No contract talks yet between OG Mankins and Patriots

The New England Patriots offensive guard Logan Mankins is now in embarrassment as he has not signed his free agent tender while the Patriots have not offered a new contract to him. What’s even worse, he has no way to check what he may get as a bottom line because the team did not contact him or his agent to start a contract negotiation.

“There’s nothing that’s happened," Mankins' agent, Frank Bauer, told the Boston Herald. "We haven’t heard from them. Everyone in the NFL is on vacation. We just have to see what happens.”

Mankins himself did not appear for any of the team’s offseason workouts during the past few months, and he was seen only one working out with a group of young local school players wearing Brett Favre jerseys or Saints jerseys. For most of the offseason, he was complaining that the Patriots broke their promise of giving him a long-term deal. He said he got the promise before the offseason, but did not hear any more information since the beginning of offseason.

We are not sure about the fact, and the Patriots have not made much explanation on the dispute. The only move they made is to reduce Mankins’ free agent tender from $3.26 million to $1.54 million when he refused to sign on the tender before an NFL deadline. It was the player’s agent Bauer who explained that the team hesitated because of a lack of CBA.

Ask for a salary raise now

If what economists are saying is true, the economy is actually beginning to rebound, and employees should get prepared for a salary rebound, too. However, even though companies do have plans to increase salaries, they are still picky at who is qualified to get more money than others.

Joe Thomas is working as a sales representative for a sportswear company. As a faithful Brett Favre fan and selling Brett Favre jerseys everyday to many people, he himself has had no spare money to afford his favorite player uniforms for a long time. He heard that the company was planning to raise some employees’ salaries, but no one knew who would be the lucky dog. In order to get the chance, Thomas made some more efforts than others and at last he made it to get a 30% salary increase.

What Thomas did sound normal: talking with his boss and working harder. But there were a few differences from normal efforts. First of all, he did not hesitate in starting a conversation. Then, while talking about his demand of salary increase, Thomas did not complaint about unfair treatment he received in the past, instead, he showed the boss what he already did and were going to do to help the company earn more money. Third, he told the boss that he was willing to work whenever he needs him. A fourth thing Thomas did during the observation period was to make new friends all through the company and always offered helps to them. All these together gave Thomas’ boss a great impression and gladly raised this pleasant guy’s salary.