there is no point to working hard!

[Unforgiven]

ok so i hate my fucking job and 2 weeks ago i was told by my boss that i wasnt in line for my review (which is already 5 months late) until 5 more people were done. so, i called our biggest competitor and see if they have any positions available for a database programmer, which they do. so i line up an interview and figure that im gonna raise my salary by $6000 during talk so i can then go back to my current company to tell them "company x is offering me this, what are you gonna do about it?" so i get this interview, set it up, go and sit down with an operations manager and the lead of their data programming department and the fun begins....

they ask me my desired salary after a few minutes of bullshitting and i tell them about $6000 more than i make now (im grossly underpaid so i told them i was making $3000 less than what i was asking from them). they dont have anything to say, they just nod and we go on with the interview... later on they tell me that they dont offer any compensation for werking overtime (more than 40 hours per week), no time and a half, no comptime, no nothing. all employees are salary and are work between 50-60 hours a week. well i figure that i already work about 55-70 hours a week so this should be no problem (assuming they will bump my original salary request up because its not a standard 40 hour work week). so we get to the end of the interview, they tell me they have other people to interview (which i know is a lie because i got the interview tip that they were just starting to look to hire from a source within their company) and we part ways. so they come back 2 days later and give me an offer....the offer is $2000 LESS than what i originally asked for!!! $2000 LESS! i mean shit, they offer a person who would come in with 8 years of experience in the field they are looking for and who is young and full of energy to start at a salary that is a joke for a 50-60 hour work week. i tell the guy on the phone immediately that i will decline his offer (choking back giggles and astonished sighs) and good luck in trying to hire a high school kid to work in his department. he then asks me "what do you mean by that?" i tell him "you wont get anyone with experience that is here legally and with any kind of education by offering that salary to work slave labor at 50-60 hours a week", "i find your offer an insult and frankly even making the trip down there was a waste of my time", "in all honesty i think you should really be embarassed to offer something like that and i wish you good luck in the hiring of your high schooler". i then hung up and figured he got the idea that im not interested in the job.

he then proceeds to call me back today and is dumbfounded why i said those things. i again tell him that it would be me taking a pay cut over the course of a year to work for his company (based on how much i get paid now and the fact that im hourly and got more than $3000 this past year in overtime alone) and i proceed to tell him that based on his salary i would be making $8 LESS per hour and have to put in 400-600 hours MORE in a year with his company which frankly makes it a no-brainer as to why i said what i said. i again reinterate that i find his lack of understand an insult to my intellegence and that he should really try other avenues to find a suitor for his position. he goes quiet on the phone and tells me the offer is still a good offer, my reply "yeah to you or to someone who is unemployed". i then told him that unless if he comes back with $6000 more than his current offer then he should quit wasting my time. so now the price is $10000 more than i currently make in order to get me over there.

the bottom line is now i have no leverage at my place of work, i work way too hard, my life stinks and im thinking of driving into oncoming traffic so i never have to spend another day on this planet. i tell ya, work has completely broken my spirit like a fucking internment camp! i mean i was being bold by going out and even looking but to come back with the offer i did just completely makes me feel like i have 0 value in my field. fuck work and fuck anyone who is in management for biting the hand that feeds you! greedy fucks! :mad:

[CDSaint]

good for you for making the guy choke on his offer. what a prick!good luck with other venues. you will find someone that would value your hard work...it may just take some time so be patient and keep on truckin'!:(

[KegRun]

Damn man. Sorry that didn't work out for you! Are you content on staying in Washington? Have you thought about moving elsewhere to look for a job?

[FADES]

After reading just the title of this thread...I have to agree. But I also read your post, Josh, and that really sucks, man. But, don't drive head on into oncoming traffic just because of your job. I think you should take Glad's advice and move...somewhere sunny...get a tan.

