Performance Reviews

[PacificBlue]

Love them? Hate them?

I have one tomorrow. Uggghhhh.

I know I have nothing to be concerned about but being that I'm a worry wart...I worry.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

.

 

[TigerClaw]

.....

 

[PacificBlue]

STG - I don't think I caught that one?!?!?

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

Oops!

Try that again.

 

[PacificBlue]

Tiger - No raise attached to this review.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

STG - I don't think I caught that one?!?!?

Don't ask me how I did that!

I posted the first reply and forgot to attach the gif file, then when I did the third post, it put the pic where I had the first empty post. Cool!

 

[miles]

I've designed a couple of dozen different ones. Don't worry - the only people who dread them more than staff employees are the managers responsible for administering them.

 

[miles]

NO COMPANY has the right to claim that salaries are TOO HIGH or their is no money in the budget

WTF?

They do have that right. It's their company.

 

[PacificBlue]

I've designed a couple of dozen different ones. Don't worry - the only people who dread them more than staff employees are the managers responsible for administering them.

Probably true. Really it's just a chance for us to sit down and talk. My boss has chosen to trust me until I prove I can't be trusted. I like that approach. I would like to get some clarity on goals for the next year so I know what direction I'm headed. Most days I feel like I just run from one fire to the next.

 

[TigerClaw]

.....

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

Re: That is a bunch of company crap!

Thats why we have labor laws, our grand parents went on strike, sweat shops were done away with. This is america not a dictatorship. By your definition they could pay a worker 5 dollars a week.

"That" is the stuff of capitalism. My grandparents did not strike - they worked their asses off and were rewarded for their efforts without the help of union or government interference. So did my parents, and so have I.

Labor unions and labor laws have their purpose (safety and so on), but how much a person gets paid for a given amount should be between the employee and the employer.

BTW, much of what labor laws and unions now claim credit for, such as better pay, shorter work weeks, etc. - were actually started by a few enlightened employers before the advent of unions - without their help.

Unions served their purpose once, but they are outmoded and archaic now.

 

[TigerClaw]

.....

 

[miles]

Tiger_n_NJ

As I mentioned before, the company has a right to pay whatever they want. Of course it has to be within the law. The employee also has the right not to work there.

Where do you get this BS ? In YOUR mind the company doesn't have the right.......Fortunately, the country is ruled by laws.

If you want to discuss this, stick with the facts. If you can come up with any.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

You can justify it any way you wish. The figures speak for themselves. We used to say an honest days work for an honest days pay. Their is no honest days pay today. People can hardly make it on two paychecks when one supported a family. Unfortunately, things will become worse before they get better. If you believe 2 people working to support a family is just pay, then we have nothing to talk about!

Oh bovine fecal matter!

People have a much higher standard of living now, and many families have had two parents working full time to make ends meet for decades. Both my grandparents worked (they had their own business), both my parents worked, my ex-wife and I worked, and my daughter and her husband work, as do my brother and his wife and their kids. that is four generations extending back over 80 years. Now tell me how much harder my kids have it than my grandparents do!

My grandparents worked 12 hour days, six days a week, at hard manual labor until they retired in their mid seventies, and they died just a few years after their retirement. My parents both worked mostly 8 hour days five days a week, and retired in their early sixties, and they are still alive now in their seventies, and will probably fo another 15-20 years because they didn't work themselves into the ground like my grandparents did.

My older brother is fifty, and he could have retired easily by now if he wished to. His wife no longer works because she sold her business. They could easily live in comfort where they are in their upper class neighborhood without working another day. Hopefully, I may retire in a few years if my stock is ever worth anything, and when I do work (I am on 'sabbatical' right now) I work 4-5 days a week, 40 hours a week, with at least 5 weeks of vacation a year. My kids live much better and earn more (in real dollars) than I ever did at their age, and if they plan right, they too can retire in their fifties.

Many people are working two jobs to support their lifestyle, which is much improved over what it was 20 years ago, 40 years ago and 80 years ago. My family started off as tenant farmers, with no land, and very little money, and now the farms are worth several million. We all worked hard so that each generation could have a better life style than we did, and not have to work as hard as we did - and we suceeded.

If people want to work themselves to the bone to have a better house, car and furniture than the Joneses, then that is their prerogative, but most could live comfortably on much less if they didn't have to have the new car, the nice house, the fashionable vacation and the maxxed out credit cards that go with their lifestyle.

