Category: Just me being me

Why is it that so many employees are feeling such a lack of respect at their jobs lately?

And no, I’m not talking about me because my job is pretty much a moot point. Speaking of moot point, every time I use that term I think of this:

 

But I digress…

Anyways, everyone knows that the economy has sucked for the last few years. A lot of people have stayed in jobs that they’re not that happy about, because they feel lucky to even have a job.

In their minds, with so many people still out of work and on unemployment, it makes sense to put up with a crappy or simply unfulfilling situation. They tell themselves that it may be bad, toxic or disheartening at work, but at least they’re getting a paycheck.

Here’s the thing, I’ve noticed that a lot of companies are taking this for granted. Actually, they’re not only taking it for granted, they’re exploiting the opportunity.

Because there are a lot of people out there looking for jobs, it seems like many companies no longer value the employees they have. They’re replaceable, right? Their employees should be grateful that they even have a job! It’s like they’re trying to see how badly behaved they can be, because they know that the employee will just sit there and put up with it.

Many companies have discontinued or cut back their pay raises, benefits, annual holiday parties, gifts and random perks that made work a fun place to be. The worst part is that even if the employee is okay with not receiving a tchotchke (that immediately goes to Goodwill) they’re not okay with feeling the tone of lack of respect that has spread.

It’s like employers are trying to work each of their employees to the bone without giving them the positive reinforcement that everyone craves. Not bothering to say “thank you” for a job well done. Using the excuse of the economy to keep from giving a deserving employee a raise (even though the company is doing better than ever). Also unforgivable, is the “mean girls” in management who come out of hiding – how fun it will be to make a hard working employee hate every single hour at the office. Pathetic!

In the past couple months, I’ve probably heard from a dozen friends and acquaintances that are feeling used and abused in their jobs.

Nobody deserves to feel like they’re working so very hard for a company or manager that doesn’t even give them an ounce of RESPECT.

If this sounds familiar to you as a business owner, fix it NOW. The economy is starting to turn around and I can guarantee you that if your employees are not happy, their resumes will find their way out the door.

For you employees out there who are feeling as if you’re buried under a ton of work and not a teaspoon of respect, do something about it. Life is too short to be unhappy every workday.

I’m usually a pretty happy and easy-going person. However, I’ve been a bit of a crankypants lately because of my uncertain job future. Not to mention that bittersweet stress of finally selling my house, only to have to hustle to get out of it. So, what better day to share a random pet peeve list?

Let’s unleash the fury:

• I hate it when people try to hold the door open for you in such an awkward way that their body is blocking the area that you need to walk through. If it’s so darn hard to do it, just let me open the door myself!

• It annoys me when people will interrupt you to ask a ton of questions. Especially when the questions would have been answered if they had just let you finish what you were saying.

• I hate it when you have a payday that occurs three business days after the 15^th of the month. When you throw a weekend in there, I might not end up getting paid until the 20^th. Which is fine, except when you have bills due.

• I hate it when you end up losing a job that you wish you could have quit. It’s like when you plan to break up with a boyfriend and they break up with you first. You just stand there with your mouth agape and finally shout out, “You can’t break up with me because I’m breaking up with YOU FIRST!” Of course, this doesn’t work so well at work if you want to collect your severance package.

• I hate the fact that my stupid phone has been replaced three times and still doesn’t work properly. Oh, and when it decides to lose its battery charge in the middle of the day so that I have to turn it off. And yes, I’ve called my carrier and complained – their only way of solving my problem is to send me yet another version of my same phone, or another phone with really crappy reviews. No thank you.

Ok. Deep breaths.  I’m feeling a little better now.  

Now I feel like I must clear my palate from all this anger.

Do you feel like laughing? Well my new blog crush is The Bloggress and I freaking love her in a ‘laughing so hard I’m crying’ kind of way. If you have a few minutes, check out this post.

You’re welcome.

And if you have a pet peeve you’d like to share, leave me a comment here or on my facebook page!

So, I’m going to start at the end of the story and work my way backwards.

The awesome happy ending to this tale is: we FINALLY sold our house!

Yay! Imagine cartwheels (if I knew how to do them), a weird thrusty kind of dance and me screaming at the top of my lungs, because that was totally how I felt inside when I heard the news.

Kinda a little like this but even more dorky:

 

Our house has been on and off the market for about a year and a half, with lots of showings but no contracts. Over this past weekend, we had two showings scheduled – one for 10:30 am – noon and one for 12:15.

Well, the 10:30 showing surprised me by coming by at 9:10ish, which means I was still at the house (in an old t-shirt and track shorts with glasses on and messy hair, classy). It was a super cute and nice couple who had a ton of questions for me and seemed to really like the house.

Once they left, I finished getting ready and drove to Virginia to visit my friend for the day. When I returned, I could tell that showing #2 had also toured the house (I’m weird like that). 

That evening, my husband and I joked that of course someone is going to want to buy our house now, because it is extremely inconvenient. I recently found out that I’m going to be losing my job, which means that we won’t be able to qualify for a loan until I get a new position.

On Sunday I received a call from my agent, Couple #1 really liked our house. They were going out of town for the holiday weekend, but when they returned they were planning to put in a contract. Okay, I’ve totally heard this story before so I kept my excitement under control.

But then, about an hour later I got another call from my agent. Couple #2 also really liked our house, they asked her to send over all the paperwork and they were planning to submit a contract the next day.

Holy crackers! After months and months of a contract draught, we have TWO couples who are interested in buying our townhouse?!

Couple #2 sent over their contract on Monday and gave us until 11:00 am on Tuesday morning to respond. Unfortunately, Couple #1 wasn’t planning to send their contract until Tuesday night. We weren’t totally happy with the first offer, so we countered at $225,000 (about $5k less than listed). They accepted our counteroffer and scheduled for a home inspector to inspect our house on Wednesday afternoon.

Wow, things really do happen fast!

The home inspector came over Wednesday, which dumped more rain on us than Hurricane Irene. Even though we’ve had 8 years of a dry basement, our sump pump chose that day to break. WHILE the home inspector was looking at our house!

BOO. HISS!

Thankfully I have an incredibly awesome father, who rushed over to deal with the sump pump and diffuse the home inspector situation (he’s a custom home builder, an all-around great guy, and the best BS-er I know). The home inspection list was surprisingly not so bad, with about 10 things that we have to fix before they move in.

Oh, and about them moving in – they want the house on October 27^th, which means we need to move in SIX weeks. Ironically, I also have six weeks left at my job.* So, within the next month and a half we need to pack up and move our entire house AND I need to find a new job.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, since I’m losing my job we can’t buy a new house to move into. Bummer! It works out though, because my parents have a rental property that is going to be vacant the week before we need to move into it. We can stay there until my job situation works itself out and then start looking for our dream house. Of course, once we finally move into our dream house I’m NEVER MOVING AGAIN!

*I’m planning to do a full post on the job drama and the search for a new position. In the meanwhile, if you know of any open positions for a Marketing Specialist with 10+ years of experience shoot me a note on here or my Facebook page.