This weekend, I got reprimanded in a rather backhanded way that I found more than a little unfair.
I don't mean to complain, and of course, it does no good anyway. But it is a bit funny, isn't it? There is this growing tendency to make you feel beholden to jobs that, frankly, do not pay nearly enough, and where the benefits are not nearly so adequate as some might want you to believe.
More and more, we seem to be given more responsibilities, yet without greater pay. To boot, there seems to be a movement to actively eliminate benefits which were fought for, and hard won, many decades ago. These are things that, obviously, an affluent society has forgotten about. The struggle to remind those on top of just how valuable we, the common lot, are, and that they would not be rich without us, all of that is forgotten.
Now, we should be thankful just to have a job. We should be thankful to them for granting us the privilege of their putting up with us, by giving us the salaries by which we live.
Sometimes, however, it seems that they barely can put up with us. Sometimes, it feels like they would prefer to pay us with a kick in the ass.
Not to put to fine a point on it, but I mean, really! You show up for work for every shift, without calling out, and almost always on time, for just about a decade. That means through some of the severe storms and hurricanes that we have seen, and snow measurable in feet, not just inches. You conduct yourself in a courteous and professional manner. You do everything that is required, and quite a bit which is not.
Are you rewarded? Perhaps a raise, maybe?
No.
Do you get the sense that they are at least appreciative? Maybe a pat on the back, and statement saying that they recognize what you do, and how consistent you have been?
No.
But what we do get, collectively, are warnings. It is my weekend job, but all we are getting, really, are warnings. Some people are arriving late, so we all get warnings that this conduct will not be tolerated. We are not to use the computers, or any other equipment, for personal use. One person uses the phone, and we all get reprimanded. One or two people do not show customer service skills at all times, and we get called in for meetings, or are given extra training lessons and exams to complete.
Always, new warnings, or new procedures. Always more paperwork. More surveillance of our activities, both subtle and otherwise.
Always, they are cracking skulls. Taking names, and showing a willingness to kick some ass. We're coming down on you!
When talking to Basia (my girlfriend) afterwards, she also mentioned that she is in the same kind of predicament in her job. Never any thanks. But reprimands? Hell, yes!
The workforce is being cut down, people are laid off. That does not mean less services, that just means that those who remain are given more responsibilities, although not more pay. Certainly, not more recognition.
And all the while you are made to feel that you should be unconditionally grateful for all that they give you. You're lucky just to have a job, so shut up, smile, and be happy!
In the meantime, you begin to feel exhausted. You begin to feel every minute of your age. That fatigue that never quite goes away. The headaches, and other body aches, that become more common, but somehow do not seem like they are merely a part of aging only.
I ask Basia, "Why are we stuck working jobs like this?"
She answers, "I don't know."
Her salary and benefits are not to her liking, and in slightly less than a year's time since we have become a couple, she picked up a second job (although she still had every other weekend off), to having one day off every two weeks, to working every single day, trying to save up money for an upcoming trip we plan to take. But it was exhausting, and she had to get every other Saturday back to being free. It was too much.
Of course, I know what it is like to work seven days a week, and to count the "recent" days off that you had in terms of how many weeks ago, rather than days ago, they were. Sometimes, it was closer to months. So, I know how tiring that grind can be.
But with everything being so expensive, sometimes it feels like there is little choice in the matter. Salaries in general are not keeping up with inflation, and so, if you want to maintain a decent standard of living, you often have to sacrifice, somehow. Too often, that means your time. A part of your life.
Yet, your sacrifice is not seen as such far too often. In fact, it often seems to be taken for granted.
I learned a long time ago not to bother trying to impress the managers. We have had many managers on that weekend job (it's not a weekend job for them, of course). Yet, no matter who the managers, it is always the same. They reprimand. They crack down. They seem to think that the best reflection on their own performance is when they are cracking down on our collective, and individual, performances - warranted or not.
So, yes, the lesson was learned quite some time ago. Don't bother trying to impress. On the weekends, just try to remain off their radar. The less they hear about you, the better. At least, they are not worrying about you, and if they are not worrying, than perhaps
(perhaps)
it can be assumed that they find you a relatively stable presence.
But just lately, once again, their is that familiar crackdown, and more and more of us are feeling it. Yes, even on the weekends, which are the equivalent of Siberia in that particular workforce.
I have worked two jobs now for ten years. It is exhausting, and there are times when you really begin to wonder if it is worth it. I have a son. I have a girlfriend. And what's wrong with sleeping in every now and then? What's wrong with being well rested, having some lazy days every now and then?
