Work hard & you'll get ahead and other childhood lies

Master of Prissface

[corporateamericasucksrocks rant]

Dontcha love getting to be an adult and finding out that all those lessons that were forced down your throat as a child were total CRAP?

I had my yearly review right before I left for surgery. It was pretty good, or it would have been had I not been covering two jobs, working 12 hour days and weekends, not eating or sleeping for days at a time from the stress, but it was decent. Today, my first day back from leave, we get our award letters, which basically tell you what your raise, bonus and stock option awards are if you get them. Guess who, after all that, got the most pitiful raise in her worklife history, like why even bother giving me one....NO bonus and NO stock options. Nada, zip, zilch, pitooie......all that *$#&$^*#^ing work and misery for practically nothing. When I gave my boss the raised eyebrow, he told me the VP did the group that I fall under administratively himself and that the actual bosses were allowed to give input but not make the final decision, and that "the pool of $ just wasn't there for your group this year."

Excuse me? Did someone say, "oh, look at the time....5:00...what? Can I work late tonight? Ummmmm, lemme put it this way.....I'd rather clean up a steaming pile of cat puke!"

Keep your nose clean and work hard and you'll get somewhere my sweet white runner's butt. burning mad

I can't wait to get out of this corporate hellhole and out into the real world. At least working to help people is worth the extra time and effort you put into it.

[/corporateamericasucksrocks rant]

the kilted one

my therapist says that holding your emotions inside is a bad thing. so genie, why don't you tell us how you really feel?

all kidding aside. that really is a sad situation, but as one who works in the "helping people" field, it's not a bed of roses over here either. No merit pay, no stock options, and the only raise I get is the one that everyone else gets thanks to the union. Not that I'm complaining, because I am up for some good money by the end of this contract. But the very worst of these teachers will get the same money......And as far as the rewards of helping people, yeah that's great and can't be measured in dollars. But there are some people who won't be helped. and you walk away wondering why you try.

Adjunct

honesty is always best...
though most eventually get caught it is the honest people who get screwed in the end because there are more hoops to jump through, more paperwork to do and more regulation.

If people had just basic morals and ethics I would work a lot less harder.

Excelent

Oompa Loofah

To add to the rant:

I know people who merely want to play "Army". People who just want to wear the uniform and get the perks, but do none of the actually yucky stuff. There is a man in my husband's office who is up for promotion--who does squat. He won't even deploy. Wouldn't even look us in the eye as Mr. Aire was leaving.

I think if everyone pulled their own weight as well as having ethics and morals, every job would be far more enjoyable.

Adjunct

Angie I know people who have signed up for all the benefits of the service but when it comes to war, try every excuse to get out of it.

Master of Prissface

You know, I really love this group!! Here I was thinking, geez, that sounded like a materialistic yuppie "I don't make enough money to afford Muffy's private school tuition" rant (which it wasn't, I don't give a rat's a$$ about that stuff) but you guys make some really good points about what's wrong with our society. I know I sound like my dad, but I swear it wasn't ALWAYS this bad, was it?

Keltic, you're right about the helping people field, I've been there too and the "perks" come in the form of a smile or a laugh from someone who spent months refusing to communicate, or from someone coming up to you in the "outside world" and telling you what a difference you made in their lives, often years after the fact, stuff like that, but you know what? I'll take a couple of those over our now-worthless stock options any day!
Yes, there are some, often many, that you just can't reach, and for those, you can only hope someday someone will.....but the others really do make it worthwhile.

Adjunct

G, to some extent it is about the money. If we work hard we are taught that hard work pays off.
I bet morale is bad not only for you but for your dept. since there is not enought "money" to go around.
In the idealistic setting, hard workers are to get rewarded in the true capitalistic system. A system like you describe is more out of love for the company.
Now granted civil servants like me, Keltic, Coach and others don't do it for the money and there is a certain level of love and other benefits that other jobs cannot even come close to matching.
I know your delema is that you feel you deserved a higher raise and got a hearty handshake and pat on the back. It is really a slap in the face and a kick in the a$$.

Oompa Loofah

I bet in Joe and Greg's line of work they also see the other end--the kind where the innocent pay for the misdeeds of others. That goes hand in hand with G's rant. I'm sick and tired of evil people getting away with stuff.

Like reading about a person who causes a three car accident because they are drunk, and they get a slap only.

Or the person that works their @ss off and the slacker gets the raise, promotion, or award.

One day all of these injustices will be righted. One day....

Frightened Inmate #2

Oompa Loofah

Frightened Inmate #2

Excelent

Oompa Loofah

Master of Prissface

So true, Joe, so true....you're right, it's about the money not as a status symbol, but as recognition for a job more than well done. Apparently our department was not the only one hit--my roomie works here also in a different area and a lot of them were not happy with what they got either, considering the hours they've all been putting in for this big conversion to Windows XP! I think they're going to find that a lot of their most "dedicated" employees have suddenly found lives and become too busy to be married to the office.

AH, that military thing bugs me too. Every time I hear a high school kid talking about how he's gonna get college paid for, and all these skills he could never get anywhere else....and never about what it really means to be part of our military. Sad...very sad....

Work hard & you'll get ahead and other childhood lies

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