"Working in America!"
Having worked for 45 years straight I have notice many changes over the years to the work environment. Let me share some of my experiences on those and maybe my outlook on where we are here in the U.S. I know I'll have to be thick skinned in writing this blog as many of you won't have lived my experiences and thus will disagree. I hope all will keep an open mind.
Pay, benefits, type and reward. What has happened to these in America? Not that the front line or grunt worker ever got that much but it was always getting better wasn't it? Why have wages been so stagnant for so long. For sure mine have been that way for decades. I remember when you used to get a cost of living raise and a merit raise. Then business/corporate America thought it would be a good idea to "merge" them with a promise that you would still get comparable increases. Uh, what a laugh that has turned out to be. For one thing, the cost of living index does not include gas or groceries thanks to Clinton. He took them out to make the numbers look better than they were at the time. Thanks Bill. As far my pay and raises have gone, they have been in general 0-2% for the past 4-5 years or more (I do remember once getting a 4% raise back around 2004). Oh yeah, I'm really raking it in for all my hard work. Of course we've seen where VIP wages have gone and the Shareholders earnings too. I swear I remember listening to the news on the way to work back in the early seventies and would hear how dividends would be low so no jobs were lost. How that has changed over the years! I used to work for a company whose name is a two letter acronym and with house hold familiarity. About three years back they froze our wages and then announced they had their third best year ever. This is a slave ship business where salaried staff work many, many hours and this is their share of the pie for all that hard work? Speaking of the "S" word, my opinion is that this country is and always will be a slavery based country. Except today we are all rowing that boat as workers.
Benefits! Ah yes, after that third best year ever, the next year they drastically reduced our health care benefits. Mine went from a $350 family deduct to a $5500 deduct. And it cost me another $100 a month for the benefit. Yeah, I see where we are going all to well. I think we have all seen our benefits whittled away at over the past decade if not more. Not much more to say than that.
Type! What I mean here is whether or not you are an hourly or salaried employee. In my last career as an I.T. person I started out as an hourly staff person or non-exempt. I should mention that in "my day" only management were exempt/salaried. It was considered a privilege of sorts and I'm not sure why. Guess they could come and go with a little more freedom than the hourly staff. Anyway, very quietly we I.T. people were turned into Exempt or salaried staff because we were "Professional." Oh thank you sire, may I have another. So after that I found I worked many hours for free as my work load went up and got to be on-call as well...for free of course. We were told that call-pay was factored into our pay, but I sure don't remember getting a raise for such! Uh, huh! Have you noticed to how as staff leave no one is getting replaced? Notice to how your work load has sky-rocketed? All the while I see more and more VIP's being added, administration staff for them, but the front line staff having to do with less and less.
I also love the saying used by business, "We have to be globally competitive!" All I'm going to say here is that in my opinion what this means is that we workers in America have to now work 12-16 hours a day for a grand $2 bucks a day. Just like other under-developed countries the U.S. has exploited. Thank you sir, may I again have another. Now in case you don't believe me, just take a look around and see how many people are saying "Well, at least I have a job." Albeit working for a lot less than ever before.
Reward! Yes, that job I mentioned you have now is the reward. You simply have one and the brainwashed mind set that not matter what the working conditions are, you'll like it!
Until working america wakes up, takes a stand, and does something nothing will change. As the saying goes, all evil needs is for good men to do nothing! You may also have heard that no country is defeated from without, without being defeated from within first. Take note!