[Unforgiven]

well to give an update on the situation. i drove the price up another $4,000 after this post. at the point they were thinking i was going to take the job, i told them that i was so turned off by their original offer that i couldnt trust them in the future to give me decent pay based on the initial offer and i then respectfully declined their offer to stay where i am. i learned a bunch from this process though....1) set your worth, stick with it, dont deviate no matter what the offer is. 2) its best to look for a job when you already have one and then you hold the upper hand. 3) you cant place a price on comfort and im comfortable where i am and i generally enjoy the challenges of my job and the friendships i have built with co-workers.

its good to see whats on the other side of the fense sometimes and this was one of those. i have faith my company will come through for me. it might not be when i want (timing wise) but i think they will pay me what im worth. in the meantime im just gonna keep my mouth shut and werk hard!

[Pallidrone]

Too bad you don't live in Jersey - the Foxpro programmer is leaving here at the end of March and they will be frantically looking for a new one. Good Foxpro programmers are hard to come by.

[Irresistable]

Dude you passed on an offer and made a stink about it over $2000?? In the future, imho, $2000 is not worth making a stink over. I realize the reasons you gave, but keep in mind it is still $4000 more than what you were making.
I live in the Washington area as well. And recently, being in the tech market, I was being grossly underpaid also, by a company which I can't name here due to legal libel issues, but let's just call them Ass-enter. LOL. But the market was shitty when I took the job and they could afford to lowball me, cause they knew there are like 30,000 other techies waiting around. When I got my raise of $600 for the year, I decided to look around. Now I'm not sure what your area of expertise is, but when I renegotiated, I got me the raise I wanted from someone else, roughly in the neighborhood of $30K more than I was making. Now, yes I know that number seems high, but keep in mind that the two years previous to Ass-enter I had taken about a $20K progressively, due to companies going out of business and the market being so shitty. My point was 2 things. 1) The market is not that bad anymore, and I am in the Washington area if you need help finding something else, depending on your skillset I can proabably help. Feel free to pm me here. 2) In the larger scheme of things $2000 a year is no reason to go off on any company, mo money is better than no money :P. In fact I would reccomend never telling a company off like that no matter how much you want to because you never want doors to close for you. You never know who will be able to help you out in the future, and to blow an opportunity, over $2000 is silly. There is no reason to drive into trafiic, especially DC traffic, believe me , eventually in the rain or snow DC traffic will get YOU, it's just a matter or time :D.
Again if you need help finding something else let me take a look at your skillset and who knows maybe one of the companies I know, or even the one I work for will be interested.

[Irresistable]

Oh and on another note 50-60 hours?

You're talking to a guy who worked 12-14 hours a day almost 6-7 days a week to get a $600 raise, but on the same note Ass-enter paid overtime :P. There is hope out there, keep looking around the market is getting much better, and the DC area seems to be the best right now. If I could go back to NYC I would, but right now, no one will give me what I make down here.

[CDSaint]

he meant washington state...not dc;)

[Irresistable]

Oh my bad. But still keep hope the market is getting better everywhere. I may be back in NYC soon myself. :)

[CDSaint]

i wanna see the bright lights of that big city someday...

[Irresistable]

Originally posted by CDSaint
i wanna see the bright lights of that big city someday...

Not to hijack this thread or anything, but where do you live?
:D

[CDSaint]

currently WA state...at least for another 3 years...then who knows.:(

[KegRun]

When I get close to getting out..i'm moving to maryland probably. It's pretty and I heard that they have good jobs there also.

*fixed cause taya hates me*

[Taya]

are you drunk? i think you're missing a couple words there! :laugh:

[Junk]

LMAO RaTTY.........

[Vlad]

Iress you're in DC? I just left there like 7 months ago or so. I hated the traffic, I thought it was worse than NY, where I grew up. Fucking lived 10 minutes from my office and the drive would take no less than an hour everyday, I couldn't take it. Living in DC with the metro and not having to drive was much better than when I moved outside of DC in Northern VA...

Where are you living at down there? When I was in the city I was near Capitol Hill and when I moved outside the city I was in Herndon (even though I was closer to Chantilly and Reston)...

