Has anyone been offered a retention bonus and negotiated for more? As some of you may remember, we're "merging" with another bank and they clearly want me to stay on board and i'm ok with staying but they do know that I'm also seeing what's out there. I've had a couple conversations with the new boss and he isn't willing to talk about salary increase even though my commute goes from less than 1 mile to about 50 miles (one way) but he did offer me a retention bonus. The bonus was underwhelming (about 10% of my yearly salary) so I want to negotiate for about triple. is it bad form to negotiate? Should I negotiate now or wait for something in writing and then negotiate?
I'll say that we are 5 months out from the merger date so it is very early and this has all only been verbal but will be in writing over the next few weeks/month. The new boss wants the new team locked in by the first of the year.
I hope that all made sense.