2006 End of Year Review, Part 2
Part 2:
This was my second year of work at the fashion jewellery house. The first year was a spectacular story of successes and expansion, climaxing with moving to a newer, bigger, and nicer office, and the hiring of two new jewellery designers (whom will be referred to henceforth as ‘the Girls’). The only down-point of the previous year’s work was the letdown of my pay raise. It has ramifications on this year, so I will repeat that story again:
When the time for my 1 year review had approached, I talked to my family about how best to approach and ask for a proper raise. It was something I’d never done before, and I felt like I had so much to lose, so I was terrified about getting it wrong. But my family (specificially, the Rainbow Dragon’s girlfriend and my mother) gave me a solid plan of attack.
When I applied it at work, I found out I was about two hours too late. The CEO was in town from Australia, and my boss had already spoken to him about my pay raise. I gave her the figure I wanted anyway ($15,000 increase), and my reasons (All of the new jewellery was mine, I had built the entire design process, it wasn’t an exaggeration that the company was making it’s comeback on my work.)
When I had my meeting a month later with my boss, she gave me the news. Not only were they only going to give me a $10,000 raise, but they were going to count the $5,000 in stock options they had promised me 5 months ago as part of that, so my actual pay raise was $6,000! I wasn’t pleased, but I said I should’ve talked to you sooner about the pay raise. (Looking back, I made a terrible mistake by swallowing that.) Needless to say, it was a complete betrayal.
So I continued to work, making barely enough to move somewhere where Sparrow wouldn’t go mad from isolation (I couldn’t afford to have her drive, what with insurance priced as it was, and my commute was 90 minutes each way in rush hour traffic.)
Funnily enough, I suspect the whole company took me less seriously after that point. My long hours were taken for granted, as was my extra work. I went from being my boss’ ‘Right-Hand Man’ to being ‘one of the top designers’ to simply being ‘one of our designers’.
This was at the same time that higher expectations were being placed on the whole company. They were expecting a faster better turnout with the same employees in the same working hours for the same wages. Since the company was multinational, they threatened my boss frequently with outsourcing our jobs to India or Indonesia.
While this was stress on my boss’ shoulders (whom I was still confidante to, oddly enough), the weight of the work fell squarely on the designers’ shoulders.
I know it’s not fair to say I bore all the responsibility, but when the girls whined and cried (literally) when they were asked to work overtime, while I worked 10+ hours a week overtime nearly every week, I have no sympathy for them. They had rich boyfriends who spoiled them shamelessly. I had a wife who wasn’t legally allowed to work. They formed a ‘girly-gang’ with my boss, bonding over common hobbies and shopping trips. I went along as much as I could, but always felt out of place. They would gossip like high-school girls about celebrities and Lost, and I would try to keep up.
You might say that sounds syncophantic of me, but I assure you my gut told me to do this out of survival. The most junior of the Girls never cared for me-- she always acted threatened when I knew something she didn’t, she would get offended if I tried to help her, and she would openly insult and mock me if she even perceived me as being impolite or patronising. I didn’t want to ever give them the chance to talk about me behind my back at work.
Of course, it was when I learned this very same junior designer made only $1000 less than I did, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
But more on that later.
This was my second year of work at the fashion jewellery house. The first year was a spectacular story of successes and expansion, climaxing with moving to a newer, bigger, and nicer office, and the hiring of two new jewellery designers (whom will be referred to henceforth as ‘the Girls’). The only down-point of the previous year’s work was the letdown of my pay raise. It has ramifications on this year, so I will repeat that story again:
When the time for my 1 year review had approached, I talked to my family about how best to approach and ask for a proper raise. It was something I’d never done before, and I felt like I had so much to lose, so I was terrified about getting it wrong. But my family (specificially, the Rainbow Dragon’s girlfriend and my mother) gave me a solid plan of attack.
When I applied it at work, I found out I was about two hours too late. The CEO was in town from Australia, and my boss had already spoken to him about my pay raise. I gave her the figure I wanted anyway ($15,000 increase), and my reasons (All of the new jewellery was mine, I had built the entire design process, it wasn’t an exaggeration that the company was making it’s comeback on my work.)
When I had my meeting a month later with my boss, she gave me the news. Not only were they only going to give me a $10,000 raise, but they were going to count the $5,000 in stock options they had promised me 5 months ago as part of that, so my actual pay raise was $6,000! I wasn’t pleased, but I said I should’ve talked to you sooner about the pay raise. (Looking back, I made a terrible mistake by swallowing that.) Needless to say, it was a complete betrayal.
So I continued to work, making barely enough to move somewhere where Sparrow wouldn’t go mad from isolation (I couldn’t afford to have her drive, what with insurance priced as it was, and my commute was 90 minutes each way in rush hour traffic.)
Funnily enough, I suspect the whole company took me less seriously after that point. My long hours were taken for granted, as was my extra work. I went from being my boss’ ‘Right-Hand Man’ to being ‘one of the top designers’ to simply being ‘one of our designers’.
This was at the same time that higher expectations were being placed on the whole company. They were expecting a faster better turnout with the same employees in the same working hours for the same wages. Since the company was multinational, they threatened my boss frequently with outsourcing our jobs to India or Indonesia.
While this was stress on my boss’ shoulders (whom I was still confidante to, oddly enough), the weight of the work fell squarely on the designers’ shoulders.
I know it’s not fair to say I bore all the responsibility, but when the girls whined and cried (literally) when they were asked to work overtime, while I worked 10+ hours a week overtime nearly every week, I have no sympathy for them. They had rich boyfriends who spoiled them shamelessly. I had a wife who wasn’t legally allowed to work. They formed a ‘girly-gang’ with my boss, bonding over common hobbies and shopping trips. I went along as much as I could, but always felt out of place. They would gossip like high-school girls about celebrities and Lost, and I would try to keep up.
You might say that sounds syncophantic of me, but I assure you my gut told me to do this out of survival. The most junior of the Girls never cared for me-- she always acted threatened when I knew something she didn’t, she would get offended if I tried to help her, and she would openly insult and mock me if she even perceived me as being impolite or patronising. I didn’t want to ever give them the chance to talk about me behind my back at work.
Of course, it was when I learned this very same junior designer made only $1000 less than I did, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
But more on that later.