Cristian Ditoiu, renowned entrepreneur, was put several times in the delicate situation to refuse a salary increase. It was easy to just say „no”, but he knew that this was not the solution for keeping those people to stay and perform after that moment.

Cristian tells how one of his employee, a programmer, came and said he saw on a recruitment site a similar job which was paid 400 euros more, and in these circumstances, and he wants a raise he considered „normal”. How did the manager react? “I asked him to give me a brief respite of two days to take a decision. After two days, I went to him and I said I have a big dilemma. He has three years of experience and earns 800 euros and on a site where people who needed a job were posting advertisements, a guy with the same expertise as him, same age, was asking only 500 euros. I also said, I do not know how to proceed. Sack him and pick up the one that required less?” This was a justified refusal because the company could not afford the increase requested by the employee