Green Room - Week 6 - Weekend Edition

[clauderainsrm]

There's a poll that has been posted https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1114047.html
and a song in my heart!

That song is a funeral march. But hey, that still counts as a song right? ;)

Work update - that new hire that was taking so long? HR just let me know she failed her criminal background check. So, that was probably why she was dragging her feet getting us the paperwork.

Another turned down the salary because it was too low. Which is something that I'm trying to work on with my bosses. But the ultimate decision is out of my hands.

Fortunately we DO have one person starting - as part time for the next month because her original department still needs her. That gives me time to train her before throwing her into the fire. But it also means more working evenings when all I can do is train.

Because - oh yeah, just found out today that my old boss, who was coming in part time in the evenings and who I was hoping would train the newbies? She let me know her last day is next Saturday. So I get a VERY small window to fit some extra training in. (and she only comes in a couple days a week anyway)

Oh, and one of the people who has been helping us from another department? Looks like we broke her. She needs "to take some time away" from this work.

Meanwhile we had our first meeting with the new company - and after people pressured them to give answers on benefits, they eventually revealed that the cost was almost definitely going to go up... and salaries were (for now) staying the same. Neither one of these was met with anything good.

The situation is truly fubar... but I'm holding things together the best I can. This ship IS going to make it into harbor even if I have to take out the entire dock in the process! ;)

***

Anyway, enough of my griping! How is YOUR weekend going???

Comments

[ofearthandstars]

This is a top pet peeve of mine - most of the jobs my kiddo applies for only have him working a minimal number of hours to avoid benefits. Last year he gave up on a local restaurant gig that hired him and then shifted the schedule to 4 hrs a day. It's amazing to me that companies are still treating workers that way given the high demand for workers!

[banana_galaxy]

Really! This is one of the things I dislike most about the US. The fact that in some respects I could be considered a tech worker also kinda compounds the insult to me. Like, they have plenty of other people in my team who work full time. The other part timers work far fewer hours. But they offered me 29 hours a week because they needed more people to work on the projects, but didn't "have enough money in their budget" to add another full-timer to the team. I get that the budget is determined from a higher up place than my boss, but her hands being tied doesn't make me feel more respected. Especially when she told me that if these circumstances no longer suit my life, she suggested I should probably look for a job elsewhere that can give me the benefits I want rather than, you know, fight to keep me there because I actually have knowledge and lived experience no one else on the team has that I would think makes me a valuable asset to have.

I've been trying instead to speak up with various other people I work with about this issue and raise it as a DEI concern, since the company claims to care about DEI initiatives, because I think the company policy needs to change. I can't be the only person this impacts.

[ofearthandstars]

Argh! That's so infuriating that she won't go to bat for you. I wish you luck on raising it through DEI. I do know many companies are focused on DEI right now and I would think that would be a plausible way to bring it up, since benefits should be part of the conversation about equity.

[banana_galaxy]

It's like she didn't even want to pretend to try and give the impression of giving a shit about keeping me. Such a defeatist attitude, assuming you already know how they're going to answer so you don't even ask. That's the kind of thing that makes an employee think you want them to quit instead and don't actually want to work with them. Meanwhile, my manager I report to (he reports to her), gives me much more of an impression that he realises how much of an asset I am. He's having me going over content some of the other part-timers who've been there longer than me to check for additional changes that need to be made and my lived experience means I'm more likely to find.

I may wind up seeing if there's a DEI related role in the company I can move into so I am able to speak up more about these kinds of issues, since I'm clearly passionate about them. With this issue, so far I've framed it as being needed for employees who aren't able to work full-time hours due to disability, mental health, or caregiving responsibilities, but are still assets to the workplace and deserve to be compensated. It's like they think their part-timers don't need benefits because they have other jobs that give them benefits, and while that's true in some cases (like the other part-timers in my team who I've never met even on Zoom), it's not true for everyone.

[ofearthandstars]

I hope you can make some progress with it. It sounds like the manager you report to knows your worth, maybe you can ask them to put in a stronger word? Though a DEI position also sounds promising...I joined our company's DEI committee last year and have found that it takes pushing a lot of boulders to make a little progress. It's all about convincing people to change, bit by bit.

[banana_galaxy]

I think my manager knows my worth, but is also bitterly worn down by the idea that corporations don't give a shit and also sees himself as not being able to effect that kind of change. That's why I've felt like the DEI position seems like the way to go, and I've been more involved with connecting with people in different parts of the business that way. But yes, it is so very slow to get movement on that.