the recruiter to keep me on side was a useful testimonial that I have filed in my resume.

I soon noticed that I wasn't as effective as other employees in obtaining resources to improve my job area and it wasn't because I was any less polite, reasonable or likable.

Turns out in my particular case, formal meetings and formal requests made him nervous and defensive. I found that if I simply asked for things in passing with a general explanation, he was a lot more accommodating.

Moral of the story is, work with your boss the way they like to work, modify your style to suit theirs, don't expect the opposite!

Managers are humans, subject to their emotions, and the quicker you work out their managerial style, the easier it will be for you.