What to say when you ask for a raise and they answer “it's not the right time”

Ladies and gentlemen, here is the answer companies and bosses give most often when you ask for a raise, a promotion, or anything at all.

“It's not the right time.”

And this answer puts an end to 90% of the requests that get this far, because 90% of people reply “Okay, I understand” and the conversation ends there. Sure, the bitter aftertaste remains, but there's nothing you can do, right?

Actually, no! And I'm not telling you to automatically contest the no, because there really could be a budget limit, a different company window, or a constraint your manager cannot override.

The real problem is that you're leaving the conversation without any useful information, without understanding what it means. You don't know why it's not a good time, so you don't know when it will be: tomorrow, in a month, or in 3 years. You know nothing. And it's precisely in this not-knowing that your anxiety, insecurity and frustration take root.

Don't let it drag you down: you really can learn to stay clear-headed and ask the right questions. Here are a few examples:

1. “What makes this moment unsuitable?”

It's not a provocation, it's a question to understand whether the problem is that there's no budget right now, or your manager doesn't yet consider some results sufficient, or the decision depends on someone else, or the review can only happen at a specific time of year. These are different situations and they call for different strategies.

2. “When would be a good time to talk about it again?”

Here too, the question lets you understand what will determine that good moment: maybe the company is waiting on incoming payments, or it's closing an important contract, or on the contrary it has just lost one. These are different scenarios that shape the approach you'll take in the rest of the conversation.

3. “Which results / skills will you evaluate when the time is right?”

With this question you've turned an undefined pushback into something far more useful: evaluation criteria, something concrete you can agree on, achieve and measure.

A no is not the end of the negotiation, it's the beginning

Sure, it can happen that there's no negotiating room and the answer really will be no. But before reaching that conclusion, you have every right to ask and find out what that “it's not a good time” is based on. Because only then will you have the useful elements that let you choose your strategy, whatever it may be.

If instead you accept such a vague answer, or keep pushing until the other person gives in, you're completely wasting an opportunity: the opportunity to negotiate. And to do that, you need to know how to ask, gather information, understand the decision-making process and test the other possibilities.