[Irresistable]

I too grew up in NYC :D

I was living in Pentagon City, but then moved all my shit to my brother's house in Fairfax. I work in Cincinnati, so no point in keeping the apt.

[SealClubber]

I almost quit my job wensday becuase the assistant manager was on my ass all day long! :)

[shanKs]

or was he grabbing your ass all night?

[Vlad]

Originally posted by Irresistable
I too grew up in NYC :D

I was living in Pentagon City, but then moved all my shit to my brother's house in Fairfax. I work in Cincinnati, so no point in keeping the apt.

Dude wtf are you following me? I'm in Cincinnati right now :laugh:

[CDSaint]

you wish you had a stalker!

[Shogun]

I know what you mean when you say a job sucks all the life out of you. All I do is sit on this POS computer all day and it literally drains me of any life I might of had in me at the end of the day. Well its not that bad every day but it sucks pretty bad. I can't hold the upper hand because in march I am leaving to go back to florida for about a week and there is nobody who can cover me at work. So I am done with this job anyways so Im guessing I'll train someone before I leave and come back to a new job hopefully. Probably wont work out tho....

[Unforgiven]

just an update on my situation. i had a huge blowup with a co-worker at my job and have absolutely zero support from management. they wont fire her because she is a filipino woman and they are worried about a lawsuit. so what i did is after that and after getting told by my boss to "make the situation go away or it would be my job" i decided to go back to the other company that i originally posted about and im meeting with them on wednesday to negotiate with them on me coming over there for $7000 more per year than i make now. i cant wait to tell the fucks that i work with that they are pushovers and that im outta here! its all about respect and ive werked way too fucking hard and long for my current company to take this kind of shit! im 26 years old and dont have a family or a house yet so now is the time to make the move. anyhow this will mean the end of my days in #werk for good. just thought that i would let you all know an update. always keep your options open and sometimes when you least expect it, you will be prepared more than you could ever imagine!

[CDSaint]

good luck Josh. i hope you get what you deserve. ;)

[Bluehen]

g/l bro

Nothing worse to me than a lack of respect in the werkplace. Especially when you bust your ass for people.

[Shogun]

GL man. I know youve been doing the whole #werk thing for years now so itll be quite a change hehe.

[BuddhaMan]

The beginning of the end for #werk....

It was a good ride while it lasted...<sigh>

[KegRun]

Lets all just fkn create our own computer business for huge networked companies and then on the side have a Cyber Cafe for the rest of nerd community.

We can call our buisness The W3rking LAN.

[Vlad]

Originally posted by KegRun
Lets all just fkn create our own computer business for huge networked companies and then on the side have a Cyber Cafe for the rest of nerd community.

We can call our buisness The W3rking LAN.


I'm looking for a business partner. I want to start an online business and just make a ton of money without having to work hard :D Anyone want to join me?

[Irresistable]

Originally posted by Vlad
I'm looking for a business partner. I want to start an online business and just make a ton of money without having to work hard :D Anyone want to join me?


OOOOHHH, Roommates and Business Partners. LOL :laugh:




..am I scaring you yet? :D

[CDSaint]

im scared of the both of you together!:wideeyes:

[Vyper]

LOL.

[Shogun]

Originally posted by Vlad
I'm looking for a business partner. I want to start an online business and just make a ton of money without having to work hard :D Anyone want to join me?


I get 80% you get 20%! Good? Ok then its a done deal!

[SealClubber]

Originally posted by Vlad
I'm looking for a business partner. I want to start an online business and just make a ton of money without having to work hard :D Anyone want to join me?


As long as I know what the fuck to do, im all for it! :)

not having to work hard is a gift I posess!