I have been poor, I know what it is like. I also know what it is like to get myself out of that of my own volition, without help from the unions or the government. I am almost fifty, and I can tell you life is a hell of a lot better now than it was 30 years ago when I started my adult endeavors, better then than what my parents and grandparents experienced - a hell of a lot better, and easier too.

If people are stuggling now even while working two jobs in one household, then it is most likely because they are overextending themselves with regards to their lifetsyle.

 

[Calamity Jane]

If people are stuggling now even while working two jobs in one household, then it is most likely because they are overextending themselves with regards to their lifetsyle.

Yup. I grew up extremely poor. I know what it's like to 'stretch a meal' to feed all the people who need to eat. And that was on a 2 income budget. Granted, not great incomes, but still, there were 2.

Now, I work strictly to support my foxhunting habit. My husband is a contractor. We make about $40,000 a year. We have 2 kids, 5 horses, and a menagerie of pets that I don't care to name. We only owe about $90,000 on our house, have no credit card bills, and own both our vehicles outright. Yeah, we have to budget like crazy, and yes, we struggle. But I'd rather do that and have time with my family then have him back in a job that allowed me to stay home while he worked 60 and 80 hour weeks.

One income families aren't all they're cracked up to be, even if they're not a financial struggle.

 

[PacificBlue]

Hmmm...interesting direction this thread has taken. While I think it is feasible to live on one income I think it has more to do with which part of the country you live in. Granted debt plays a big role in what you can and can't afford but that is something you can control. Housing prices and property taxes you can't to a large degree...only through voting and how do you say no to more taxes when we need more schools or more police officers or firefighters because of more people. Houses in relatively safe neighborhoods here start at $170,000 and go up. At that cost a house payment is likely to be at least $1000 a month unless you have a fairly large downpayment. I'm talking at least $40k. If you earn less than $35,000 per year your going to cut things close. I think it's unfair that some things have been placed out of reach for years for people like me who show up to work everyday and work hard. I have read book after book on frugal living...I have been working to put most of those things into practice. Even doing that...I still have a medical deductible, clothes, insurance, retirement, etc. that have to be paid first before I can think about the nest egg for a house. I try to remind myself to be thankful for what I do have but it's hard not to be jealous sometimes when your double-income friends are all buying houses. I also try and remind myself that there is a price for earning more money...more job stress and longer hours are the two that come to mind first. So while I may get the house sooner...I'll never be home to enjoy it. Life is all about trade-off's I think.

 

[EnchantedBeauty]

They do this on a weekly basis now at my husbands job. They say they do it like that to lessen the tension that used to follow when people knew it was coming. My husband says it does lessen the tension but it is still a major pain

 

[miles]

Blue

I think it's unfair that some things have been placed out of reach for years for people like me who show up to work everyday and work hard.

I don't know much about you, how old you are, etc.

Life is unfair. Period. Regardless of how much money you earn there will always be someone else making more money who has something you don't. We all work hard. I know you didn't mean it to sound that way, but you are setting yourself up to be a victim by saying things have been placed out of your reach. The worst thing you can do is look inside another man's pocket to see how much money he has. The people I know who are financially secure got that way by working their ass off - especially those who owned their own business. You're right - there is a tradeoff. A lot of those same people were willing to work more hours, travel, relocate, etc. They had whatever it took to become successful, AND were willing to sacrifice something in exchange.

 

[Willing and Unsure]

Re: Re: That is a bunch of company crap!

[BUnions served their purpose once, but they are outmoded and archaic now. [/B]

if unions have served their purpose and are outmoded and archaic now, then my dad would be working 15 hour days 6 days a week. instead he's working 10 hour days 5 days a week.

If people are stuggling now even while working two jobs in one household, then it is most likely because they are overextending themselves with regards to their lifetsyle.

both of my parents work too, but they dont work to extend their lifestyle. they work hard for what they have and are working even harder so that i can get a college education so i dont have to work like they do. and what makes things an even bigger hardship for them, is that they fall into the category of making too much but not enough, so there isnt much financial aid available for me. they dont work for a lifestyle anymore than tehy have to. they're happy with what they have and work hard so taht someday they can have a happy retirement (in about 20 or so years).

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

Hmmm...interesting direction this thread has taken. While I think it is feasible to live on one income I think it has more to do with which part of the country you live in.

