A Lesson I Should Have Learned A Long Time Ago

So, yesterday I wrote on my other blog "When Parents Grow Old and Get Crazy" about the struggle of having enough money to take care of six of us (three children, two parents and myself). Money is going to be even tighter now. After two years of waiting and hoping, it seemed like my place of employment was finally going to bring me on full-time and give me benefits. Just yesterday, they pretty much said they would by giving me information on their insurance programs. They have had me working full-time hours for quite a while now, but have once again decided to screw me over and cut my hours. This is not the first time, and I have reason to be confident it will only be the last time if I make it the last time. They owe me a raise. They owe me a full-time position. They owe me benefits. They owe me a reasonable, logical explanation as to why they keep passing me over. I feel like I have been abused and taken advantage of and if I were to choose to sue, I might have a case.

I have worked very hard for them; harder, in my opinion, than almost all of the admins in the company. I offer to do any work that needs to be done or learn new tasks. I take the places of people who leave or are absent. I do good work and I make very few mistakes. If I do make a mistake, I own it and fix it. I have even come to work and did my best when I was terribly ill. I am almost never late. I almost never call in sick. I have never taken a vacation. Until recently, when I read the employee handbook, I didn't even know I was entitled to one because I was always part-time status, even when they had me working full-time hours. I have never been given a raise in the two years I have been here. I almost never complain, and when I do, it is always professionally. Also, I am the lowest paid employee in the entire office.

Despite all this, I am also the most educated person in the entire office. I almost feel stupid admitting that because I should be smart enough not to take this abuse again.

I had a job once before, working for the County of Riverside, in which I tried my hardest, came to work after falling down the stairs and hurting myself pretty badly, stressed myself out immensely for this job, and still lost it. Why do I push myself so hard for employers that will never appreciate it? Apparently the company I work for now likes people who shop online and text most of the day, who do sub-par work and are of average to below average intelligence. We even have an admin who thought Indonesia was in Japan and didn't know the Navy was a branch of the military. The VP's son, who makes a lot more than me doing work I could easily do, cannot spell and has minimal education. That's OK though; he's the VP's son.

So, the lesson here is take a giant dose of "fuck it all" every day. Realize that people will never appreciate what you do for them and no employer will ever value you as much as they should. Call in sick when you need to. Take vacations, even if it's just sitting at home playing X-Box. Do your work while you're there, Do your best. But never kill yourself in the process. No one will ever be worth it.