« Episode III: Not yet titled | Main | Rain »
All work and no play makes Ezy a dull boy
by ezy at 12:00 PM on July 21, 2003
Ok. I’m not, usually, one to bitch and moan about work but I have a current situation that is chafing my ass a bit. I have been with my company for three plus years and have a stellar record. Every time a job comes along that needs someone to go the extra mile, whether it be staying late or working weekends, I get chosen. The reason I get chosen is because they know I will do whatever it takes to make the deadline. I’m a freak for deadlines and if I don’t make them I feel personally responsible even though it was, probably, impossible to make anyway. That being said, my company, also, has an employee of the month award. How many times have I won this distinction? Not once. Last month I saved our company’s ass on a couple of projects by making nearly impossible deadlines and putting them before my personal endeavors. This involved me working late in to the night and weekends when no one else was to be found. Who won the employee of the month? This shit bag in accounting. He got the books right without having to go back and do them over. What!? Isn’t that your freakin’ job? So this kid gets a distinction, for doing his job correctly, and I get dick for going beyond what every other normal person, in the company, is willing to do?
Maybe the military spoiled me, but I never got a medal for just doing my job when I was in. You were expected to be competent at your job and only got singled out for doing something better that your peers. It’s probably my fault for taking all of the crap jobs and turning them out on time. I guess they’ve come to expect that level of performance from me and anything less, even though it’s more than my peers, would seem like I’m slacking. My own work ethic has screwed me. I’m, also, not going to say anything to anyone. I hate those fuckers that are always talking themselves up whenever upper management is listening. They spin tales of working weekends to complete projects when I know for a fact they weren’t anywhere near work because I was here. I don’t bust them out either because, to me, that is almost worse than their lying. I do get good raises every year, though, and that is more important to me than my name on a plaque. It would be nice to have it there, at least, once though so when I walk in the lobby of my company and see all of the slackers on it I don’t get sick to my stomach.
comments (10)
Did I mention...........Wah!!!
by Ezy at July 21, 2003 1:27 PM
Good management depends (often) on good feedback. If there's any kind of evaluation process at your company - like a semi-annual review, I would mention exactly what you just said. Explain that you're not sure you understand the merit system because some people get an award for doing their job right, while others are ignored for going above and beyond, and the explanation is? Maybe no one is advocating for you? Reward systems often suffer from uneven applicatation, and also from too few award opportunities for too many rewardable events. Of course none of this helps if you have a manager who doesn't care, or no process for giving such feedback. Nonetheless, I would still probably find a way to mention it in some way to someone. It's like a puzzle, the goal is information transfer (hey you guys are demoralizing us by un-evenly applying a reward system) so that someone can see the problem and be given a chance to react. How it occurs could be by well-articulated observation passed along anonymously, or by simply stating how you feel to whomever you think needs to hear it. A good manager wants to hear this kind of thing, rather than have someone lump it, though admittedly it sucks to have to point this kind of thing out (another reason for the secret squirrel).
by chris at July 21, 2003 1:32 PM
I totally agree with Chris. And the point of employee-of-the-month is to make the employees feel appreciated. They don't start those systems with the intent of pissing people off. The intentions are probably good. But if the system has become corrupted, good management will want to fix it.
At least you are rewarded compensation-wise. I bet employee-of-the-month is decided by whatever manager speaks up first, and maybe your direct supervisor is lazy with such things.
by Linz at July 21, 2003 1:38 PM
I think one problem lies in the fact that our company has shifted to more of a sales based firm rather than an engineering firm. That side of the building seems to carry more weight than ours, at the moment. I had my review/raise last week and received the highest marks possible in every catagory. This review comes from my direct supervisor and is sent up to the VP for setting a raise amount. I was in the highest percentile raise group so I'm not too worried about that part. It just seems a bit ridiculous that someone who just does their job sub-par or par gets any recognition at all. Maybe it's to make up for a low raise? A cookie if you will? Beats me.
by Ezy at July 21, 2003 2:52 PM
Definitely speak up when you think you have the chance, but in the meantime try to think of your raise as the secret employee of the month award. :)
by jean at July 21, 2003 9:37 PM
You should tell them all that you told us....verbally.....when you give your two weeks notice and head out to an employer that appreciates your work.
by KJ at July 22, 2003 8:26 AM
Jean, you're absolutely right. The money is the important thing here. It's just a pet peeve for me when people who do nothing spectacular and take credit for other poeple's work get accolades just because they can kiss ass well. It's my fingernails on a chalk board kind of thing.
KJ, if all of the other aspects of my job weren't so good I may have taken that route already. I love most of the people I work with and the owner of the company is very good to all of us. It's just a few bad apples who have wormed their way into mid level management that are pissing people off. I guess it's a small price to pay but it still gives me a case of the ass.
by Ezy at July 22, 2003 10:22 AM
Dude, wake up. Those employee-of-the-month plaques are doled out in lieu of compensation i.e. those annual raises you receive. Try trading one for a cup of coffee.
by anna at July 22, 2003 9:11 PM
Employee of the month awards are for SUCKERS! My company started doing them at the beginning of the year, I told the general manager, all you are going to do is piss off everybody every month who doesnt get one. Luckily for them they are a huge bunch of slackasses who just forgot to give out more than ONE and that was to some woman who was retiring (oh, what a coincidence). Meanwhile, i sell papers with the sheer force of my prose getting literally tens of letters from satisfied readers every month (I know, not impressive, but nobody else gets dick).
So fuck those playa hatuhs!
by eff at July 23, 2003 8:43 AM
I know. I know. I just felt like whining a bit. Fuckers ;-)
by Ezy at July 23, 2003 8:55 AM