how much I hate my job?
There I was at work, just a working away, when I was approached by a coworker we affectionately refer to as Li'l Dorothy...because her name is Dorothy and she's petite. She handed me a paper, explaining that the dispatcher had instructed her to bring it to me.
I took the paper, looked at it, and hollered, "Whooooo!"
I turned the paper around and showed my coworkers, and they hollered, "Whooo!" Up and down the line of brazing stands I walked, holding up the paper, and all who saw it cried out, "Whooo!"
This caught the attention of the machine operators in tubing, who came over and asked what was that I had in my hand. I turned the paper around and showed them, whereupon they all sang, "Whooo!"
And what was on that piece of paper that made us all say, "Whooo!"? The following words:
All production areas are off Saturday
A weekend! A real weekend! I immediately began making plans for my Saturday off. The first thing I was going to do, of course, was to sleep later than 3:30 AM. After a leisurely morning coffee, I'd get dressed and go buy what I needed to finish my flower bed, and I was going to mow the whole yard...
Alas, our joy was short lived.
At the end of the day, one of my coworkers walked up to me and said, "We're working Saturday." WHAT???? Yep, she'd gotten a message from her husband that all component areas will be working. She went and asked our supervisor, and he confirmed. Why didn't they tell us? Why didn't they put it on the notice? He said they'd told all the group leaders. So, why didn't Group Leader Shark say anything to us???
I asked a few more coworkers if they'd heard, and no, they were as surprised as I was. Why didn't they say so up front? Why did they get our hopes up, only to dash them like that? I'll tell you. Because they don't care sh*t about us. We ain't nothing but dogs to them. And they wonder why the turnover rate is so high.
As if that weren't enough, they've decided to up the starting wage to $13.50 per hour. Sounds good, right? Ah, but there's a catch. If you make less than $13.50, you get bumped up to that amount. If you make more than that already, well, sucks to be us. If you're not maxed out, you'll get your piddling little $0.25 per hour annual raise. If you are maxed out, well, really sucks to be us.
And they can't seem to figure out why the turnover rate is so high! Where is the incentive for company loyalty? Someone who has been there 30 or 35 years ought to make more than someone just walking in the door. And why would you have a salary max anyway? Or a vacation max?
Here's the deal, I'm maxed out on my salary. No matter how much longer I work there, I'll never make any more than I'm making now. I'm maxed out on my vacation time. No matter how much longer I work there, I'll never have any more vacation days than I do now. My pension -- because I'm one of the few who actually gets a pension -- was frozen years ago. No matter how much longer I work there, I'll never make a penny more in my pension than I will if I retired right now. Now, explain to me why I should stay there another 10-15-20 years?
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. They're building a new factory in town, Milwaukee Tools. People are already planning on applying there, and they haven't even started building the facility. Some Front Office Guy was talking about it, and said, "We've got a core of employees who will never leave here. They may pay a little bit more, but they're not as relaxed as we are out here."
I turned to my coworker and said, "I don't know what he's smoking, but I want some of it!" That place is not relaxed. It's the most stressful job I've had, and that includes my time in the military.
I think tomorrow, I'm going to ask my group leader to move me to a machine. For two reasons...1. Because Brazing Boss has made brazing intolerable, as much as I loved brazing, I just can't stand it any more, and 2. I think being a machine operator will be a better job title to put onto my Milwaukee Tools application.
I'll let you know how it goes.
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