Yeah that’s true. So I should clarify that I do care about my department’s budget, but the sum of money we’re talking about here is like $5-10k, or about 2.5-5% of someone’s loaded cost. I’d much rather secure a good candidate than squabble over that. If they’re asking for an extra $50k, then it’s a different scenario.

I hear people justify not negotiating by saying things like “I’m worried what they’ll think of me” or “I don’t want to create trouble”. This is what people think I care about, but don’t.

And as others have said, absolutely this is different for small companies where they’ll feel it more personally.