Hello, Ben Dover here again. It seems like it was just yesterday, when I got the shaft from LLNS - Oh wait, It was just a few days ago so I guess yesterday is close enough.
I was hoping to finally replace my old POS Honda with a new one this year after a year of promises from my management that I was doing a great job and would be rewarded for it. My raise for the entire year would not even make a single payment. The job market still stinks and I owe more money on the house than it's worth.
Now with the point of this post. We are all in a real stinking job market - whether you get a 0.5% raise or a 5.0% raise it's still not that much money. I have friends who have been out of work for more than a year now. I have friends who took a pay cut in order to keep their jobs. The "good ol' boys" got huge raises and bonuses while they shafted anyone not in their club. My guess would be that those who got less than package were those that ULM knows they can't just pack up and leave - not those who did a poor job. Heck, there is no one left who does a bad job anymore. We are all doing the work of at least two people, living in dirty offices and bringing in our own office supplies in order to do our jobs.
Thank you to Uncle George, Uncle Ed and Uncle Steve. I'm holding up one finger. Can you guess which one it is?
I was hoping to finally replace my old POS Honda with a new one this year after a year of promises from my management that I was doing a great job and would be rewarded for it. My raise for the entire year would not even make a single payment. The job market still stinks and I owe more money on the house than it's worth.
Now with the point of this post. We are all in a real stinking job market - whether you get a 0.5% raise or a 5.0% raise it's still not that much money. I have friends who have been out of work for more than a year now. I have friends who took a pay cut in order to keep their jobs. The "good ol' boys" got huge raises and bonuses while they shafted anyone not in their club. My guess would be that those who got less than package were those that ULM knows they can't just pack up and leave - not those who did a poor job. Heck, there is no one left who does a bad job anymore. We are all doing the work of at least two people, living in dirty offices and bringing in our own office supplies in order to do our jobs.
Thank you to Uncle George, Uncle Ed and Uncle Steve. I'm holding up one finger. Can you guess which one it is?
Comments
During the cold war, our jobs were considered important because we were providing a service that was perceived as being needed.
With the change of the political winds our jobs don't seem that important to those in D.C. That means that as the budget squeeze goes into effect, those organizations with the political pull will survive. Bechtel would be just as happy to get a management fee for riding herd on a lab that is shutting down. And if fact, if they were to subcontract out to Bechtel entities to do clean up / shutdown work (hey, construction companies do that you know) it's a win/win for Bechtel.
Then you wouldn't have to fret over your small 1% raises. You would only have to worry about what you would be eating for dinner... dried dog food or the more expensive cans of moist cat food.