Negotiating for a kitten

My son wants a kitten.  I do not.

I think they are cute and all that, but we already have a very nice dog.  My son is in college and I know that I will end up becoming the caretaker of the kitten, should he get one.

Still, even knowing this, I decided to let him negotiate with me for the acquiring of a kitten.  Because I do not really want a kitten, I have set my reservation point very high.  I told him that he would have to get on the Dean's list 3 semesters in a row.  Also, he will have to pay for the kitten's vet bills and food.  He has agreed to these parameters.  I have little worry since he's never been on the dean's list yet!  Was this a negotiation not in good faith?  Maybe...maybe not.

Actually, if he DOES end up getting on the Dean's list for three semesters then I think the negotiation will have been an interest-based success for both of us.  My interest is for his grades to improve and his interest is to have a kitten.  So if this negotiation succeeds it would be win win!

A Coalition of Geocachers

A kind of coalition that I am a member of is the "Geocaching Hampton Roads" group.

On May 1, 2000, Present Clinton announced that the scrambling of GPS signals would be turned off. When this happened, it allowed civilians to have accurate GPS Data.  On May 3, 2000, a man named Dave Ulmer hid a bucket of trinkets in the woods and announced it's location as a set of GPS coordinates via a newsgroup.  This was the first instance of the hobby called "Geocaching".

Geocaching became more and more popular as more and more people were able to afford GPS receivers. People would hide ammo cans in the woods and publish the coordinates on the new website geocaching.com.  My own family became involved in Geocaching in 2002 in Newport News Virginia.  My kids were young enough to enjoy it as a treasure hunt, and my husband and I liked getting outside and exploring new parks and trails.

                                         My sons finding their very first Geocache in 2002

In early 2003, I was seeking a way to get together with other people who shared the hobby.  So I created a group called "Geocaching Hampton Roads", and set about publicizing and trying to find others who would be interested in this coalition.  I started out by using the geocaching.com website to find people who had recently found caches in my area and then I sent them out a note about the group being formed.  The first week had only 13 members, but the group has since grown to over 700 members. 

While I originally created the group for the social aspect, one of the most important benefits of having this coalition of local geocachers came in the form of negotiating with the local parks.  As geocaching became more popular, some of the local parks had issues with the hobby.  Some did not understand the hobby and thought that it would be a destructive influence to the natural settings.

Because we had a large group, we were able to meet with different parks officials and explain the hobby and assure park officials that the geocachers in the area were generally respectful of the parks. We also organized "Cache-in, Trash-out" days where we would all meet and clean up a park or a trail. The more park managers heard about and saw the good things our group would do, they more willing they were to allow geocaches to be placed in the parks.  To this day, the group has a great relationship with the local parks.   The parks even call upon group members to run geocaching seminars for park visitors and this helps bring even more visitors to the parks. Every year, the group holds a large geocaching picnic at one of the parks.  The last one had more than 500 people, which is good for the economy of the region and for the parks.  I feel this coalition of geocachers has been very successful, and has a good ethical reputation.  The only downside of the coalition that I can see is that on occasion, some people in the group have wanted to formalize the group more, with written bylaws, rules and officers.  So far it has not become a structured group, but I think that in the future, it may. 

                          Geocaching Hampton Roads Group at the annual picnic in 2014

Ethics in Negotiation

I think that some "dishonesty" is necessary in any negotiation.  After reading about the three schools of bargaining ethics (It's a Game" Poker School",  the "Do the Right Thing Even if it Hurts" Idealist School, and the "What Goes Around Comes Around Pragmatist School, I feel that I mainly subscribe to the "It's a Game" Poker School of bargaining ethics.  I think that there are many elements that are like a game when negotiating.  Bluffing and misleading are integral parts of the "game".  My negotiating strategy is often to withhold information that would give my opponent an advantage over me.  Also as in my previous example in my "good cop, bad cop" post,I feel misleading by giving a little false information is acceptable in a negotiation.  As long as no one gets hurt, I don't see a reason to be totally forthcoming in all parts of a negotiation.

Negotiation in job offers

I found the articles and the role-play about negotiating job offers to be very intriguing.  Unfortunately, I feel that in many jobs there isn't a lot of wiggle room to be negotiated on. I think it might depend on the kind of job that one is seeking and also the organization that the job is in.

For example, in lower level jobs and for jobs in any type of government entity, I have never had any success negotiating for salary or for other concessions.  And believe me, I have tried.  Once I was a long-term substitute in the High School and when it came time for the position to be filled, I attempted a negotiation for a higher salary by bringing up the fact that I had experience and also an Associates Degree.  I was simply told the starting salary is the starting salary and there was no room for negotiation.  Another time, I was seeking a government job and I attempted to negotiate a flex-time schedule, and again, I was told there was no possibility.  My husband also had no success when he took a Federal Government job and tried to negotiate for a higher rate of vacation day-earning to account for his military service. It seems that these agencies are very unflexible.  Maybe had I taken the class all those years ago, we might have been able to use a technique that would work to persuade them.

In the role-play, the job that the person being hired for seemed like it was a higher level job and one that allowed for more negotiation.  I guess that the more important the job and the more unique the candidate, the better the chances are for negotiation in the job offer.  

That being said, I have had one successful employment negotiation.  This came about when I was working at the University part-time and wished to take on a second part-time job.  I was selected as the candidate for the second job, however, the job hours of the second-job were the same as the job hours for my first job, 8:00-11:45.  Both supervisors preferred that I work the morning shift at their office. So I had to negotiate a bit with both and we finally worked out a schedule where I work two mornings a week and three afternoons at one job and then vice-versa at the other job. I think I have the oddest schedule on campus, however, it works.