I live in the same part of the country as you, indeed my locale is a bit more expensive than yours. For a number of years I supported both myself and my ex, and my daughter on my salary alone. After we separated my ex went to school, worked part time, but mostly I payed child support and I helped put her through school by giving her money so she could make ends meet. At the time I made about a quarter of what I do now - granted, that was twenty years ago, but it does show what can be done.

I am currently unemployed and living on savings. I have been unemployed since the spring. If I had to, and my kids and my ex moved in with me, I could keep a warm roof over our head, food in the fridge, and gas in the car for another year before absolutely having to get a job. How would I do that? By making those priorities over the things my ex wife values (nice furnishings, a new car, trips to Hawaii, etc.).

I don't have to own a home - I rent. As long as it is a warm dry roof, there is enough room and the neighborhood is safe - it is functionally equivalent to owning my own house. Sure Iwant to have my own house, but I value other things higher, and I really like the idea that if I do lose my job like I did, I have only pay out about half the money I would if I had a mortgage (about half or more of which goes to interest).

I think it's unfair that some things have been placed out of reach for years for people like me who show up to work everyday and work hard.

Well, as Miles pointed out - life is not fair, and unions or minimum wage/overtime laws don't make life any more fair. At your age I didn't have a job, I was getting $463 a month from my GI bill benefits (that I earned) to go to college, and $100 of that went for child support (even though my ex wife at the time made more than I did at the time, and even though I helped her through college).

I kept improving myself to make more money so I could afford the things I wanted, and I kept supporting my ex-wife and daughter too (I paid for all medical bills for my daughter, including three expensive hospital stays that came out of my pocket cause they weren't covered by insurance. And I paid for my daughter's private schooling). Later, I paid for 4 years of my daughter's college education.

Life is all about trade-off's I think.

Yep - priorities; security, shelter, heat, food, transportation, communication - after that, everything else is a luxury.

 

[Shy Tall Guy]

Re: Re: Re: That is a bunch of company crap!

if unions have served their purpose and are outmoded and archaic now, then my dad would be working 15 hour days 6 days a week. instead he's working 10 hour days 5 days a week.

And making less; if I want to work overtime, I don't want the government or unions sticking their noses into my business telling me how much I can work, or how much I am to be paid. I want to negotiate that for myself - and I do. In fact I have done quite well without either one helping me out in this regard.

 

[Rambling Rose]

What timing!

I just had mine today. I was very unbiased. My boss asked me if I was trying to get myself fired.

Hmmm...I am picturing myself at the unemployment office. It has potential!

 

[Calamity Jane]

Hmmm...interesting direction this thread has taken. While I think it is feasible to live on one income I think it has more to do with which part of the country you live in.

Houses in relatively safe neighborhoods here start at $170,000 and go up. At that cost a house payment is likely to be at least $1000 a month unless you have a fairly large downpayment. I'm talking at least $40k. If you earn less than $35,000 per year your going to cut things close.

Granted, I live in Missouri, and the cost of living is pretty low here. However, this is the third house we have purchased. We buy them way below market value, fix them up, and sell them. The first house was in a college town, within sight of campus. We bought it for $40,000, fixed it up, and resold it for $90,000. The second house we bought for $70,000, and three years later sold for $100,000. This house was purchased for $110, 000 and just appraised for $160,000 and we're not done remodeling yet. We never could have afforded to go out and buy a house in the 'right' neighborhood (not that they'd let me have my horses), so we are gradually working our way up to being able to build the house we want, where we want it. There are also rent to own options, special mortages for first time buyers, single mothers, minorities, etc. We have a mindset that we have to own what others own, and I've fallen prey to it many times, but it comes down to what's important, and what's simply 'keeping up'.

 

[PacificBlue]

Miles - My intention was not to come off with "victim" mentality because I don't consider myself a victim by any means. Yes, I could probably afford a house if I were to: change where I lived and worked a 2nd job. The reality is: I'm not willing to move, my family lives here and I want to be close to them and I value my free time. Trade-off's. All about trade-off's. Yes, I know life isn't fair...this is pointed out to me on a daily basis someday's it ticks me off more than others and someday's I don't think about it at all. I'll get the house eventually just not on the timeframe that I would like it to be. Right now I think it's about jealousy to be honest. I want what they have. I'm human, it happens.