excercise one Negotiations
Group Exercise #1 ~ Asking for Time to Consider a Job Offer
Morticia Bell-Smith, an honors student and finance major, has received two job offers.
Her offer letters follow. ___________________________________________________________________
October 27, 2020
Dear Ms. Bell-Smith,
Big Bank, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia is pleased to offer you the position of Consultant. Your skills and experience will be an ideal fit for our collections department.
As we discussed, your starting date will be June 1, 2021. The starting salary is $75,000 per year and is paid on a bi-weekly basis. Direct deposit is available.
Full family medical coverage will be provided through our company's employee benefit plan and will be effective immediately upon hiring. Dental, life, disability and optical insurance are available for separate purchase.
Big Bank offers a flexible paid-time off plan which includes vacation, personal, and sick leave. Time off accrues at the rate of one day per month for your first year, then increases based on your tenure with the company.
If you choose to accept this job offer, please sign the second copy of this letter and return it to me by November 21, 2020. When your acknowledgment is received, we will send you employee benefit enrollment forms and an employee handbook which details our benefit plans and retirement plan as well as a one-time signing bonus of $10,000.
The final offer is subject to a background check which includes the following: credit review, drug screening, criminal background check.
Please let me know if you have any questions or I can provide any additional information.
Sincerely,
Justin K. Justice Director, Human Resources Big Bank, Inc.
November 9, 2020
Dear Morticia,
We are pleased to offer you a job as a Associate Director of Children’s Services at Kids B Kids in Houston, Texas. We believe your experience and skills will be a valuable asset to our company.
If you are to accept this offer you will be eligible for the following in accordance to our company’s policies:
• Annual gross salary of $62,500 paid in monthly installments by check or direct deposit • Standard benefits including:
o 21 days of annual paid time off o 10 days of sick leave o Medical and dental insurance o 403 (B) retirement plan o Tuition reimbursement for professional career development courses o Free use of certain facilities after hours and subject to availability o Free childcare
To accept this offer sign and date this job offer letter as indicated below and email it back to us by December 3, 2020.
If you accept this offer, your effective hire date will be the June 1, 2021. Your immediate supervisor will be Montgomery Ward who can be reached at (346) 555-1234.
We at Kids B Kids hope that you’ll accept to work with us and look forward to welcoming you aboard. Feel free to call Montgomery if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Winston Salem VP of Human Resources Kids B Kids
Under Consideration
• Morticia, a finance major and accounting minor, has a FICO credit score below 350.
• She will graduate in May 2021. • Morticia loves, loves, loves kids! Working with children is her dream job.
Ideally, she wants to start her own charter school, be a principal or manage a school district.
• Kids B Kids is a new company with schools in three cities. • Morticia is from Seattle, Washington and has close family in Atlanta. • Morticia has learned that she has been accepted to the Texas Principal
Leadership Academy in the Master's in Education (M.Ed.) program and full-time MBA program at McComb’s School of Business at UT Austin. This is a full-time, face-to-face program in Austin; she cannot take courses online. They will pay for her tuition and housing for two years with a start date of fall 2021.
• Morticia has a final interview with We Be Kids, Inc. (the largest charter school provider in the U.S. and a competitor of Kids B Kids.) on February 6, 2021. According to glassdoor.com, they offer an average starting salary of $85,000 per year, but no benefits.
The Assignment
1. Which offer should she accept? 2. How can she ask for more time to consider the offer for the interview in
April? What should she do if she gets the job with We Be Kids, Inc.? 3. Using the information provided in the articles, explain what she should do
and why you decided on this course of action. 4. How much is tuition at UT Austin for out-of-state residents for both
programs she was admitted to? 5. We Be Kids does not offer benefits. In Dallas, Texas, how much would
Mortitica, a single 23-year old woman, have to pay each month for the following (please cite your sources):
a. Health care premium b. Dental care premium c. Vision