[Shogun]

BECAUSE YOU WORK AT BIG LOTS!!!!1111234

[Barry_White]

lmao. :)

[Unforgiven]

well i am staying at my current company. i was just given a $5000 a year raise and given a promotion. i thought i would share all of my good news with all the people on here that know me and have heard my sob stories about werk before! anyhow yay me! :)

[Bluehen]

Congrats!

ps - fu

[CDSaint]

yay you! congrats! so does this mean the 2,000 will be coming on next year's review?;)

[KegRun]

GO JOSH!

[BuddhaMan]

YAR!

Does this promotion = more work? Or does it = more $$$ in the future sometime.

[Taya]

congrats, troofy :) keep on truffin!!

[KegRun]

Are you gonna have peons now? Now you can FORCE them to support the search for the tr()()f!!!

[Unforgiven]

well right now im a database programmer and help in the networking/IT aspect of the company... my new role will be the title of co-network administrator (meaning i share full power and have the jurisdiction to make all networking calls on my own without having to clear it with anyone), i will continue to be a programmer but not for customer databases rather i will be doing work on our website and will be learning how to do web design as well as taking on experienced programming programs directly from the owner. bottom line is that i take on increased roles in both programming and network duties, attend classes to further my skills in those areas, get a raise in pay, work probably less hours, and the best thing is that i stay a hourly paid employee and still get time and a half for any overtime that i do work. based on how much overtime i have werked over the past 3 years the raise will net me probably and extra $10,000 a year over what i currently make! this will be my 2nd promotion in 5 years of working there and my latest raise means i am making $20,000 more per year than when i first was hired. not bad for being a 26 year old punk who has no college degree in anything im doing now :laugh:

[KegRun]

wow...20,000 MORE. I make just about 20,000 as is. Fkn military.

[Unforgiven]

you know what really was the best thing about this whole deal? after yesterday expressing my concerns to the owner of my company i told him that i have dreams and goals and i want to meet those dreams based on my next raise... today after i got my raise from my boss, i went to the owner to express my gratitude and he said this "i hope this can help you acheive your dreams". i thought that was a fuckin classy move and really meant that he was listening to me and made me feel again like i was important and not just some peon werkfuck that was just talking to a wall! to me, that was important for him to say that not for just the time being, but for the future, more importantly my future, in the company!

[KegRun]

That was pretty cool of him to say that.

The AF barely recognizes you until you fuck up.

Not once has my home unit gave a shit about me since I've been here until there was a problem with my Government credit card. Then they were emailing me nonstop and calling me and bitching at me for something that wasn't even my fault. Now that's it's been cleared...once again...NOTHING. Fucking dickshitcockheadmotherfuckers.

[Shogun]

Howd you first get the job? Could you program then?

[shanKs]

You know Ratty,

You're lucky you can threaten leaving to pressure them into a raise. Not in my case. I get a raise every year. Every salaried person gets the same percentage raise across the board and nothing is based on performance. If I threatened to leave, there is about 100 people under me that would qualify and gladly take my position. I R have no leverage.

So to close, F OFF.

That is all.

Teh Skanks

[Unforgiven]

well if i was getting the same increases as everyone else it would kind of a relief so i wouldnt feel like i was getting fucked while someone less qualified than me got a huge boost. know what i mean? if you dont then eat my ass and fuck you! sorry had to get that out. the thing was that i was and i wasnt threatening. i was in that i told them pay me X amount or im out, but at the same time i was being forced to look around. this was all brought on by them so to say it was a threat is not exactly accurate. i told them that i never wanted to leave and that in the future the only way i would be leaving is if i died or they refused to review me again. the only way i will leave is if i am more or less forced and the ball will always be in their court!

