Ms. Pao, who recently lost her very high-profile lawsuit against Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, apparently wants to level the playing field for women at Reddit by getting rid of salary negotiation.
Here's what she told The Wall Street Journal in her own words:
Men negotiate harder than women do and sometimes women get penalized when they do negotiate. So as part of our recruiting process we don't negotiate with candidates. We come up with an offer that we think is fair. If you want more equity, we'll let you swap a little bit of your cash salary for equity, but we aren't going to reward people who are better negotiators with more compensation. We ask people what they think about diversity, and we did weed people out because of that.But is Reddit helping its employees, particularly younger women, by inadvertently sending the message: "We realize you're not very good at this salary negotiation stuff, so we're not going to make you do it anymore"?
I have mixed feelings about this approach to pay. On the one hand, getting rid of salary negotiation might indeed close the pay gap by creating a more-level playing field. Everyone knows the score, which might lead to higher employee morale and fewer instances of lunch break speculation about a work peer's pay package.
On the other hand, salary is simply one element of workplace negotiation. The average workplace runs on big and small negotiation all day long -- from scheduling vacation time to deciding who gets the go to the high-profile conference to keeping client expectations in check to sitting down with the boss to discuss...salary.
We learn to negotiate by doing it. When it comes to salary negotiation, we can all look back and see where we could have negotiated better. With any luck, we learn from our mistakes and never repeat them.
Women don't need corporate policies that seem to end salary negotiation on our behalf; we need to get in there and negotiate our pay packages so we can learn from our mistakes, get better at it, and reap the benefits of our hard-fought negotiation skills. We can do this. Sisters are doing salary negotiation for themselves!
Instead of ending salary negotiations, perhaps Reddit could offer negotiation training as a workplace perk to any employee who wants it? That would send a strong message that negotiation skills are not only valued, but expected, at a great workplace such as Reddit. Sorry, I tend to be a workplace idealist, where all good things are possible if only we try.***
Bottom line: If an employee is great at negotiation, then he or she shouldn't be penalized for it.
Well, that's my two cents, but really, I deserve four cents based on skill set and blogging experience alone. Okay, five cents if you're including coffee consumption, and 10 cents if you throw in '80 pop music videos to make a point. Do we have a deal?
*** We women can also stop saying "sorry" so much, but that's another topic entirely.
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