The Cat Is Out Of The Bag

While this is not official, I can be 95% sure it is accurate (it came from a manager who is rahter upset at the whole issue). Our company bonus this year will be around...$700...before taxes and our annual (smirk) raise will be less than 1%. While I am thankful that we get at least something, I am rather hurt by the fact that the company had a FANTASTIC year...one of the best...and we get this token bonus and pay raise. Now to be fair, I work for a group that is not in the mainstream. The main group will get more but considering that the group I work for was in the red this year, we get very little. I guess it is fair...sort of.

In the 6 years that I have been working in Texas, my salary has gone up 10%. To put that in perspective, let's pretend that I make 40k a year. Now imagine my raises each year for six years to get to $44k a year. Just add that to the list of things that make me feel that my company is looking for ways to get us to quit:

* Vacation accrual capped at 80 hrs per year. I get 160 hours per year. Currently I have 135 hours built up that I cannot possibly use due to the way my dept works. It will be set aside for 2.5 years and if I do not use it in that time (while still accruing the 160 per year) I lose it.
* Pension plan has been terminated. They did raise our 401k plan to match dollar for dollar up to 6%. While it is not as much as my pension, at least it is something.
* On-call pay is being taken away. That premium was 5%. We were told our base pay will go up 2% to help offset the loss. Yeah....2% != 5%.
* The cost of our benefits has gone up again as well as the cost of our deductible.

I am really trying hard not to be bitter, but it is losing battle. The on call part is the most upsetting because my group is one that is pretty visible to the customer we support. We have a hotline that can be called 24x7 that we pick up. We work nights, weekends, and some holidays (we usually trade around). With only two people locally (and two in Latin America), when one person is out, it really puts the rest of the team in a bind. Taking all the time off we have is darn near impossible without causing problems for the other guys.

We are constantly being told to work harder and make a difference on the account we support. My question to mgmt is...if you want to cut what you are offering to us to do the job, why would we work harder for less?

Sorry for the rant, but coupled with a ton of things to do tonight (I am on call...fun) today has not been a party.