Monday, November 03, 2008

meeting overheard

I like my job, I feel obligated to preface this entry, because it is mostly enjoyable, rarely tedious, and I find the people interesting and nice to be around and work with.  It also lets me have a life outside of it, and I like that a lot.  However, today an open door meeting was held in the conference room next to me.  There are two companies in my office, and I kind of work for both of them, but mostly for the main one of them that came first.  This meeting was for the big company.  Every single person in the big company except for me and my boss.  It was the quarterly bonus pass out.  All but the two newest employees of that company (who qualify for bonuses but we don't get fully paid until in Q4 for the project they qualify for) got bonuses.
 
I didn't and my boss didn't.  We don't qulaify for them as we never work on a specific project.  We just make the office run smoothly around the people who work on the projects that pay our bills.  The meeting involved a rah rah speech by the owner of the company.  It talks about how when the company profits we all do.  How in part we work hard for moments like this when you see the fruits of your labor. 
 
It was disheartening to overhear this speech when you weren't getting back.  Especially because although my job isn't particularly taxing or difficult or even all that specialized, it does involve doing all the awful shit that if the specialized people were made to do would make them jump ship.  I do it for them, but it seems that is not worthy of reward.  And the thing is, that if they just closed the damn door I wouldn't be thinking about this.  Especially since most of the bonuses were fairly small.  Extrapolated, virtually no one gets as much as $1,000 a year in bonuses.  Some of them get less than $250.  They really aren't that great all things considered, but they happen more frequently, so people might like less since they get them more often.  It just sucked to be sitting out here listening and knowing that I too give to the company and but apparently that which I give isn't too valuable.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I'd be cranky if I'd been in that situation too. Why people think that administrative staff aren't essential to the success of the company is always surprising to me.

If you're going to give out profit sharing, share it with everybody. Otherwise, find some way to make sure the admins feel appreciated too. And don't think a bouquet of flowers or a plant on Secretaries' Day is going cut it.

Heather K said...

It isn't just me. Our tech guy and our content writer are kind of screwed too because they have it based on your contribution to a project, and they by their very nature contribute in a very small way to the specific project, so they end up with a tiny fraction of the bonus $.

It is a great motivator for sales and project management and design and development. But for the rest of us it is just sort of well aren't we left out. Thanks for leaving the door open.

Although I should add the caveat that I have not worked here long enough to know if those in my sort of position get bonuses or something around the holidays. Maybe we do (and no one else does as they get theirs quarterly). At which point I will shut up. And apologize.

Anonymous said...

Hold the phone, your content writer doesn't get much in the way of appreciation either? Exactly how far would these projects get without that? Boy, Dave would have something to say about that system. Both from the tech and the content side.

Okay. I'm going to head to school, teach a couple of classes and then VOTE.