Discussing Salary with Boss who is not CSS/Web Savvy

[raena]

Originally Posted by noslenwerd

Wasn't real sure where to put this thread so mods please feel free to move.

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I guess basically my main questions are

1. How can I show my non-tech savvy boss who is more sales/account rep oriented (also from 2 hours outside of metro) why keeping up with web standards and avoiding html table layouts are important, without putting down the other web designer.

2. Sometimes I get frustrated because the layouts I do are very "with the times" but my boss seems to focus on the wrong things in layouts. They sometimes think they look too "techy" but the problem is all they know of website looks are sites they have seen from the above mentioned designer.

Thanks ahead of time!

First: Was there a question about salary? (per subject)

Second: Explaining web standards to a boss is totally different to explaining it to a developer. We are interested in stuff like ease of refactoring, and we understand stuff like accessibility or alternate browsers. What your boss cares about is cash, time, and opportunities. So, what I would do is find a way to convert those sorts of concepts into bottom-line sort of business things -- concentrate on the fact that modern practices can save time, it's fast and easy to update the site, semantic code means sweet SEO, slimmer code means cheaper hosting, faster pages mean less chance of the user hitting that back button, etc etc etc.

The third thing is to talk about it all in terms of enhancements and improvements, which will help your goal of trying not to put the other guy down, but it also have some benefits about dealing with your boss too. Saying "This guy's work totally sucks, and here's why!" can come across as "You made a dumb hiring decision, and I am totally going to tell you how to do your job!" But saying "I have a way to save us a bunch of cash, make our clients really happy, and make all our lives easier!" will hopefully come across nicely.

A fourth thing, of course, is that you don't want your lunch cut by some other company. One way to go about this, though this can seem a little scare-mongery, is to point out other local examples of really nice websites. Hopefully, your local peers are a good example of standards in action -- bonus points if they won some award or have a big, good reputation -- and talk about what it is that they're doing well.

Good luck, anyway! It's not the easiest thing in the world!