[Vlad]

Originally posted by Unforgiven
well right now im a database programmer and help in the networking/IT aspect of the company... my new role will be the title of co-network administrator (meaning i share full power and have the jurisdiction to make all networking calls on my own without having to clear it with anyone), i will continue to be a programmer but not for customer databases rather i will be doing work on our website and will be learning how to do web design as well as taking on experienced programming programs directly from the owner. bottom line is that i take on increased roles in both programming and network duties, attend classes to further my skills in those areas, get a raise in pay, work probably less hours, and the best thing is that i stay a hourly paid employee and still get time and a half for any overtime that i do work. based on how much overtime i have werked over the past 3 years the raise will net me probably and extra $10,000 a year over what i currently make! this will be my 2nd promotion in 5 years of working there and my latest raise means i am making $20,000 more per year than when i first was hired. not bad for being a 26 year old punk who has no college degree in anything im doing now :laugh:

not to mention, but with this promotion and what you learn, you could get like a 30-50% raise when you look at other companies in the future...

[Unforgiven]

roger that dude. its all about the future and future earning potential! hence, when i get my web design skills up to par vlad that business we discussed may be a better opportunity for me once i have the skills! :)

[Shogun]

?

[Unforgiven]

Originally posted by Shogun
Howd you first get the job? Could you program then?

well i got the job werking at my current place of employment because i was basically approached by a friend who got wind of an opportunity here for a lesser position than i was currently werking and i decided to take it with the premise that i would be again working as a programmer. so after 9 months i hated doing what i was doing (operating huge xerox printers and basically being a warehouse bitch, which i was not told when i was hired on) and i told them that i was going back to my old company. at that point they decided to promote me to my original position of database programmer. so to answer your question i had experience before i came here but sacrificed salary and position status for a chance to get in where i thought i would have a better opporunity in my future. that was 5 years ago and other than the last bump in the road that i just hurdled i will now go from being the lowest man on the totem pole to one of the top 4 people in the company while still being the youngest person in the company by 6 years :)

[Mr_Nobody]

Congrats man, sounds like you jumped on a great opportunity.

IMHO, decent businesses realize when they've brought good people on board, and do what they can to help them build new skills.

I came to my current company about 11 years ago. I had a degree in Cinema Studies :laugh: They hired me on as a copy editor for about $27k/yr.

Over the years, I was encouraged to develop technical skills, financial management skills, business analysis skills, etc. etc. etc. Every time I asked to take on more responsibilities, the company was enthusiastic and gave me what I needed to grow into new roles.

I now manage business development strategy for a rapidly-growing area of our international business. (That's in addition to a budding online business on the side that my partner and I are just getting off the ground. I don't need the cash but I figure I might as well get paid for geeking out in the evenings :D )

Setting your sights on the next level of your career growth, and telling the people you work for what you want to become, will eventually tell you a lot about the company you work for.

[Unforgiven]

yeah im starting to think that if you tell them your aspirations and they see you thinking of the bigger picture that its a pretty good thing to display. im one of those people that is a 5 year planner meaning i want to know where im gonna be in 5 years and have it be my own destiny to be there. thats why this whole situation was very unsettling for me in that i planned on being here another 5 years (at least) and anything outside of that was really a distraction and something that i was not prepared for. i mean i felt so bad going to look for other opportunities that it almost felt like i was cheating on a spouse. thats how much i enjoy being where i am and loving my job. sure they werk me to death and sure sometimes i dont feel that im getting my do, but id rather feel that way here and be part of a team and something i beleive in than be a big fish in a small pond but make a ton.

[Sasha]

good for you Josh, I am extremely happy for you and wish you the best of luck in your new role. Thats a huge opportunity, and a well deserved one.

[Unforgiven]

thanx for all the support everyone. i really appreciate it and its a huge time for me in my life right now and im glad you guys were here to have me vent and toss ideas off of!

[Sasha]

/me pets you with a frying pan hehe

thats what friends are for..

[Vyper]

LOL Sasha. Congrats Ratty good job on improving your working life and the fun part.

[BuddhaMan]

I must say netwerking rules! I've already met a dude in my class down here in Bama werkin' @ Ft Mead in the DC area and he said I could get a part time netwerking job @ $25/hr (starting) just because of my security clearance. He also told me about "invite only" govt contractor job fairs. Where was this guy 2 month ago before I re-enlisted!?

[KegRun]

Sweet! I got a clearance!...