You begin to feel like you are living merely to work, and for what? For whom? For those bosses, who would "reward" you by eliminating you and your position, if they could? Why? Why give as much as you have? Is there really a purpose to it?
Of course, that job has been kind to me, in many respects. I used to love it, actually. It is a clean facility, and relatively well paying for a part-time gig. It is a beautiful site, and quiet on the weekends. Plus, it has allowed me to live, and provide, far more than I would otherwise have done with the full-time jobs that I have held.
So yes, the job has been kind to me, in many respects, if you view it through the prism of a decade.
But just lately, it has not felt so kind. I used to look forward to going there, truth be told. I worked another job, at the time with kids. And I love my son, but nonetheless, coming home to a child can be exhausting. My "down time", my "quiet time", so to speak, actually came during that job. I was blessed with it.
Things have changed, though. There is a more corporate feel, and by now, I think we all know, this is not good news.
Not good news at all.
The thing is, up to that point, it felt like a good day. I was relaxed, having slept in for the first time since....well, I can't even remember the last time, truth be told. It was a relatively lazy day, and I was enjoying it, for once. Don't get many of them to enjoy, so it was nice. And I actually felt good.
Until I came to work. Then, things changed. I read an email that started off my weekend in horrible fashion, and all of the energy just seemed to be sapped from me.
Not the way I would have wanted any weekend to start off, and I guess you should understand that my weekends are the most brutal part of my schedule. They used to be worse, but many people would still think that they are bad. I work four eight hour shifts in a span of forty hours. That perhaps sounds like a lot, but believe me, it used to be worse. Far worse. I used to consistently work forty eight hours in a fifty six hour span, no exaggeration.
No more of that, thankfully. But still, the weekends are my busiest time. I work those four shifts in a short time span, but once I get out on Monday mornings at 8am, I only work three eight hour shifts until the next weekend. My schedule is weird, and I do have other responsibilities. But my fullest straight time off is right in the middle of what most people would call the work week.
In any case, the weekends are beginning to get to me. Time off is looking more attractive, and going there is....well, not.
Frankly, I am beginning to dread going there. What new shit is waiting? What new crackdowns are they going to institute this weekend. It has become a running joke among the weekend staff. With good reason.
So, yes, I am tired. Tired of weekends spent at the workplace. Ten years worth of weekends.
I really doubt that it will be ten more years, especially if things continue like this.
I don't mean to complain, and of course, it does no good anyway. But it is a bit funny, isn't it? There is this growing tendency to make you feel beholden to jobs that, frankly, do not pay nearly enough, and where the benefits are not nearly so adequate as some might want you to believe.
More and more, we seem to be given more responsibilities, yet without greater pay. To boot, there seems to be a movement to actively eliminate benefits which were fought for, and hard won, many decades ago. These are things that, obviously, an affluent society has forgotten about. The struggle to remind those on top of just how valuable we, the common lot, are, and that they would not be rich without us, all of that is forgotten.
Now, we should be thankful just to have a job. We should be thankful to them for granting us the privilege of their putting up with us, by giving us the salaries by which we live.
Sometimes, however, it seems that they barely can put up with us. Sometimes, it feels like they would prefer to pay us with a kick in the ass.
Not to put to fine a point on it, but I mean, really! You show up for work for every shift, without calling out, and almost always on time, for just about a decade. That means through some of the severe storms and hurricanes that we have seen, and snow measurable in feet, not just inches. You conduct yourself in a courteous and professional manner. You do everything that is required, and quite a bit which is not.
Are you rewarded? Perhaps a raise, maybe?
No.
Do you get the sense that they are at least appreciative? Maybe a pat on the back, and statement saying that they recognize what you do, and how consistent you have been?
No.
But what we do get, collectively, are warnings. It is my weekend job, but all we are getting, really, are warnings. Some people are arriving late, so we all get warnings that this conduct will not be tolerated. We are not to use the computers, or any other equipment, for personal use. One person uses the phone, and we all get reprimanded. One or two people do not show customer service skills at all times, and we get called in for meetings, or are given extra training lessons and exams to complete.
Always, new warnings, or new procedures. Always more paperwork. More surveillance of our activities, both subtle and otherwise.
Always, they are cracking skulls. Taking names, and showing a willingness to kick some ass. We're coming down on you!
When talking to Basia (my girlfriend) afterwards, she also mentioned that she is in the same kind of predicament in her job. Never any thanks. But reprimands? Hell, yes!
The workforce is being cut down, people are laid off. That does not mean less services, that just means that those who remain are given more responsibilities, although not more pay. Certainly, not more recognition.
