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To my friends and loved ones, I have come to an absolute, unwavering conclusion. That the corporate world has lost any and all morals and values regarding how businesses should run.
To start, I'd like to insert my own personal experiences. Most of you know that I worked at Gamers for ten months and two days. During that period, I poured my heart and soul into that job hoping to move up in the company and make a career of it. After a few months, I literally burned myself out from having worked so hard and I never truly recovered from it until after I was fired. I was considered one of the better employees and had a very good record of having excellent work ethics, an ability to introduce others into the work environment and to teach them various tasks, I volunteered on several occassions to do work outside of my scheduled hours and held up to my respective responsibilities thereof...I truly did an outstanding job that I will always be proud of.
After jesting at the after-work meetings that took place every once in a while that I would be fine working at the same wage, I had asked for a raise and been told that I deserved it and the gears would get rolling so I could get one. I never got a single raise outside of the company-wide raise for minimum wage increase. When I finally got around to applying for health benefits the first time, it was too expensive. When they looked into other measures, it took them a month to get the new applications out to those who qualified and even when I turned it in weeks before I was fired, I was never given any benefits at all. In fact, last I knew, the application hadn't even been sent in because the accountant was waiting on others who hadn't turned theirs in yet. I had worked with my superiors to try and work my way up to assistant manager. Only once did either of them have anything constructive to say towards my goal. I appreciate Garrett for giving me some tips and pointers on what it's like to be a manager. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that almost everything I got in regards to attaining my goal was "work harder, work faster." I became the company's fastest resurfacer at an astounding 180+ discs per hour. I became one of the fastest speed pullers at corporate. I became the go-to guy for a lot of things, such as managing the phone while the secretary was unavailable or training new employees. I memorized nearly all of the categories in their UBS system. And that's not even counting the number of times I went above and beyond to buy coffee and donuts every morning and brew the coffee to make sure everyone had some sort of moral and productivity booster. I was being trusted with tasks that would otherwise be an assistant manager's task, such as printing off Informixes and organizing them and helping other departments from time to time. I was most easily the company's most productive employee and deserved anything I asked from them. All I really asked in return was a raise, consideration for a promotion, and days off when I needed them off.
I admit to my faults - I wouldn't do EVERY job perfectly EVERY time, and I did walk in late a few times, usually my own doing. I had a terrible winter with family emergencies and my own personal health falling pretty hard, which caused not only myself to lose a lot of income, but cost the company in sheer productive expenses. I didn't always follow policy to the "T". I didn't always do the best I could do, usually from fatigue or illness, and I did complain from time to time. I was not a perfect employee by any means and I don't ever project the image that I AM a perfect employee for ANY job, even if I may be the best at what I do.
Though to this day, I feel I was never truly treated and compensated properly for everything I did for the company. I was payed a measly $6.21 per hour (minimum is somwhere around $5.75 - 5.80 right now) with the only benefits being that I could "check out" games from the overstock library, reduced-price repairs, and (pitiful) discounts on games I buy along with (again pitiful) bonuses on games I traded in. I was given a company t-shirt to keep when I worked at the tent sales in the summer, a t-shirt when I had to help paint the office, and a t-shirt given randomly by Garrett. I was also given some promotional posters intermittently. I got two bonuses throughout my tenure there, which helped me acquire my DS Lite and my Turbo-Duo console. It seems like a lot in writing, but it really isn't all that much in reality. Three shirts, a Turbo-Duo, a DS Lite, a few posters, and measly benefits and pay. Really, not worthy of the effort I put into the job.
I would've liked to be working at least $7 per hour, health insurance, and better benefits values. But apparently, I'm just as disposable as the next employee. Why pay ME more when they can hire someone else to *hopefully* train them to my productivity values?
I suppose you'd like to hear me stop ranting and raving about how I was treated at my last job and hear my point. Unfortunately, I was only building up to that point.
During the firing process, I don't believe I really got the chance to explain the situation fully. Rather, I was too shocked to explain it better. After all, I was told why I was being fired and had the paper pushed in front of me. I could've refused to sign it and continue discussing the matter, but at that point, I'd just said "******** that." Specifically, I was on Phase II, which basically meant no benefits for 60 days, because I had been late twice in a 30-day period, and I had called in because of weather one snowy day after having risked crashing my car the previous day. Unfortunately for me, EVERYONE else apparently showed up and I was the only one who called in, therefore making it inexcusable. I blew it off as a simple attempt to guilt me into coming into work anyway, which I was sick and tired of having been through that s**t when I was sick over the earlier winter months. Sure enough, though, they remained consistant the following day and told me I was fired because I called in the previous day. However, to note specifically, I was told that I was fired based upon my previous record of being late twice when this was a matter of being absent, not an issue with being late. Therefore, I feel that the issue was inappropriately handled, but I wasn't about to argue the issue since I was already getting fed up with the bullshit I was getting for returns.
This is all leading up to the point that there is plenty of corporate corruption out there. This is just one story, sure. But I can guarantee that everyone has some sort of story dealing with unfair treatment at the workplace or unjust firings. It just proves how much bullshit the business world really is anymore. Personally, I can't remember days when someone could own a small shop on the corner and not have to worry about being held up, stolen from, or pinching pennies however possible, but I remember hearing about them. Days when people could go to the malt shop where the owner or manager would know you by a nickname and would give you a cheap or free drink while you talked up a storm or listened to tunes on a jukebox. Days when a nickel would get you a loaf of bread and a dime would get a giant root beer float. Days when it wasn't about making millions of dollars as much as it was about getting to know the people in your community and bringing smiles to peoples' faces through excellent service and fair prices. Anymore, business owners have become selfish, greedy, and corrupt in their chase for their "American Dream." A dream now tainted with that corruption that ruins lives and destroys futures.
I'm sick and tired of this corruption and how it plagues the generations to come. I don't need a college education to see how terrible a poison this is to our society and how ethically challenged the business world has become. I also don't need a college education to start changing it, even if it's one case at a time. I have proof in the words of my former employer: "Louis has good work ethic..." Ethic in work, ethic in business, ethic in all things. I'm a moral machine, and I will make a pledge to those I know and care about to make a difference and detoxify this world starting with their jobs and their businesses.
-Hero
HeromanXZeroProtoman · Mon Mar 17, 2008 @ 08:35am · 0 Comments |
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