And all the while you are made to feel that you should be unconditionally grateful for all that they give you. You're lucky just to have a job, so shut up, smile, and be happy!
In the meantime, you begin to feel exhausted. You begin to feel every minute of your age. That fatigue that never quite goes away. The headaches, and other body aches, that become more common, but somehow do not seem like they are merely a part of aging only.
I ask Basia, "Why are we stuck working jobs like this?"
She answers, "I don't know."
Her salary and benefits are not to her liking, and in slightly less than a year's time since we have become a couple, she picked up a second job (although she still had every other weekend off), to having one day off every two weeks, to working every single day, trying to save up money for an upcoming trip we plan to take. But it was exhausting, and she had to get every other Saturday back to being free. It was too much.
Of course, I know what it is like to work seven days a week, and to count the "recent" days off that you had in terms of how many weeks ago, rather than days ago, they were. Sometimes, it was closer to months. So, I know how tiring that grind can be.
But with everything being so expensive, sometimes it feels like there is little choice in the matter. Salaries in general are not keeping up with inflation, and so, if you want to maintain a decent standard of living, you often have to sacrifice, somehow. Too often, that means your time. A part of your life.
Yet, your sacrifice is not seen as such far too often. In fact, it often seems to be taken for granted.
I learned a long time ago not to bother trying to impress the managers. We have had many managers on that weekend job (it's not a weekend job for them, of course). Yet, no matter who the managers, it is always the same. They reprimand. They crack down. They seem to think that the best reflection on their own performance is when they are cracking down on our collective, and individual, performances - warranted or not.
So, yes, the lesson was learned quite some time ago. Don't bother trying to impress. On the weekends, just try to remain off their radar. The less they hear about you, the better. At least, they are not worrying about you, and if they are not worrying, than perhaps
(perhaps)
it can be assumed that they find you a relatively stable presence.
But just lately, once again, their is that familiar crackdown, and more and more of us are feeling it. Yes, even on the weekends, which are the equivalent of Siberia in that particular workforce.
I have worked two jobs now for ten years. It is exhausting, and there are times when you really begin to wonder if it is worth it. I have a son. I have a girlfriend. And what's wrong with sleeping in every now and then? What's wrong with being well rested, having some lazy days every now and then?
You begin to feel like you are living merely to work, and for what? For whom? For those bosses, who would "reward" you by eliminating you and your position, if they could? Why? Why give as much as you have? Is there really a purpose to it?
Of course, that job has been kind to me, in many respects. I used to love it, actually. It is a clean facility, and relatively well paying for a part-time gig. It is a beautiful site, and quiet on the weekends. Plus, it has allowed me to live, and provide, far more than I would otherwise have done with the full-time jobs that I have held.
So yes, the job has been kind to me, in many respects, if you view it through the prism of a decade.
But just lately, it has not felt so kind. I used to look forward to going there, truth be told. I worked another job, at the time with kids. And I love my son, but nonetheless, coming home to a child can be exhausting. My "down time", my "quiet time", so to speak, actually came during that job. I was blessed with it.
Things have changed, though. There is a more corporate feel, and by now, I think we all know, this is not good news.
Not good news at all.
The thing is, up to that point, it felt like a good day. I was relaxed, having slept in for the first time since....well, I can't even remember the last time, truth be told. It was a relatively lazy day, and I was enjoying it, for once. Don't get many of them to enjoy, so it was nice. And I actually felt good.
Until I came to work. Then, things changed. I read an email that started off my weekend in horrible fashion, and all of the energy just seemed to be sapped from me.
Not the way I would have wanted any weekend to start off, and I guess you should understand that my weekends are the most brutal part of my schedule. They used to be worse, but many people would still think that they are bad. I work four eight hour shifts in a span of forty hours. That perhaps sounds like a lot, but believe me, it used to be worse. Far worse. I used to consistently work forty eight hours in a fifty six hour span, no exaggeration.
No more of that, thankfully. But still, the weekends are my busiest time. I work those four shifts in a short time span, but once I get out on Monday mornings at 8am, I only work three eight hour shifts until the next weekend. My schedule is weird, and I do have other responsibilities. But my fullest straight time off is right in the middle of what most people would call the work week.
In any case, the weekends are beginning to get to me. Time off is looking more attractive, and going there is....well, not.
Frankly, I am beginning to dread going there. What new shit is waiting? What new crackdowns are they going to institute this weekend. It has become a running joke among the weekend staff. With good reason.
So, yes, I am tired. Tired of weekends spent at the workplace. Ten years worth of weekends.
I really doubt that it will be ten more years, especially if things continue like this.
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